V.S. Azariah (1847-1945)

V.S. Azariah (1847-1945)

Early Life

Vedanayagam S. Azariah was born in Vellalanvilai in Tirnelvelly on 17th August 1874. His father was a pastor in the Tinnevelly field of the evangelical Anglican Church Missionary society- a convert from the Nadar (shanar) caste of tree (toddy) tappers. He was educated at Tinnevelly Mission School and college for higher studies under William Miller. He was married to Anubu Mariammal in 1898  after his education Azariah joined the YMCA in 1896 as a travelling secretary for student work in south India. Here he came into contact with missionary statesmen like Sherwood Eddy, John R. Mott and J.H. Oldham, and from 1908-1909 he was as associate general secretary of the YMCA.

Azariah helped to organize the Indian missionary society to Tinnevelly at Palamcotta in 1903 and went to Dornakal. He joined K.T. Paul Kalicharan Bannerjee and other Christian nationalist in founding the national missionary society of Indian men with Indian money and under Indian direction in 1905 as its first general secretary. Azariahfelt called to be missionary of the Indian missionary society among he out caste of Dornakal. There he built up a growing church amidst its poor outcaste giving them the vision and spirit of a transformed life. Azariah was ordained presbyter of the Anglican Church in 1909 and was consecrate as the first Indian Anglican bishop with the responsibility for the Dornakal diocese. He served the diocese till the end of his life.

The legacy of Azariah

The legacy of Bishop Azariah to his own country was, first and foremost, the vision of an indigenous church, rooted in the soil of India, finding its expression through Indian culture and its leadership among its own son and daughters. With its very modest beginnings in south India, it is hard to realize what a gulf Azariah had to bridge, so far head of his time, for the changes that have come so rapidly in Christian thought and action have inevitably made him a pioneer in what is now a commonly accepted worldwide movement. The road to union in south India began at Tranquebar in 1919 when a group of Indian Christian leaders of the Rev. V. Santiago.  These men were convinced that only their connections with the various churches of the west were responsible for their unhappy division, and their express purpose was to discuss the possibility of church union without the presence of naturally prejudiced foreign missionaries, as a result they discovered so much common ground that they issued an appeal to all the denominations they represented to consider the whole question of Christian unity in the Indian setting. From this grassroots beginning sprang the whole train of events that finally result in the inauguration of the church of South India.

Therefore Azariah laid upon the world wide church on every possible occasion his burning conviction: “we must have one church, a church of India, in which Indian religious genius can find the natural expression of visible unity. Here azariah was indeed on his native heath. His name had long since become a legend: he was regarded as one of the architect of the worldwide church, an elder statesman, yet completely accessible.