1. Introduction
In the history of
Christianity, 19th century is known as the century of missions or missionary
movements, and 20th century as of the ecumenical movement. As a result of
Pietism and Evangelical revivals protestant countries began to form missionary
societies and send their missionaries to various parts of the world. India too
received protestant missionaries in the beginning of 18th century and they came
and established their own denominationalism for which they belongs. However,
after a period of time, some of the Indian Christian leaders wanted the Indian
Church should be truly Indian. Its aim was unity or oneness instead of
division, and native instead of foreign. Its strategy started with co-operation
in mission, and gradually it began to materialize through various meetings and
conferences held region wise. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to study
about the Indian contributions towards the ecumenical movement.
2. Ecumenical Initiatives
Ecumenical initiatives
in India had begun from the mission fields. The works in the mission fields
witnessed certain strong co-operation among missionary organization and
different denominations.
2.1
Danish- German Co-operation
The King of Denmark,
Frederick IV, was a Lutheran Christian of evangelical conviction. He had a deep
passion for mission like the king of Portugal. As his kingdom already secured
settlements in Tranquebar in India, the king wanted to send missionaries for
the propagation of the gospel among the native non- Christians. The Church in
Germany through the University of Halle filled the space in the Royal Danish
mission which was a mission that entertained cross- cultural missionary cooperation.
In response to a request from the king of Denmark, two German candidates
Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Pluetschau were dedicated and sent to do
mission work in India in 1706.[1]
2.2 Lutheran- Anglican Co-operations
In
1699 the Anglican Church organized Society for the Propagation of the Christian
Knowledge did not know how to do mission work in the non- Christian lands.
Whereas the Lutheran Mission was already in the mission field and it was
progressing. When the Anglican Church heard this genuinely was happy about the
mission work and decided that to cooperate with Danish Lutheran mission work in
India for the furtherance of the gospel work. The SPCK extended help to the
Danish Lutheran Mission in Tranquebar by sending copies of the New Testament in
Portuguese, a printing press and needed funds. This helped the Tranquebar
Mission to setting up of the first ever printing press in 1721. Ecumenical
Co-operation was also evident in the educational activities in Chennai.
2.3
Non- denominational Organizations
Christian Organizations
in India such as Christian Literature Society (CLS), the Christian Endeavour,
and the YMCA brought together all the European and Indian Church leaders of different
denominations. Organization like YMCA in particular treated Europeans and
Indians equally, which made the leaders in India exercise towards church union
movements.[2]
2.4 Christian Institutions
This higher educational
institution attracted many young Indians who showed a deep interest in western
education. Many young people gathered there from different parts of the nation
had the opportunity to meet young people from different denominations and
different languages which ultimately led them to feeling of oneness in Christ.
This institution which was founded by Scottish Presbyterians in 1837 came to be
known later as the MCC and got recognized in 1910 as a union institution. The
two Scottish missions, the Wesleyan Methodists and the CMS became the
supporting bodies thus bringing about a climate of oneness and cooperation. WCC
in Madras, CMC Vellore also played role to unite various denominational people
to come together.
2.5 Missionary Conferences
The beginnings of the
Ecumenical Movement in India has its roots in the missionary conferences were
held during the second half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th
century. The Missionary Conferences directly or indirectly influenced the
Ecumenical Movement in India, especially at the initial stages of this
movement.[3]
William Carey from BMS made a proposal to Andrew Fuller, secretary of BMS in
1806 for a World Missionary Conference. Though it was not materialised
immediately, Carey decided to gather the missionary societies and the church
organizations for city level missionary conference.
3. Formation of SIUC
The first
practical steps towards union had been taken by people belonging to different
missions of the same type of Church. The first definite achievement was a local
union of Presbyterians in South India in1901. This brought together the
communities of the American Arcot Mission and the two Scottish Presbyterian
Missions (Church of Scotland and Free Church of Scotland) in and around Madras.
In 1904 this body joined with eight Presbyterian missions in North India to
form a Presbyterian Church of India. In 1905 another local union of people of
one denominational family was the loose federation of the Congregationalist of
the London Mission and the American Madurai Mission formed in Tamilnadu.
The first
inter-denominational union was the South India United Church (SIUC), formed in
1908. This was the union of all the Congregationalists and Presbyterians in
South India and the Jaffna district of Ceylon in 1919, later the Basel Mission
district of Malabar also joined. The church order was a mixture of Congregationalism
and Presbyterianism. In 1924, the United Church of Northern India was formed
again a union of Presbyterians and Congregationalists. Eleven missions were
represented in it and its area stretched from Bengal, Assam, Gujarat and the
Punjab. They followed the Constitution of Presbyterian Church.[4]
At the same time the
Lutherans had been organizing autonomous Lutheran churches; the Leipzig Mission
and the Church of Sweden Mission came together and formed the Tamil Evangelical
Lutheran Church after the war of 1914 – 1918. In 1926 there were nine members
churches came together and formed the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran
Churches in India. It was a federation of autonomous bodies and not an organic
union.
4. The Organic Model
This model of
union may be compared to the body of a living organism. Paul refers to the
church as the body of Christ, “from whom the whole body, joined and knit
together by every joint which it is supplied, when each part is working
properly, makes bodily growth and up builds itself in love” (Eph 4:16). It is
this kind of unity, which is described as an organic model. Under this form of
union, different existing denominations are merged into a new centralized
organizational structure. They do not longer remain autonomous or independent
as they used to exist before. The merger does not imply accepting the
organizational structure of a particular denominational church but a
combination of different constituent models.
4.1 Formation of Church of South India
Bishop Whitehead, the
Anglican Bishop in Madras raised the issue of unity in 1910 but nothing came
out of the discussion. He continued to speak and write about this till in the
year 1919 an informal meeting of Indian pastors of the Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican
and South Indian United Churches convened by Bishop V.S. Azariah and Rev.
Santiago, took place in Tranquebar. This meeting issued a declaration outlining
a plan of union. It proposed the following as the basis for Church Union which
were based on the 1888 Lambeth Quadrilateral:
Ø The
Holy Scriptures containing the Old and the New Testaments, as containing all
things necessary for salvation.
Ø The
Apostles‟ Creed and the Nicene Creed.
Ø The
two sacraments ordained by Christ Himself- Baptism and Lord’s Supper.
Ø The
Historic Episcopate, locally adopted.[5]
4.2 Formation of CNI
The United Church of
North India (UCNI) was formed in 1924 through the union of Presbyterian and
Congregational churches. The UCNI sent out an invitation to other churches in
1924. The Wesleyan Methodist Church was the first to respond to this
invitation. As a result of these developments a Round Table Conference (RTC)
was called at Lucknow in 1929 to discuss the possibility of Church Union. A
negotiating committee was constituted in 1951. The churches represented were;
The United Church of North India, the (Anglican) Church of India, Pakistan and
Ceylon, the Methodist Church in Southern Asia, the British and Australian
Methodist Church and the council of Baptist Churches in Northern India.[6] Two
other bodies: the Church of Brethren and the Disciples of Christ joined in the
negotiations from 1957. The plan reached its fourth and final edition in 1965
and the Church of North India was inaugurated on 29th November, 1970 in the All
Saints Cathedral Compound at Nagpur
5.
Nationalism and Indigenous movements
T.V. Philip
categorically argues that the ecumenical movement in Asia was born in the
context of opposition against Western colonialism in Asia.[7]
From the middle of the 19th century, when nationalistic spirit arose in several
parts of Asia (especially in India and China), Christianity came to be
suspected as having a de-nationalizing influence and the acceptance of
Christianity perceived as the surrender to colonialism. The growth of
nationalism had its impact on the life of the churches. Indigenous movements
within the churches sprang up. Native Christian leaders who were under the
nationalistic movements echoed their voices to liberate the churches from their
colonial connections and influences. There were efforts to build up indigenous
and independent churches in India in as early as the 1850s. An Indian Pastor,
Lal Behari, started a movement against excessive missionary influences in
Indian churches. In an effort to recast Christianity into a nationalist
pattern, Arumanayagam (Sattampillai),
a towering and versatile personality in the Shannar community of Prakasapuram,
in Tirunelveli District in Tamil Nadu who was critical of British missionaries in
that area, established a Hindu Christian Church of Lord Jesus at Prakashapurm
in 1857.This church was later known as NattuSabha or indigenous Church.
In Bengal, a
group of Christians, under the leadership of Kali Charan Bannerji, formed the
Chrsito Samaj in 1887 with an aim to forming a United Indian Church, thus
eliminating Western denominationalism. Although the efforts of Indian
Christians did not materialize due to the opposition of the missionaries, T.V.
Philip says, “The ecumenical movement in India was born under the influence of
Indian nationalism at the initiative of Indian Christians. Similarly the
political and national developments in China – the Opium War and the Unequal
Treaties, the Boxer Rebellion, and the growth of nationalism – are essential
background in the development of ecumenism in China”.[8]
When the International Missionary Council met at Tambaram in India in 1938, the
negotiation for church union in India was in mid-stream, the policy of autonomy
for the Churches of Asia was finding general acceptance, and mission was
becoming a shared enterprise between churches all over the world. It was at
Tambaram that an organizational step for the ecumenical life of the Churches of
Asia was conceived.
In Tambaram, the Churches of Asia met one
another in strength for the first time on their own Asian soil. In fact, it
should not be forgotten that in 1907 the WSCF held a World Conference in Tokyo,
Japan at which overwhelming majority of the delegates came from Asia and in1933
an Asian Conference of WSCF was held in Java, Indonesia. On those two occasions
the real ecumenical conversation was the contribution of a number of
outstanding individuals rather than of churches and of churches expressing a
common mind. As Hans-Ruedi Weber, who made the first attempt to write the
history of ‘Asia and the Ecumenical Movement’ in 1961 observes; Whatever
missionaries, their activities and institutions did, they certainly functioned
as midwives at the birth of Christian churches all over Asia.[9]Today,
when we look back or assess the current situation when it is compared with the
contributions of such ecumenical bodies in the past, we will be able to
understand the existing realities better.
6. National Council of Churches in India (NCCI)
The history of the National Council of
Churches in India comes under three phases. The first phase is the National
Missionary Council (1914-1923). The second phase is the National Christian
Council (1923-1979). The third phase is the National Council of Churches in
India (1979-present).
John R Mott visited India on behalf of the Edinburgh Conference with the purpose
of setting up local bodies, which would strengthen and widen the co-operation
between missions. In 1913, eight Provincial councils were formed namely in
Bengal, Bihar-Orissa, Bombay, Punjab, Mid-India, Upper Provinces, Madras and
Burma. On 4th February 1914, the first National Missionary Council
was held in the YWCA building at Calcutta. In January 1923 the Council met at Ranchi, for
the last time as a ‘missionary council’. Then the name was changed to National
Christian Council of India, Burma and Ceylon. Since then regional councils have been formed in State or language
areas affiliated to the National Christian Council (NCC). Since 1956 full
membership of the NCC is restricted to Indian Churches and the regional
councils. Further, in 1979 the NCC became the National Council of Churches in
India (NCCI).[10]
6.1 Present programs
During the Assembly on 2008, at Shilong, the
NCCI underwent an organizational restructuring. At present it has seven
commissions which concentrate on various issues. They are related with Commission
on Policy, Governance and Public Witness, Commission
on Unity, Mission and Evangelism, Commission on Justice, Peace,
Creation, Commission on Communications and Church Relations, Commission
on Adivasis and Tribals, Commission on Dalits, Commission
on Youth, Interfaith Dialouges, etc…[11]
7. Individual Contributions
Several Indians
were played significant role in the ecumenical movement. Their influences were
transparently seen in the national and global ecumenical development. Some of
the important contributors are following as V.S. Azariah (Participated the
World Missionary Conference Edinburgh 1910 and IMC in Lausanne 1927, Oxford
1937 and Tambaram 1938), K.C.Banergee (Started Christo Samaj in 1887), S.J.
Samartha (was the pioneer of the WCC sub unit on dialogue with people of living
faiths and ideologies from 1975 to 1981), M.M. Thomas (He was made chairman of
the working committee of the WCC‟s department on Church and Society and of the
World Conference on Church and Society at Geneva in 1966) , Sarah Chakko (She
was the first to chair the WCC‟s commission on the Life and Work of Women in
the Church in 1950 and the first woman in the WCC Presidium from 1951 to 1954),
J.R. Chandran (He was the vice- Moderator of the WCC central committee from
1966- 1968), K.T.Paul (He played an important role in the formation of National
Missionary Society and then became its joint secretary), Metropolitan Paulose
Mar Gregoris (He was the Associate General Secretary of the WCC Division of
Ecumenical Action 1962- 1967, a non- catholic observer at Vatican II 1962-
1965, member of the joint working group of WCC- RCC 1963- 1975 and of the Faith
and Order commission 1968- 1975 and Moderator of the WCC working committee on
Church and Society1975- 1983) and J.J.M. Nicholos Roy (He was one of the
founding members of the Assam Christian Council in 1937 and later it is known
as from 1962 North East Indian Christian Council.
The Indian Christians
were eager in the church union movement. There were many factors contributed
for the development of unity in our soil. Many leaders have given their time,
thought for the visible unity of the churches. The coming together of different
denominations in South India was a revolutionary act. The real unity in Indian
Christianity is emerged from this land only. So it is our responsibility to
take further this unity and be the witnesses of the world.
[1]
O.L.Snaitang, A History of the Eumenical Movement: An Introduction (Bangalore:
BTESSC, 2014), 63.
[4]
Issac Devadoss, “A Historical Survey of Ecumenism in India.” Compiled by
Watimongla Jamir, History of Ecumenical Movement Issues, Challenges and
Perspectives (West Bengal: SCEPTRE, 2014), 179-180.
[6] V. Titus
Varghese and P.P. Philip, Glimpses of the History of the Christian Churches
in India (Madras: CLS, 1983), 156.
[7]T.V. Philip, Ecumenism in Asia (Delhi: ISPCK, 1994), 144.
[8]T V Philip, Ecumenism in Asia.,146.
[9]Hans-Ruedi Weber, Asia and the Ecumenical
Movement 1895-1961 (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1966), 123.
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