Church Of South India Research Articles

Christianity In Kottar – A Study

Christianity in Kottar is the history of Catholicism in the Diocese of Kottar. Christianity in this study area has many denominations such as Catholicism, the Church of South India and minor divisions such as Salvation Army and the Pentecostal churches. This study is limited to the history of Catholicism in the Diocese of Kottar

Children and Liturgy: Considering the Place Children Have in Liturgical Worship

The Book of Common Worship of the Church of South India (CSI, a church developed from various Protestant denominations coming together) is said to be one of the greatest Christian expressions of unity in diversity. In this article I discuss the notion of the citizenship of children in church, specifically looking at the liturgical practices in the CSI. I first give a brief historical setting of the CSI and its liturgy and then investigate the status, identity, and rights of children within the context of worship in CSI churches.

Women’s Leadership in the Church of South India

The author of this article is the first woman Bishop in the Church of South India (CSI). Her article outlines the development of women’s ministry in India, from the influence of European missionaries in the nineteenth century, and through the union of traditions which led to the formation of the CSI. Women have traditionally served in auxiliary ministries, as Bible Women or deaconesses. The story is set against the context of deeply traditional cultures. The second half of the article relates the author’s own journey through vocation and call to her present role, in which she experienced firsthand the difficulties that faced women seeking to answer a vocation to ministry.

A Historical Survey of Southern African Liturgy: Liturgical Revision from 1908 to 2010

AbstractThe article surveys liturgical developments in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa from 1908 to 2010. The author uses numerous source documents from several Anglican archives to analyse the experimental and fully authorized liturgies, detailing the theological and sociological shifts which underpinned any significant changes. The author includes several sources which, until this point, have not been considered; particularly in relation to the reception of newer liturgies. These include letters, interviews and newspaper articles. Influences from the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of South India, the Church of England, the Episcopal Church in the USA and the Church of New Zealand all contributed to the authorized rites in the local church. Furthermore, the article shows that local, traditionally disenfranchised voices are now beginning to be included with liturgical transformation.

Dalits in Catholic Church of South India

We examined the Caste induced discrimination of Dalit Christians with a specials emphasis on the social position of Dalit women. Using multi‐stage probability sampling procedure, 210 Catholic Christians of Dalit origin were selected from rural areas of Tamil Nadu in South India. The interviews were conducted by using structured interview schedule that contained socio demographic variables and patterns of discrimination. First, an increasing gender gap against women was observed when educational grades went up in lower educational grades with a sudden fall from higher secondan; level onwards. Most Dalit Catholics were unskilled daily wage earners irrespective of gender while it was further increased for women. Extremely limited numbers of Dalits were self employed while it was further limited for women. Second, Dalit Christians were faced with high level of perceived and actual discriminations, religious distancing and restricted social interaction with dominant Caste Christians. Finally, the study concludes that social interaction act as a critical context by which dominant castes induces, maintain and reinforce caste dominance on religious and social life of Dalit Christians.

The New Evangelization and Bishop Lesslie Newbigin’s the Household of God

The Church of South India The Church of South India came into being through a union of Anglican and Reformation churches/communities in South India. Although controversial at its inception, especially for the Anglican Communion, today, it has a membership of over five million, and is India's second largest Christian church after the Catholic Church. It came into existence just one month after India achieved independence from Britain in 1947. The inspiration for the Church of South India was born from those words of our Blessed Lord in the Gospel of St. John 17:21: “That they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” The Church of South India took as its motto those words of the prayer of Jesus, “That they all may be one.” The Church of South India was a milestone in the ecumenical world. This was the first time in history in which a union was effected between episcopal and non-episcopal churches. In this union four Christian traditions came together --Anglican (Episcopal), Congregational, Presbyterian, and Methodist. One of the most well-known and theologically articulate bishops of the Church of South India was Lesslie Newbigin.

BeateFagerli, KnudJǿrgensen, RolvOlsen, Kari StorsteinHaug, and KnutTveitereid, eds., A Learning Missional Church: Reflections from Young Missiologists. Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2012. 218pp.

Beate Fagerli, Knud Jorgensen, Rolv Olsen, Karl Storstein Haug, and Knut Tveitereid, eds., A Learning Church: Reflections from Young Missiologists. Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2012. 218pp. This volume originated in celebrations of centenary of Edinburgh 1910 in Norway and paints picture of learning Church from reflections and perspectives of young missiologists. The aim of volume is to provide space for contributions from young missiologists and missiological students on themes related to mission in 21st century. The missiologists come from Cameroon, China, Ethiopia, India, Norway and South Africa and their ages range from 29 to 49 years, but volume is overshadowed by Norwegians since all five editors and five out of eleven contributors are from that country. The book comprises four thematic sections. The first deals with theme of Missional second with Encounter between Religions, third with Migrant Perspectives. The fourth addresses Missional Challenges. Due to limitations of space, I shall focus on seven of eleven contributions. In first section I focus on contributions of Norwegian Ragnhild Kristensen and John Amalraj. The value of essay by Kristensen is that she starts by defining what is meant by missional church. is defined as the essential nature and vocation of Church as God's called and sent people (p. 16). It could also be said that being-ness (the church) and sent-ness (the missionary praxis) of church are inextricably linked and that such church understands its participation in missio Dei as contextual, addressing faithfully challenges of ever changing and complex contexts in comprehensive and holistic way. Being contextual, church gathers for fellowship and worship (come) and disperses to serve God (go). That is being-ness and sent-hess of church (p. 29). Amalraj starts by declaring that than two thousand years have passed since gospel was first preached in southern part of and more than a century has gone by since first structured expression of indigenous movement began in (p. 68). Consequently Amalraj investigates how far Indian churches, coming from Eastern and Western Churches such as Syrian Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church and Protestant and Evangelical churches, are really Indian. The identity of Church's ministry in India is, for author, very important factor for discussion of emergence of church in India (p. 69). The specific contribution of church in India is two-fold. First, in South India many local churches founded by Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Baptists formed one of world's first modern ecumenical churches, Church of South India; similar event took place in North India when Church of North India was formed. Second, India is today one of major missionary sending nations, reflection of geographical change in global mission. In second section we are introduced to one of major missionary themes of 21 se century, namely whether closer geographic proximity between Christians and Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists will result in interfaith relationships and dialogue or result in greater conflict. The essay by Norwegian Ingunn Flokestad Breistein is insightful in this regard. Breistein focuses on Rules for Missionary issued in 2009 by project group on Missionary Activities and Human Rights of Oslo Coalition of Freedom of Religion or Belief. These Ground Rules are rooted in ideas of UN conventions and declarations, UN Human Rights Committee, European Court of Human Rights and what other regional human rights courts and commissions say about missionary activities (p. …

Mission from the Margins

Mission from the Margins

South India: Ecumenism's One Solid Achievement? Reflections on the History of the Ecumenical Movement

AbstractThis article is a primer for understanding the history of the ecumenical movement by focusing first on one of its greatest institutional successes, the Church of South India in 1947, and then assessing the difficult relationship between ecumenism and missions. In the second half the article takes a broader view of ecumenical history, asking whether or not Christian ecumenism is still, in the words of Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple, “the great new fact of our era”. Focusing on various achievements and failings in the 20th century, the article asks throughout whether or not Christian ecumenism has already reached its height. The conclusion of the essay argues that in order to move forward in this time of transition, the World Council of Churches must take a careful look back at its successes, failures and very reasons for existence.

The International Impact of the Formation of the Church of South India: Bishop Newbigin versus the Anglican Fathers

The International Impact of the Formation of the Church of South India: Bishop Newbigin versus the Anglican Fathers

Tamil Christian Women at the Turn of the Millennium: mission initiatives and gender practice

This article is based on recent research about Tamil churchwomen. It brings out how these women are empowered by their female Christian identity and their involvement in the church's mission and evangelistic initiatives, such as house prayer groups. Featuring oral testimonies from a wide variety of women members of Risen Redeemer's Church of South India, the study describes women's mission initiatives, with an emphasis on female participation in church life. It offers a brief overview of three empowering aspects of the informants' Christianity: family heritage, faith through adversity, and biblical concepts of female entitlement. Finally, it explores the women's sense of empowerment through their general involvement in church life by an in‐depth analysis of several individual cases.

Re-presenting Dalit Feminist Politics through Dialogical Musical Ethnography

Conducting fieldwork among subaltern populations in South India, I have come to define ethnomusicological fieldwork as an experience of dialogical exchange of music and its values. When feminist and Dalit (formerly so-called untouchable) politics are the central practice of the music culture studied, critical dialogue leading to social change by all actors, including the fieldworker, is expected and must be taken into account in the ethnographic process.1 Jeff Titon defines ethnomusicological fieldwork as playing music with other individuals and the "field" as that shared experience.2 This paper explores the negotiation of political ideas and the critique of musical practice as an inherent part of sharing music and creating an intersubjective musical understanding with my Indian collaborators in my study of Dalit liberation theology in Tamil folk music. I define fieldwork as a means to the creation of social change and the field as those relationships that reveal or negotiate the shared values that contributed to that change. Sharing with my Indian colleagues my feminist analysis of the performance practice of their music was an essential step toward gaining their trust in me as an activist, not just a scholar. The [End Page 1] resulting rapport enabled my colleagues to relate to me their understandings of Indian caste and gender politics and thus the meaning of their music's relation to it. In the process of sharing my feminist analysis of women's roles in performance at the seminary where I conducted my ethnography I affected the practice of the music. This brought me face-to-face with the question, Should fieldwork and ethnography be a means to social and musical change? If so, how does the ethnographer theorize this process? I argue that while ethical dilemmas will undoubtedly present themselves through this method of engagement, I have balanced them by a focus in my writing on the agency expressed by my colleagues in this negotiation. I found that those with whom I had a political affinity engaged with the analysis and then consciously chose to change their teaching practice as a result. Those with whom I lacked this affinity chose not to engage with the criticism and continued to practice as before. Since 1993 my ethnomusicological fieldwork in South India has focused on the indigenization of Tamil Christian music.3 Tamils are the primary ethnic and language group of Tamil Nadu, the southeasternmost state of India. Christians make up 6 percent of this population (almost 3 million people), with the first Tamils converting to Protestant Christianity at the turn of the eighteenth century. My original study of Tamil Protestant Christians is an ethnography of the production and transmission of Christian music at the Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary (TTS) in Madurai. While I focus on the transmission of liberation theology in folk music, the study also includes a survey of the history and range of indigenous musical styles, including karnatak (classical), film, and folk, used by the community. At TTS I participated in daily chapel worship, seminars, music classes, recording sessions, and political events while doing intensive interviews about the production and transmission of Christian music. My participation as a student of music and theology engaged me in the politics of liberation theology, caste, feminism, and various social movements that are at the heart of the mission of this seminary and its recent musical productions. Through experiencing the musical theology of the Reverend James Theophilus Appavoo (b. 1940) at TTS I encountered a language, musical style, content, performance, and transmission practice alternative to that used in mainstream liturgies of the Church of South India (CSI). Appavoo is a middle-class Dalit (politicized outcaste) who grew up in an urban area and only turned away from classical music to folk music as a possible means of transmitting liberation theology when he, as a priest, observed firsthand the oppression of rural Dalits. Appavoo's dynamic character as a culture...

Origin of India’s St. Thomas Christians: A Historiographical Critique (review)

Origin of India's St. Thomas Christians: A Historiographical Critique. By Benedict Vadakkekara. (Delhi: Media House. 1995. Pp. xii, 509. $30.00.) This book is the result of extraordinary labor by the author. He makes reference to all the archival and published sources available on the topic. In itself the topic should not be controversial, but in the hands of fanatic Latinists and avid believers of the Saint Thomas tradition in the Malabar it became just that. The Latinists reject outright the tradition that Saint Thomas the Apostle founded the church in Malabar as historically unfounded while the Malabarites accept it without question. Both sides argue for their causes, not for historical accuracy. The author makes it his task to find the historical truth. For this he employs some of the well-worn tools of historiography. The first thing the author does is to establish the identity of the Saint Thomas Christians. This is important as in several regions of the Middle East and Asia claim to be descendants of the people converted by Thomas the Apostle in the first century. Even in Malabar itself there are groups who attribute their evangelization to Thomas as they are descendants of people from regions other than India which, by their tradition, were beneficiaries of Thomas' apostleship. Vadakkekara narrowly defines Saint Thomas of India as those who are descendants of the first-century converts to Christianity who received their baptism in Malabar. The author further narrows the definition to include only those who follow the Law of Thomas, the customs and traditions sanctioned by the Apostle himself; those who used the Syriac language in their liturgy; those who maintained the exclusivity of the caste regulations handed down from their Hindu ancestors with regard to etiquette, pollution and purification, meals, and marriages. He also narrows down the list of names designating, exclusively and without doubt or ambiguity, this Christian community of Malabar. They are Thoma Christians, Nasrani Mappilas, Christians of the Serra, Christians, and Chaldeans. Further Vadakkekara identifies the present-day Christian communities in Malabar who are offshoots of the original community the Apostle Thomas founded. They are the two churches in communion with the papacy, the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara churches, and the six churches which are outside the obedience of Rome, namely, the Syrian Orthodox, the Independent Syrian Church of Malankara, the Mar Thomite Church, Saint Thomas Evangelical Church of India, the Church of South India, and the Church of the East. Next the author discusses briefly the available sources that might provide historical validity to the tradition that Saint Thomas the Apostle founded the church in Malabar. The first among these is the tradition itself that is composed of the belief that Thomas founded this church and the religious, ritualistic, and liturgical experiences and expressions that sprang from this tradition. Second among the sources is the physical presence of the tomb of Saint Thomas in Mylapore, near Madras, and the many facts, historical and otherwise, associated with it. The third source is the Acta Thomae, an apocryphal work written in Syriac, reportedly during Thomas' own lifetime, which contain references to his apostolic work in India, aside from descriptions of his travels and other activities, all of which became part of the folklore and tradition of Malabar Christians. The author, then, analyzes the evidentiary value of these sources and weighs their significance in proving or disproving the historicity of Thomas' apostleship in India. …

REVITALIZING RELATIONSHIPS IN MISSION

The 1958 publication of Hendrik Kraemer's epoch-making book, From Missionfield to Independent Church,(1) marked a turning point in missionary strategy. Kraemer had made an extended visit to the mission churches of what was then the Dutch East Indies in the late 1930s and early 1940s, on the eve of the Japanese invasion of 1942 that put an end to the era of colonial mission in that nation. In Indonesia Kraemer had urged mission leaders to set aside paternalistic attitudes and allow independent churches to emerge in the place of the varied missions that were still led and financed by overseas boards and agencies. As a result of Kraemer's visits and the reports he presented, the Dutch and German missions in the Indies were at least partly prepared for the Japanese invasion that left the mission churches to stand on their own feet, through both the occupation and the revolutionary struggle that followed. The 1958 publication in English of Kraemer's reports produced a programme statement for mission churches in newly independent nations, and also in those colonial territories in which the aspiration for independence was growing stronger. The movement to independent in Africa, Asia and the Pacific has been one of the dramatic features of modern church history. It has occurred as churches that had been founded and nurtured in the missionary era came to assume more and more responsibility for their own life and work. Sometimes this happened in the wake of campaigns for national independence, while at others it happened well ahead of such movements - for example in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), where the first generation of political leaders after independence were largely drawn from clergy and from church institutions. They had already gained valuable experience there in guiding and administering newly autonomous churches or dioceses that had once been mission fields. I have argued elsewhere that mission-field to independent was not in itself the end of the story - it was not a complete process.(2) While there is no doubt at all about the strategic importance of Kraemer's vision for autonomous churches, what he and his contemporaries could not have anticipated was that these newly independent churches would make an early and often very costly commitment to ecumenical fellowship - in many cases before they were properly standing on their own feet. And this was not just a commitment to cooperation in shared activities, but a radical commitment to finding and establishing new, more inclusive, forms of being church; forms that take seriously the universal nature of the Christian calling and the catholicity of the body of Christ. In the post-war world, newly independent churches, often separated from each other by the confessional, cultural, political and linguistic divisions brought or fostered by their missionaries, moved very quickly to find appropriate forms of local and regional cooperation.(3) Cooperation between these local endeavours often evolved into the regional ecumenical bodies such as the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) and the Pacific Council of Churches (PCC), so familiar to us today, and in some regions into comprehensive uniting churches such as the Church of South India (CSI) and the Church of North India (CNI). By a process - which is not as separate as we might sometimes think - there has also been a steady exploration and extension of ecumenical fellowship, and sometimes of intercommunion, between churches of widely differing origin, for example, between the world Anglican Communion through its Indian members and the ancient Mar Thoma Church of India.(4) We can speak now not simply of a process of development from to independent churches, but of a development from mission to oikoumene - from local faith communities, founded and nurtured by the labour and sacrifices of mission workers who have come from somewhere else, to locally autonomous church communities operating within international ecumenical networks. …

Appendix V: INDIAN MISSIONARY SOCIETIES

Dr K.C. Abraham added the following comments to the written report on the Indian missionary societies.(**) The Indian church is mainly a product of the missionary movement of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Colonial rule provided a basic structure that was conducive in that period. However, parts of the church in India date back to the very early period of church history. The Indian church established by missionary work has had formidable challenges from hinduism. So most mission work focused on outcasts who were not part of hinduism, and on the lowest castes. Very few upper caste Hindus have converted to the Christian faith. There has been a renaissance in hinduism over recent decades and the rise of the new national consciousness has had profound effects on people. The Hindus have raised three questions and challenges for the Christians. First, mission and unity. Why is there division among Christians? Which Christ are you preaching? Churches have responded with the church union movement. The Church of South India (CSI) was established in 1946. The CSI has tried to understand its mission. Evangelization is given prime importance in the Constitution of the CSI. This priority has continued to be reiterated although the church has also come to a broader understanding of mission with a stronger social commitment - the establishment of love, righteousness, justice and a participation in nation building, with witness in the sociopolitical arena. The church has struggled to hold these dimensions together but there is a dichotomy in the churches' thinking at a popular level. The second challenge has been with people of other faiths; the ambivalence of the church about the place of other faiths in the reign of God. The third challenge has been the challenge of political and social change. The three missionary societies that are referred to in the report emerged in the church itself. The Indian Missionary Society arose out of a movement among lay people who felt that the church was not really fulfilling its evangelistic calling. Their aim is to bring the gospel to all parts of India. They have seen their mission field particularly as north India and Nepal. The Indian Evangelical Mission presents a challenge to the churches to engage in evangelization within India and outside. All of these three missions have arisen out of a conviction that the mainline churches have not been active enough in evangelization. They arise out of a consciousness among lay people who are burdened by a call to evangelism. Positive features 1. The Indian missions are a lay movement in the mainline churches. They represent a large number of committed lay people giving time and money to mission. 2. They have adopted the principle that evangelism should be based on Indian resources so as to counteract the accusation that the church is foreign. …

Book Review: Theological Education for the Mission of the Church in India: 1947–1987, with Special Reference to the Church of South India

Book Review: Theological Education for the Mission of the Church in India: 1947–1987, with Special Reference to the Church of South India

The Canadian and Australian Church Unions: A Comparison

Based on archival data in the Canadian case and secondary sources for the Australian one, this paper both describes the Canadian church union (1925) and the Australian church union (1977) and places them in their societal and religious institutional contexts. The paper concludes by outlining the similarities and divergences of the two church mergers. In this section, a third church union-the Church of South India (1947) is introduced to highlight the comparison.

The role of a nurse in health education as practiced in and around Church of South India Hospital, Bangalore, India

Health education cannot be viewed in isolation. It must be considered only in the context of an effective health delivery system if the nurse is to achieve any success in her role as an educator. Two decades ago, India established primary health centres for every 100,000 people to cater for its 80% population in the rural area. However, it has been observed that only about 20% of the health service resources are distributed to the rural population and that the other 80% is utilized by and for the urban population. Another problem observed is that for every mile away from the Health Centre, there is a proportionate drop in attendance and that beyond 7 miles, the people hardly ever use the facilities of the centres . In order to rectify the above drawbacks, the Indian Government, in its fifth national plan, reduced the serving population to 10,000 through sub-centres around every primary health centre . Church of South India (C.S.I.) Hospital, Bangalore, believes that the ideal population coverage should not be more than 5000. With this belief it has ,evolved an effective medical out-reach programme at two rural centres, namely at Hoskote, 20 miles away and at Chennapatua, 34 miles away from the heart of Bangalore where the C.S.I. Hospital is situated. The Hoskote out-reach medical work is in a rural area with a population of 45,000 people living in 106 villages separated from one another and having poor transportation and communication systems. The primary health centre is located in the Hoskote Town of 12,000 people and this centre is staffed with a resident doctor and nurses for taking care of referrals from the sub-centres or what the C.S.I. Hospital calls the mini-centres. There are 11 such mini-centres in this area.

Liturgical Life in the Church of South India

Liturgical Life in the Church of South India

REVIEWS

REVIEWS in this articles: The Concept of a Person and Other Essays. By A. J. Ayer. Charles Peirce and Scholastic Realism. A Study of Peirce's Relation to John Duns Scotus. By John F. Boler Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge. By K. N. Jayatilleke. Creation Legends of the Ancient Near East. By S. G. F. Brandon. The God‐Possessed. By Jacques Lacarrière. Translated by Roy Monkcom. St Augustine of Hippo. Life and Controversies. By Gerald Bonner. Théologie de la Révélation. By René Latourelle, s.j. Les évangiles et l'histoire de Jésus. By Xavier Léon‐Dufour. Tradition and Interpretation in Matthew. By Günther Bornkamm, Gerhard Barth and H. J. Held. The Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus. By Norman Perrin. The Problem of an Apologetical Perspective in the Trinitarian Theology of St Thomas Aquinas. by Robert L. Richard, S.J. The Church and the Sacraments. By Karl Rahner. Translated by W. J. O'Hara Christ the Sacrament of Encounter with God. By E. Schillebeeckx, o.p. With a Foreword by Cornelius Ernst, o.p. Mission and Grace. Volume I. By Karl Rahner, s.j. Translated by Cecily Hastings. Glaubensverkündigung im Lichte der Frohbotschaft. By J. A. Jungmann, s.j. Great Historical Enterprises and Problems in Monastic History. By David Knowles. The Inquisition of the Middle Ages: its Organization and Operation. By Henry Charles Lea, with an historical introduction by Walter Ullmann. Calvin. The Origins and Development of His Religious Thought. By Franclois Wendel. Translated by Philip Mairet. Political Thought in Sixteenth‐century Spain. A study of the political ideas of Vitoria, Soto, Suarez and Molina. By Bernice Hamilton. The Social and Political Theory of Francisco Suarez. By Reijo Wilenius. Meteora. By D. M. Nicol. As we are one: The Christian in a Plural Society. By H. G. Townsend. The Quest for Christian Unity. By Gregory Baum, o.s.a. The Churches and The Church. By Bernard Leeming, s.j. The Church of South India: The Book of Common Worship, as authorized by the Synod 1962. The Syrian Christians of Kerala. By S. G. Pothan.