History

       It was inaugurated in September 1947, and formed from the union of Anglican, Methodist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and Reformed churches. Discussion of merging South India's main Protestant denominations began at a 1919 conference at Tranquebar (Tarangambadi), and the process was completed shortly after India's Independence.

Administration

        The church is organized into 22 dioceses, each under the supervision of a bishop, including one diocese in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The Church as a whole is governed by a Synod, which every two years elects a presiding bishop, called a Moderator, who serves as head of the church. The Church has 3.8 million members in 14,000 congregations. The great majority of members are in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. International representations in Sri Lanka, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates

Order of worship

            The church has its own service book and communion service, elements of which are drawn from the different denominations that made up the church. It is in full communion with the See of Canterbury and part of the Anglican Communion; its bishops participate in the Lambeth Conferences and it has representation on the Anglican Consultative Council.

The Motto and The Cross

           The symbols, the lotus and the Christian cross, used in the logo of the church possess a rich cultural heritage which help understand the call and mission of the CSI Church.

               Lotus, a typical Indian flower, is a temple flower. Mythologically it is supposed to be the seat of the creator. Pankajam one of the Indian names for lotus has a very significant meaning, it mean 'that born in mud'. This flower blossom at the sunrise and withers away after sunset, in other words it lives as long as it receives the sunrays, hence it is also called 'THAMMIPUVE' the flower of the sun. All these meaning attributed to the flower suit us well to interpret the position, nature and role of the people in the bond of union.

            The petals of the lotus and the cross are beautifully knitted together with the fiery-tongues of the Holy Spirit. It is an authentic Indian expression of people's communion with God. The original colors, red (for life) and purple (for piety and ecclesiastical) in white backdrop implicitly communicate the nature of the mystical union, where, an inseparable companionship is established which, again, a typical India thought form.

             The words "THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE, CHURCH OF SOUTH INDIA" are embossed in a circle round the lotus and the cross. The words are taken from the high priestly prayer of Jesus Christ who prayed not only for the 'Church' but also for the whole world. This universality is portrayed by placing the words in a form of circle, a symbol which also represents the universe.

            "That they all may be one; that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in Me and I am in You.. (John 17:21)", is an inclusive affirmation which explicitly shows the centrality of Christ and the Church, His Body. Since it is also, the prayer of the Church that it is not only churches but all people of India to be united, a prayer for national integration is well taken care of in the emblem.

        The imposing central position of the cross in the logo conveys the idea that it was the indefatigable, selfless supreme sacrifice that was made by Jesus on the cross is the base of the Church. The four ends of the cross painted in deep color indicating that it is the cross that guides all members inside and outside to join in one stream to pray and labor united for a peaceful coexistence and communal harmony.

History & Vision
On 27th September 1947, the General council of Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon, General Assembly of South India United Church and South India Provincial Synod of Methodist Church joined together to from the CHURCH OF SOUTH INDIA as the largest united national church in India. The continued growth has been further enriched with the joining of the churches of Basel Mission and the Anglican Diocese of Nandyal. A unique church was born out of the blending of the Episcopal and non - Episcopal traditions as a gift of God to the people of India and as a visible sign of the ecclesiastical unity for the universal church.
Vision of the Church of South India
The Church of South India (CSI) affirms that the purpose of the union is to fulfill the prayer of Jesus Christ, the lord of the Church "That they all may be one, and that the world may believe that you have sent me". And the Church of South India would become an effective instrument of God's mission so there will be greater peace, closer fellowship and fuller life in the Church and a renewed commitment for the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through word and deed.
The intertwining of the lotus with the cross along with fiery tongues of the Holy Spirit is an authentic Indian expression of people's communion with God.
Commitment of the Church
Being the largest Protestant church in India, she celebrates her life with Indian culture and spirituality and she also raises here voice for the voiceless on matters of justice, peace and integrity of creation. Sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the people of India through proclamation of the good news of Jesus; responding to human need through institutional and emergency relief work; through community development projects and skill training programmes for the marginalized and disadvantaged sections of the people and programmes for the integrity of creation.Translating this vision and commitment, the Synod of the Church of South India as the apex body of the church endeavours to encourage, equip and empower her dioceses, congregations and institutions through varied ministries:
The Church of South India at a glance
When the church was formed, it had fourteen dioceses with a membership of over one million. Over the last fifty years the membership has grown to over 3.5 millions spread over twenty two dioceses in the four states of south India (six Telugu dioceses in Andhra Pradesh, three Kannada dioceses in Karnataka, four Malayalam dioceses in Kerala, eight Tamil dioceses in Tamilnadu and one in Srilanka); firmly believing in unity in diversity of cultures, languages and liturgical traditions.

Ecumenical Relations and Membership in World Bodies
The Church of South India from her inception has been as active member of the national and international ecumenical Organisations such as the National Council of Churches in India (NCC), the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), the World of Council of Churches (WCC), the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), the Council for World Mission in Southwest Germany (EMS), the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC). Her Ecumenical relations also extend to Uniting Church in Australia, the Church in Scotland, the Uniting Protestant Churches in the Netherlands, Common Global Ministries Board, Reformed Churches in America, Presbyterian Church in US, Episcopal Church in America and Presbyterian Church in Republic of Korea.
The Journey Continues
The CSI is a united and uniting church moving forward with a dynamic vision for The Communion of Churchs in India. The joint council of churches of South India, The Church of North India and the Marthoma Church are already members of this commune of Churches and are venturing into wider encumenical relations to witness to One Lord Jesus Christ.
The Church of South India continues her journey expressing solidarity with the broken commnunities, affirming her faith in the Wounded Lord whose resurrection bestows a new hope to face the challeges of growing religious fundamentalism, violence, exploitation and discrimination based on caste and gender. The Cross of Christ continues to be the sign of hope for the church which strives toward Peace and Reconciliation as a vibrant channel of God, Shanti!
Departments of Synod

Pastoral Aid
Rt. Rev. S. Vasantha Kumar
Chairman

Rev. Dr. Mathew Varkey
Director
Pastoral Aid Department
No.5 Whites Road
Royapettah
Chennai - 600 014
e.mail:mattvarkey@yahoo.co.in
Pastoral Aid Department, as its name connotes stands for the help of pastors of Church of South India. Perhaps this is the oldest department established in this national church. The motto engraved in the Departmental Logo is 'Servants of the Servant Lord'. The pastors of the Church of South India are expected to be known as the humble servants of the Lord.

The main objective of the department is to promote pastors continuing education. The various programmes designed to meet the objective includes, circulation of Bible study materials, periodical meetings, Bible study material, in service training, Resource material and pastors personal library.

Providing continuing education towards equipping God's servants to be effective leaders in the church and community; enabling the servants of the Servant Lord to interpret the Word of God and to engage in building shalom/salam community.

The publication division provides, Bible study, Advent Thoughts, Lenten Meditation, sermon outline based on CSI Almanac, Ministerial Roll, News Bulletin and prayer diary.

The following are the specific Synod level meetings:- i.e., Pastors summer family conference, pastors study and reflection programme (PAS-TURE), young pastors conference, Rural Pastors meet, Women in Ministry meet and PAD Coordinators Conference.

Apart from the Diocesan level programmes, the PAD also conducts Regional programmes such as Andhra Pradesh Pastors Meet, Tamilnadu Pastors meet, Karnataka Pastors and Kerala Pastors meet. PAD also takes initiative in efficiency improvement programmes like, Degree upgradation study projects and Research publications. Help setting up of personal Library for pastors is another vital concern of the department.

The department conducts exposure programmes in various levels as Inter-Diocesan, Inter regional Diocese to Synod as well as International visits. A special venture of the department is arranging Holy land study tour every year, for the benefit of pastors.

The Department also prepares the Pastors in preaching, worship, Liturgy, Counselling, communication and creative writing through various special programmes, seminar and workshops.

Another concern of the Department is introducing welfare schemes for the pastors and Church workers. Spiritual as well as physical care should be taken into consideration for the upliftment of the ministers. Sick help, Children education, Pension and Housing Scheme are some of the projects, which deserve our attention.

The department under took some novel programmes at the dawn of this new millennium which includes Rural Pastors meet, management and stewardship Training, pastoral care to pastors and pastors spouses meet.

The divine providence, the timely guidance of the Synod officers, and the special concern of the Department Chairperson - the Deputy Moderator - empower the department to serve the servants of the Lord in a better way

Christian Education

Providing the ongoing training of the Sunday school Enablers with relevant topics, current trends and movements in society, the understanding of God in an inter-faith context and thereby encouraging people for interdependence and right relationship within the pluralistic communities.

There are different programs conducted by the Chirstian Education Department

Children Experinces - rallies, retreats, jamboories and certificate courses under "CUSC"
Teacher Equipment - training, academies, exposures, awards of excellence
Trainers Resources - resource persons club, adult Sunday school facilitators, Social Workers/NGO's
Facilitators & Enablers - pastors, regional co-ordinators, diocesan directors, divisional co-ordinators.
Graded Curriculum - wings of faith (15 vols), curriculum builders, production & promoters, revision of curriculum
Teaching aid cell - students work book, audio & visual aids kit, teaching aids manual, art & crafts in vbs
Special School - for adults, for differently abled, in multi faith context, for social victims
Outreach - Christian Education Agencies Network, Resources and Oppertunities, Inter Department Relations, Integrated Christian Education in congregation.
Meetings - Workshops, Conferences, Institutes, Interdepartmental Dialoge
Sunday School Missionary Movement - 5 Missionaries - 5 Dioceses for 5 years, Synod Sunday School Fund, Sunday School Fund, Sunday School Alumini, Exposures and Exchanges
Church Union Study Centere - Christian Education Library, Peter Cater Scripture Exams, Children Credit Courses, Research & Evaluation

Historical Foundation

The Church Union Movement in South India which eventually resulted in the birth of the Church of South India on 27th Sep, 1947 is one of the greatest miracles ever performed by God in the first half of the present century. The story of union is a story of a collaborative venture fraught with innumerable difficulties of one kind or the other. By the grace of God and by the fortitude of the Union leaders, those difficulties were frankly faced and finally over come. It was a venture in which the Divine hand guided the people involved constantly. It as a stupendous task in which the leaders of the movement clearly discovered God’s will and in utter humility tried to fulfill it, if not always. After twenty-eight years of joint consultation in trying patience and fervent hope, the negotiating churches eventually entered into an organic union.1947! The year of freedom, the creation of New India. The bitter struggle for political independence ended. A new chapter was opened on August 15 when Pandit Nehru, the first Prime Minister of free India, delivered his memorable speech under the caption “Tryst with Destiny”. The same year also witnessed the end of the long process of negotiations for church union. The Methodist J.S.M.Hooper, the pilot of the Union Movement in South India, preached the Inauguration sermon, interpreting the significance of the year: “God has matched us with His hour; the Church of South India has an unparalleled opportunity. The reconciliation between our divergent elements enables us with fresh conviction and force to proclaim the Gospel of reconciliation to all the clashing elements in this nation’s life. Thus the CSI was constituted by the union of the Madras, Madura, Malabar, Jaffna, Kannada, Telugu and Travancore Church Councils of the South India United Church; the South India Province of the Methodist Church, comprising the Madras, Trichinopoly, Hyderabad and Mysore Districts; and the Madras, Dornakal, Tinnevelly, and Travancore and Cochin of the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon.

The Church of South India began with fourteen dioceses and a membership of 10, 17, 184 of whom 2,63,680 were communicants. At the time of the union, the uniting bodies numbered, in round figures: Methodists 220,000; Presbyterians and Congregationalists (SIUC) 290,000; Anglicans (CIBC) 500,00. The North Tamil Church of the SIUS, which in 1946 decided not to join the CSI, joined the united church in 1950. The Bombay Karnataka Council of the United Basel Mission Church in India joined the Church of South India in 1958. The Anglican Church of Nandyal Diocese which chose to stand outside the union in 1947, merged with the CSI in 1975. Today the CSI consists of 21 Dioceses covering entire South India and also Sri Lanka.

The Great Event

A special committee composed of leading laymen and ministers of all uniting churches had been set up and entrusted with the task of making preparations for the service of Inauguration of the united church. It had divided the whole area of the uniting churches into fourteen dioceses, selected presbyters who where consecrated bishops at the inauguration and allotted them to the fourteen dioceses. The committee also has made necessary arrangements for the inaugural function.

The six bishops and the nine bishops-designate met for a three-day retreat from Saturday 20th September in the Women’s Christian College. The retreat was led by Bishop Pakenham Walsh. After the retreat the bishops and bishops-designate took counsel together about the different problems which will arise then in their ministry as Bishops. Bishop Lesslie Newbigin a bishop designate says: “The last five days of retreat and conference have been a wonderful preparation for this great day. In three days of silence we have had a blessed opportunity for steadying will and desire and directing them to God alone.

The South India United Church was a combined body of Presbyterians and Congregationalists and the Methodists communion included the Anglican Dioceses. It took 30 years of deliberations to arrive at this communion. The constitution of the Church proclaims that this unity is to carry out God’s Will that is expressed in Lord’s Prayer ‘that all may be one’. The basis of the constitution is Lambeth, Quadri Lateral. It accepts and maintains the historic, episcopate in a constitutional form. CSI is an autonomous church free from any control, legal or otherwise, of any church or society external to it. The ordained ministry of the church consists of Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons. The bishop has a diocesan council to administer the church. He is the president of the council and all committees. A presbyter can become bishop only after attaining 45 years of age and shall retire on completion of 65 years. The bishop is elected by the diocesan council or an electoral body appointed by the council.

There is a synod to administer the affairs of the church. It is a supreme, governing and legislative body of the church. All bishops, Assistant bishop, officers of Synod and General Secretary of the CSI Women’s fellowship are ex-officio members of the Synod. There is lay representation in the Synod.

The Officers of the Synod are Moderator, Deputy Moderator, General Secretary and Treasurer. All officers are elected. They hold office till the next ordinary meeting of the Synod, which is held once in two years. The Anglican order of deaconesses took a new form in CSI-the Order of Sisterhood. It was started in 1952 under the leadership of Carol Graham. Its headquarters is ‘Visranti Nilayam’, Madras.

The pastorates, basis church units, have pastorate committees under the leadership of the presbyter. There are 21 dioceses, in the Church of South India. They are Coimbatore, Dornakal, East Kerala, Jaffna, Kanyakumari, Karimnagar, Karnataka South, Krishna-Godavari, Madya Kerala, Madras, Madurai-Ramnad, Medak, Nandyal, North Kerala, Rayalseems, South Kerala, Thiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli and Velloore.

1. BRITISH CONNECTION WITH TRAVANCORE

The origin of Travancore's connection with British goes back to 1685, when the English East India Company established a factory at Anjengo in Travancore by obtaining land from the Attingal Rani. The English established the factory mainly with a view to breaking up the Dutch monopoly in those parts. Thus a cordial relationship between the East India Company and Travancore developed. In the second half of the 18th century. the fear of invasion from Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, compelled Travancore to depend for her safety on the English East India Company. In November 1795, a treaty of perpetual friendship and alliance was signed between the Rajah of Travancore and the East India Company. The treaty was again modified in 1805, which established British paramountcy over Travancore.

As a result of these treaties, the British Residents were henceforth to represent Great Britain at the Court of Travancore. The first two residents were Col. Colin Macaulay (1800-1810) and Col. John Munro (1810-1819), who were protestant Christians of strong convictions; interested in the affairs of Jacobite Syrians.

THE C.M.S. IN TRAVANCORE

The origin of the work of the C.M.S. in Travancore can be traced to the Rev. R. H. Kerr and the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, who paid visits to the Malabar Syrians in 1806, during the episcopate of Mar Dionysius1. It was Lord William Bentinck, who sent Dr. Kerr to Travancore for the purpose of investigating the state of the native church. E. M. Philip tells us that, "he (Kerr) expressed to the Metropolitan of the Syrian Church a hope that one day a union might take place between the Syrian and the Anglican Church and that he seemed pleased at the suggestion." 1

The next friendly Anglican visitor was Dr. Buchanan, who evinced a keen desire that the Syrian Church and the Church of England should be brought closer together. His speech at the C.M.S. Anniversary in 1809 and his famous book, "Christian Researches in Asia", drew the attention of the English people to the Syrian Christians of Travancore.

According to W. J. Richards, a C.M.S. Missionary in Travancore, in the beginning of 19th century the religious and social conditions of the Syrian Christians were pathetic. The people were steeped in ignorance and superstitions. The Jacobite Syrian Church was also at this time at a very low spiritual level. This is clear in the words of the Syrian Metropolitan, when he had an interview with Dr. Buchanan in which he says, "you have come to visit a declining church." 2

3. MISSION OF HELP TO THE SYRIANS

The C.M.S. Mission of Help to the Jacobite Syrians of Kerala was started in the year 1816, of which the initiative came from Col. Munro, the then British Resident of Travancore. There were two main purposes behind the Mission of Help to the Syrians. First of all, through the work of the C.M.S. Missionaries among the Syrians, to effect the renovation of their Church and to raise them from their degradation. Secondly, the British Resident as well as the missionaries hoped that, "a strong and friendly Christian Community will be a support for the British power in Malabar". Rev. Thomas Norton was the first missionary who came to Travancore in this connection. He was soon followed by Benjamin Bailey (1816), Joseph Fenn (1818) and Henry Baker (Sr) (1819) who are popularly known as the "Kottayam Trio". These three concentrated their work among the Syrians, where as the pioneer missionary, Norton focused his work among the outcastes in Alleppey.

The work of the missionaries among the Jacobite Syrians was mainly on the education field. Fenn took charge of the college for training the younger clergy; Bailey devoted himself chiefly to literary and translation work and the press, while Baker took charge of the parish schools up and down the land. Though the relationship between the missionaries and the Jacobite Syrians went on well without many problems in the beginning, it did not last long. The change of leadership in the Jacobite Syrian Community as well as the change of missionaries caused much problem in the relationship. During the second half of the Mission of Help, the pioneer missionaries went on furlough. While they were away new men came on the scene, Joseph Peet (1833-1865) and W. J. Wood Cock (1834-1837). The young missionaries were rather impatient about the slow progress being made and were sometimes rash in their actions. The visits of the Rev. J. Tucker, Secretary of the C.M.S. Corresponding Committee at Madras, and Bishop Wilson, the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta did not heal the wound, these two being uncompromising evangelists. This was followed by a Synod of the Syrian Christians at Mavelikkara on 16th January 1836, in which the Jacobite Syrian Community under Mar Dionysios IV, the then Malankara Metropolitan decided to break all their relationships with the Church of England. With this we see an early death of the twenty-year-old C.M.S. Mission of Help to the Syrian Church of Travancore.

Was the Mission of Help a failure? An eminent Hindu, Diwan Bahadur Nagamiah says in the Travancore State Manual that, "Although the Syrians headed by their Bishop had thus forrnally parted company with the Church Missionary Society, the teaching of the missionaries for more than twenty years had not been without result, and there was among the Syrians a party who was influenced by that teaching

MISSIONARIES TURN TO THE MASSES.

The dissolution of the contract between the C.M.S. and the Syrian Metropolitan after 20 years of beneficial work was no doubt says, C.M. Agur "a great disappointment” 4With the snapping of ties, the missionaries directed their attention to the despised and the downtrodden Ezhavas, Hill Arrians, and the outcastes of Central Travancore.

Due to the impact of the work of the C.M.S. among the Syrian Christians, soon after the separation with them, several Syrian Christians who were attracted towards the reformation joined the Anglican Church. In certain cases, the whole Syrian parishes joined with the missionaries. Therefore, the missionaries began to serve them as parish priests too.5

In 1840, Bishop Spencer of Madras, who succeeded Bishop Daniel Corrie after his death in 1837, made his first episcopal visit to Malabar soon after the Archbishop of Canterbury had put the congregations of Travancore under the Episcopal oversight of the Bishop of Madras. Thus the Anglican Church was fully established in Travancore in 1840. By 1840's missionaries started systematic evangelism among the non-Christians, especially those of the lower classes. In 1848 Baker reported that he baptized thirty five individuals. He again speaks: "They have been Chogans. Two I had rescued from slavery very accidentally."6 In 1850, Rev. J. Hawksworth wrote, "The visible success of this mission during the past half-year has been almost exclusively among the 'heathen" 7

KOTTAYAM MISSION

Even before the formal break with the Syrian Christians, the CMS Missionaries at various places had started work among the non-Christians. After 1836 we find in the C.M.S. records, references to the 'Kottayam Village Mission' with Bailey in charge of it and 'the Kottayam District Mission' under Baker, with his headquarters at Pallom, five miles to the South.8 They also continued educational work and built another college at Kottayam, the C.M.S. College in 1838. The new college made its real start in 1840 when the Rev. John Chapman took charge of it.

HILL ARRIAN MISSION

From 1848 onwards, there was a turning point in the work of the C.M.S. Missionaries, as they began to work among the Hill Tribes of Central Travancore. The principal tribe among whom the C.M.S. Missionaries concentrated their work was, the Hill Arrians. This Mission was the out come of the request of a delegation from among the Hill Arrians to the C.M.S. Missionary, the Rev. Henry Baker Junior, often been known as the 'Apostle of Hill Arrians.' The deputation of the Hill Arrians persistently kept on coming. Their eagerness was remarkable. Henry Baker wrote "The heads of several villages appeared at Pallom and remonstrated on account of my delay. Five times", said they "have we been to call you. You must know, we know nothing right; will you teach us or not? We die like beasts, and are buried like dogs; ought you to neglect us?" "Cholera and fever" said another, "carried off such and such members of my family; where are they now?" They stated that they "wanted no pecuniary help", as they had plenty of rice. They wished to serve God, and not to be oppressed by any one." 13. At last Henry Baker conceded to the request and decided to visit the Hill Arrians in 1848. The eagerness of the Hill Arrians to be instructed, to some extent helped the missionary to introduce a self supporting and self propagating mission from the very beginning.

The evangelists working under Henry Baker in the plains volunteered to go to the hills and teach the Hill Arrians. It was they who taught and instructed them. In 1849 Baker opened a mission with a large campus in a place named 'Mundakayam', heron's pool, which caused him to be called -a first rate colonizer" by T. G. Ragland, the then C.M.S. Secretary in Madras.14. The missionary earned a large compound for the mission from a landlord and settled many native families. The jungle had been cleared; eight houses were built for native families and a schoolroom to be used also as a place of worship. With the development of the mission, the progress was visible among the converted Hill Arrians in the socio‑cultural and religious spheres. These upward developments they had, were not gained by not paying heavy prices. They had to undergo bitter persecutions and severe oppositions from their own kith and kin, the communities that were interested in exploiting them and from the government officials.

From Mundakayam as a Mission Centre, the work began to extend northwards. In 1852, Baker went on a visit to the villages of Erumapra, Melukavu, Walakorn. and several others, and reported that, "there is a complete string of Arrian villages the whole way from this to Mundakayam, averaging not more than three miles distance from each other." 15. In 1854, two other villages had also been opened, Kannikal and Puthata. The Mission on these hills increased day by day. Baker expressed, 'I am happy to say that my hill people are improving every way..." Further, he speaks about the vast area of his mission district as "my district" when he said, "My district is now like a country, Mundakayarn being thirty-five miles east of Pallom, and the Melukavu hills, twenty-eight north of that." 16

The abolition of slavery in Travancore helped the outcastes and the hill tribes to respond to Christianity in large numbers. In 1853, His Highness, Utram. Tirunal Marthanda Varma Maha Rajah, by a Royal Proclamation, declared that all future children of government slaves are free from bondage, and in 1855, the Maha Rajah completely abolished all kinds of slavery in his dominions.17. This gave freedom to the slaves to embrace the religion of their choice. In 1855, the Pallom district was divided. All the hills and a portion of the country along the foot, about 20 miles wide, with no defined limit north or south was called the "Mundakayam Church Mission District." Henry Baker was in charge of the new district. He again divided the district into two parts, Mundakayam and Melukavu. In the Melukavu hills there were three congregations at Erumapra, Melukavu and Kannikal. Similarly, in Mundakayam also there were three congregations, Mundakayam, Koottickal and Assapian. The members of all these congregations were steadily increasing. There were schools in each village at which all the children were required to attend.

Henry Baker raised the status of the two mission stations, Mundakayam and Melukavu. into the position of pastorates and appointed two native ministers to look after the missionary work. Besides, for every outstation there were native readers or evangelists and native teachers to the schools.

The missionary also often visited these stations and superintended the Hill Arrian Mission.. Under the native leadership, supervised by the missionary, the Hill Arrians on the whole, all along the villages continued to be stable and were gradually increasing in numbers.

ALAPUZHA MISSION

The first Anglican Missionary to arrive in Travancore was the Rev. Thomas Norton who settled at Alappuzha in 1816 at the suggestion of Col. Munro. Norton was happy to be at Alappuzha, outside the Syrian sphere, so that he might concentrate his evangelistic efforts on the medley of races and religions in that commercial town. The Sunday after his arrival, he preached significantly on the parable of the grain of mustard-seed at the first Anglican service held in Travancore.

The beautiful church was completed in July 1819. And in the meantime he had gained sufficient mastery over Malayalam "to lay myself out in the delightful work of making known a Saviour's love". The "laying out" was so effective that when he died in 1840 the Church was well established, the membership numbering 560 drawn from all classes.

Norton started several schools in Alappuzha. About 15 years after his arrival, there were eleven schools with 301 boys and 57 girls. Two of them were boarding schools, one for boys and the other for girls under the supervision of Mrs. Norton. The mustard seed had sprouted. Four days after Norton's death the Rev. John Hawksworth arrived from England, with Mrs. Hawksworth, and took charge of the mission. They remained there until 1845, when they were transferred to Mavelikara and the Rev. Henry Baker (Sr.) replaced them in Alappuzha. In 1842, the then Bishop of Madras, during his visit, confirmed 122 persons and described Alapuzha as inhabited by ‘almost every kindred and tongue and people and nation'.19

THE COCHIN MISSION

The first missionary to be stationed at Cochin was the Rev. Thomas Dawson. But he had to return home early in 1818 on account of ill‑health. In 1820 the Kottayam. Missionaries were paying regular visits to Cochin every fortnight. Services were held in the fine old Church of St.Francis 20 which Dawson has repaired.

The work of evangelization gathered prodigious momentum with the arrival of the Rev. Samuel Risdale in 1824. He threw himself heart and soul into the work among a very mixed population comprising Indian, Portuguese, Dutch and English elements. He obtained a grant of land from the government and gathered a little Christian village around him. A boys' school and a girls' school were soon started. Risdale had a number of converts, the most notable of whom were John and Constantine. John was a Brahmin, and Constantine was Rama Varma, the son of Vira Kerala Rajah. In 1836 he had opened six outstations namely, Kunnamkulam, Pazhani, Kandanadu, Truppunithara, Kuttatodu and Chalakkudi. During the year, Risdale returned home leaving the Rev. Henry Harley in charge. The latter began to erect a Church at Trichur in 1840 and the next year set up the headquarters of the Cochin Mission there. Harley did most distinguished work in Cochin State for more than 20 years
MAVELIKARA MISSION
Mavelikara became a C.M.S. station when the Rev. Joseph Peet took up his abode there with his family. Peet did not perhaps have the erudition of Fenn, the prudence of Bailey or the patience of Baker. He was a man of action, a born fighter always ready with the sword of the spirit to jump into the fray and take on every one.
Within a few months of his arrival at Mavelikara, he had built a church designed to hold 400 people, and at the end of five years there were four congregations - Mavelikara, Poovathoor, Kodukulanji and Mallappally, with a membership of about 500. He started seven schools which had 200 students on their rolls. Whenever he preached his hearers numbered two to three thousand. "I have hardly ever seen such earnest and attentive hearers," said Bishop Wilson who visited Mavelikara in 1845. 22

Peet went home on furlough and Hawksworth took his place in 1845. Persecution raised its ugly head again as soon as Peet vanished from the scene. His return was hailed with joy by the rich and the poor alike. The great missionary labored on in Mavelikara right into the sixties. The Rev. Joseph Peet rested from his labors at Mavelikara on August 11, 1865. When he died at the end of thirty years' unremitting toil, he was in charge of eleven substantial churches with members totaling more than 2500.
THE MALLAPPALLY MOVEMENT
Mallappally has a place of honor in the history of the Mission. Mallappally was the first non-convert (Anglo-Syrian) congregation. Rev. George Mathen was the first Malayalam clergyman of Anglican Church. He ministered to the Mallappally people. The Missionary who did most to foster the movement in its infancy was the Rev. John Hawksworth. He wrote to the committee in the early part of 1851 as, "For some months past there has been a very hopeful movement among the poor slaves in the neighborhood of Mallappally. In this country these poor creatures are regarded by the higher classes, and even by common coolies, as utterly unclean and polluting.23

A school room was erected at a place called Kaippatta. Mr. Mathen was the schoolmaster. The slaves heard and received the word of God with great joy. Among the slaves, one of the first to be baptized was named Abel, which had taken place in 1854. There were thirty desiring baptism, but only eight were admitted. This Kaippatta incident caused a great excitement in Mallappally. The barber and the washer man refused to work for the Rev. George Mathen and the members of his congregation, who were deemed defiled by the admission of outcastes into their church.

Despite persistent persecutions, slave schools were opened in several places and the movement spread, gathering momentum with each new step. It is recorded that nine years after the first baptisms the Bishop of Madras visited the Mass Movement area and confirmed over a thousand outcaste Christians. 24

TRAVANCORE CHURCH COUNCIL

The council system of Travancore was developed by Henry Baker at the instigation of Henry Venn, the C.M.S. Secretary (1841 - 1872) in England. Henry Venn was widely known for his views on the growth of an independent Native Church. For this object he published his notable three self-formula; self-support, self-extension and self-administration, through which he proposed a scheme of appointing a local school-master in charge of a congregation, after its establishment. 25 Then the formation of a pastorate, consisting of several congregations under an ordained native paid from the Native Church Fund. The pastorate was placed under a district conference or council, which would be setup. In 1869, "The Travancore Native Church Council was formed" 26 and Henry Baker was selected as its first Chairman and the Rev. R. H. Maddox, Secretary and Treasurer. In 1872 a second Church Council was organized, and the two councils, one for North Travancore, meeting at Kottayam and the other for South Travancore meeting, at Mavelikara were linked by a Provincial Council .27 But, the Mundakayarn Mission District was not incorporated into this council system. This new system of church organization helped the mission to grow from 'Mission to the Church

THE MADHYA KERALA DIOCESE
Rt. Rev. Thomas Samuel Bishop of Madhya Kerala Diocese

Kerala, the State, clothed in nature's finery, protected by the rocky mountains in the East and washed by the waves of the Arabian Sea in the West, has been blessed with Christianity from the I st century. Tradition has it that it was St. Thomas, the Apostle of Jesus who brought Christianity to Kerala. The Ancient Syrian Church of Malabar had links with Christian centres in West Asia. The winds of the Reformation which rocked Europe in the 16th century swept in India as well with the coming of the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, the London Missionary Society and the Basel Mission. Now Christians form about 2.5% of the population of India and 30% of the population of Kerala. The majority of the people in India are Hindus, Muslims are of a sizeable number. The people of India live in religious amity in the multi-religious environment.

The C.M.S. in Travancore

The history of the Madhya Kerala Diocese dates back to the work of the Church Missionary Society in the state of Travancore.

The Rev. R. H. Kerr and the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, visited the Malabar Syrians in 1806, during the episcopate of Mar Dionysius I. It was Lord William Bentinck, who sent Dr. Kerr to Travancore for the purpose of investigating the state of the native church. E. M. Philip tells us that, "he (Kerr) expressed to the Metropolitan of the Syrian Church a hope that one day a union might take-place between the Syrian and the Anglican Church and that he seemed pleased at the suggestion."

The next friendly Anglican visitor was Dr. Buchanan, who evinced a keen desire that the Syrian Church and the Church of England should be brought closer together. His speech at the C. M. S. Anniversary in 1809 and his famous book, "Christian Researches in Asia", drew the attention of the English people to the Syrian Christians of Travancore.

Mission of help to the Syrians

The C. M. S. Mission of Help to the Jacobite Syrians of Kerala was started in the year 1816, of which the initiative came from Col. Munro, the then British Resident of Travancore. There were two main purposes behind the mission of Help to the Syrians. First of all, through the work of the C. M. S. Missionaries among the Syrians, to effect the renovation of their church and to raise them from their degradation. Secondly, the British resident as well as the missionaries hoped that, "a strong and friendly Christian Community will be a support to the British power in Malabar". Rev. Thomas Norton was the first missionary who came to Travancore in this connection. He was soon followed by Benjamin Bailey (1816), Joseph Fenn (1818) and Henvy Baker Sr. (1819) who are popularly known as the "Kottayam Trio". These three concentrated their work among the Syrians, whereas the pioneer missionary, Norton focused his work among the outcastes in Alleppey.

Though the relationship between the missionaries and the Jacobite Syrians went on well without many problems in the beginning, it did not last long. The change of leadership in the Jacobite Syrian community as well as the change of missionaries caused much problem in the relationship. During the second half of the Mission of Help, the pioneer missionaries went on furlough. While they were away new men came on the scene, Joseph Peet (1833-1865) and W. J. Wood Cock (1834-1837). The young missionaries were rather impatient about the slow progress being made and were sometimes rash in their actions. The visits of the Rev. J. Tucker, Secretary of the C. M. S. Corresponding Committee at Madras, and Bishop Wilson, the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta did not heal the wound, these two being uncompromising evangelists. This was followed by a Synod of the Syrian Christians at Mavelikkara on 16th January, 1836, in which the Jacobite Syrian Community under Mar Dionysius IV, the then Malankara Metropolitan decided to break all their relationships with the Church of England. With this we see an early death of the twenty year old C. M. S. Mission of Help to the Syrian Church of Travancore.

Missionaries Turn To the Masses

The dissolution of the contract between the C. M. S. and the Syrian Metropolitan after 20 years of beneficial work was no doubt says, C. M. Agur "a great disappointment." With the snapping of ties, the missionaries directed their attention to the despised and the down trodden Ezhavas, Hill Arrians, and the outcastes of Central Travancore.

Due to the impact of the work of the C. M. S. among the Syrian Christians, soon after the separation with them, a good number of Syrian Christians who were attracted towards the reformation joined the Anglican Church. In certain cases, the whole Syrian parishes joined with the missionaries. Therefore, the missionaries began to serve them as parish priests too.

Kottayam Mission

Even before the formal break with the Syrian Christians, the CMS Missionaries at various places had started work among the non-Christians. After 1836 we find in the C. M. S. records, references to the 'Kottayam Village Mission' with Bailey in charge of it and 'the Kottayam District Mission' under Baker, with his headquarters at Pallom, five miles to the south. They also continued educational work and built another college at Kottayam, the C. M. S. College in 1838. The new college made its real start in 1840 when the Rev. John Chapman took charge of it.

The missionaries were the pioneers in the field of printing. Having acquired the necessary mastery over Malayalam, Bailey translated and printed two complete editions of the Holy Scriptures and two of the Common Prayer Book. Besides these, he wrote a big English and Malayalam Dictionary and another Malayalam and English Dictionary. In 1848 the first Malayalam periodical "The Treasury of Knowledge" was published and is still coming out as the Diocesan Magazine.

In 1843, Bishop Wilson said about the future work of the missionaries as, "You had no other course to take but to build churches for yourselves, to go on with your own schools, to multiply copies of the scripture, to erect, as you have done, your own college, and to carry on an open unfettered mission for the good of the heathen and Muhammadans generally, and of the individual Roman Catholics, Roman Syrians and Syrians around you who might voluntarily and peaceably avail themselves of your labours..." Church building was one of the principal activities of the Kottayam Mission in the forties. At Mallappally, Kottayam, Pallom, Kollad, Olessa, Ericadu, Changanacherry, Mavelikkara and Mundakayam, fairly beautiful churches were built. Of these, the largest as well as the most beautiful was the Holy Trinity, Kottayam, which Bishop Wilson called, "the noble Gothic church, the glory of Travancore," It was the work of Bailey whose laborious service in Kottayam went on apace, undeterred by the split.

Kottayam District Mission

There were two congregations in Kottayam District-Pallom and Kollad. Henry Baker Junior carried on vigorously and in 1847 he completed the construction of churches at Olessa, Velluthuruthy and Ericadu. At the close of five years' work the membership of the Anglican Church in the combined districts numbered 552. By this time another district had been formed at Thiruvalla and Hawksworth was in charge of it.

Rev. M. J. Chandy was ordained in Madras in 1847 and was the second Malayalee to receive Anglican Orders, the first having been the Rev. George Mathen in 1844. In 1856, four more Indian clergy were added to the Anglican Church. The Annual report for 1856-57 states, "The Travancore Mission exhibits the best proof of real progress in the fact that native congregations which have been gathered together by the labours of missionaries have now been committed to the charge of native clergymen." By 1870, their number was fifteen.

Hill Arrian Mission

The year 1848 was a turning point in the work of the C. M. S. Missionaries, as they began to work among the Hill Tribes of Central Travancore. The principal tribe among whom the C. M. S. Missionaries concentrated their work was, the Hill Arrians. This Mission was the out come of the request of a delegation from among the Hill Arrians to the C. M. S. Missionary, the Rev. Henry Baker Junior, often been known as the 'Apostle of Hill Arrians."

Alappuzha Mission

The first Anglican Missionary to arrive in Travancore was the Rev. Thomas Norton who settled at Alappuzha in 1816 on the suggestion of Col. Munro. Norton was happy to be at Alappuzha, outside the Syrian sphere, so that he might concentrate his evangelistic efforts on the medley of races and religions in that commercial town. The Sunday after his arrival, he preached significantly on the parable of the grain of mustard-seed at the first Anglican service held in Travancore.

The beautiful church was completed in July 1819. And in the meantime he had gained sufficient mastery over Malayalam "to lay myself out in the delightful work of making known a Saviour's love". The "laying out" was so effective that when he died in 1840 the Church was well established, the membership numbering 560 drawn from all classes.

The Cochin Mission

The first missionary to be stationed at Cochin was the Rev. Thomas Dawson. But he had to return home early in 1818 on account of ill-health. In 1820, the Kottayam Missionaries were paying regular visits to Cochin every fortnight. Services were held in the fine old Church of St. Francis which Dawson has repaired.

The work of evangelization gathered prodigious momentum with the arrival of the Rev. Samuel Risdale in 1824. He threw himself heart and soul into the work among a very mixed population comprising Indian, Portuguese, Dutch and English elements. He obtained a grant of land from the government and gathered a little Christian village around him. A boys' school and a Girls' school were soon started. Risdale had a number of converts, the most notable of whom were John and Constantine. John was a Brahmin, and Constantine was Rama Varma, the son of Vira Kerala Rajah.

Mavelikara Mission

Mavelikara became a C. M. S. station when the Rev. Joseph Peet took up his abode there with his family. Within a few months of his arrival at Mavelikara, he had built a church designed to hold 400 people, and at the end of five years there were four congregations-Mavelikara, Poovathoor, Kodukulanji and Mallappally, with a membership of about 500. He started seven schools which had 200 students on their rolls.

Peet went home on furlough and Hawksworth took his place in 1845. Persecution raised its ugly head again as soon as Peet vanished from the scene. His return was hailed with joy by the rich and the poor alike. The great missionary laboured on in Mavelikara right into the sixties. The Rev. Joseph Peet rested from his labours at Mavelikara on August 11, 1865. When he died at the end of thirty years' unremitting toil, he was incharge of eleven substantial churches with members totalling more than 2500.

The Mallappally Movement

Mallappally has a place of honour in the history of the Mission. Mallappally was the first nonconvert (Anglo-Syrian) congregation. Rev. George Mathen was the first Malayalam clergyman of Anglican Church. He ministered to the Mallappally people. The Missionary who did most to foster the movement in its infancy was the Rev. John Hawksworth. He wrote to the committee in the early part of 1851 as, "For some months past there has been a very hopeful movement among the poor slaves in the neighbourhood of Mallappally. In this country; these poor creatures are regarded by the higher classes, and even by common coolies, as utterly unclean and polluting. A school room was erected at a place called Kaippatta. Mr. Mathen was the school master. The slaves heard and received the word of God with great joy. Among the slaves, one of the first to be baptised was named Abel, which had taken place in 1854. There were thirty desiring baptism, but only eight were admitted. This Kaippatta incident caused a great excitement in Mallappally.

Diocese of Travancore and Cochin

Early in 1876, the Society began negotiations with the Secretary of State for India so that a new see might be formed under the Jerusalem Bishopric Act for the Church of England in the Native States of Travancore and Cochin. And towards the end of the year a public announcement was made that the Rev. J. M. Speechly, then Principal of the C. N. I., would be the first Bishop of the New Diocese. It was also made clear that "the appointment of an experienced European Missionary as a Bishop was a preparatory step to the ultimate appointment of native Bishops".

Rev. J. M. Speechly (1879-1888) was consecrated as the first Bishop for the newly formed Anglican Diocese of Travancore and Cochin, on St. James' Day, the 25th July 1879, in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and he arrived at Kottayam on January 27, 1880.

The main intention of the Society to form a diocese was, "to build up well-trained native congregations under native pastors... to resign all pastoral work into their hands" and for the missionary gradually, "to relax his superintendence over the pastors themselves, till it insensibly ceases". To this end there began a steady increase in the number of the local ministers and the condition of the Native Church began to be improved.

In 1888, the Rt. Rev. J. M. Speechly left for England and was unable to return, and the Rt. Rev. E. N. Hodges (1890-1904), a C. M. S. Missionary from Ceylon followed him as the Bishop of the diocese. He was installed in the Pro-Cathedral, Kottayam in November 1890.

In 1894 an Industrial school with a boarding house attached, was opened in Kottayam for Dalit Christians. It was the resort of the Christians from the backward classes, when their huts or church sheds were burned down and their crops carried off by angry upper class people. But things were changed when a government proclamation informed the public that "all high roads, markets and courts of justice are open to all". Bishop Hodges issued an order to the effect that all church buildings in the diocese were to be opened to Christians from every community.

Adoor Mission

During the episcopate of Bishop Hodges, the first missionary enterprise of the diocese organised as its Home Mission, was started at Adoor in 1903. A decade of strenous evangelistic work was amply rewarded. In 1914 there were 9 stations with 321 christians. In the course of thirty years the field widened and the number of stations increased to 20 with a total membership of 2600. There were two primary schools and a weaving school started in 1945. Most of the people were backward in every walk of life.

Bishop Hodges retired in 1905 and was succeeded by Bishop Charles Hope Gill (1905-1925), who was consecrated in Westminister Abbey and arrived in Kottayam in 1906. He had served as a CMS Missionary in North India for eighteen years. It was during his episcopate that teachers and catechists from the backward class community were first admitted to the Cambridge Nicholson and Buchnan Institutions.

The Centenary Celebrations

The centenary of the founding of the Mission was celebrated in 1916. There were local celebrations in various parts of the Diocese, which culminated in the central celebrations at Kottayam. The Pro-Cathedral was full to over-flowing for the main thanksgiving service, and there was as recorded, at the time, 'an enormous gathering' for the public meeting held in the place where the Centenary Memorial Building was to be erected.

Educational institutions were going from strength to strength. The director of Public Instruction of Travancore State wrote in 1917: "What struck me most about the Kottayam College was what I should describe as the collegiate atmosphere. I have never felt this any where in South India as I have felt it here".

Diocesanisation

The Diocesanisation which began in 1879 fulfilled in 1920, when Bishop Gill constituted, "Travancore and Cochin Diocesan Council" to assist in the management of the temporal affairs and financial business of the church. Its first business was to relate all existing organization to the diocesan council, and a standing committee was appointed.

Karappuram Mission

In 1921 an extensive effort to reach a thousand Ezhava Families living in the coastal areas was set on foot by an independent committee, in relation with the church. With Miss. Isabel Baker's (C. M. S. Missionary) generous contribution, a school, hospital and a coir factory were established under the title 'Karappuram Mission' in the Shertellai area. In 1953 the Diocese undertook full responsibility of the mission but it continued to fail.

Bethel Ashram

In 1992, Miss. Neve, a C. M. S. Missionary, felt the need to serve the women of the diocese in a wider sphere than in the Training School (B. I. Pallom), where she was working. Miss. Rachel Joseph, a high school teacher, joined her in the new venture. They rented a house in Alappuzha and undertook various activities among the women there. The name 'Bethel' was adopted, and their work soon attracted women students from all parts of the Diocese.

Bethel moved to permanent quarters at Warikkad, Tiruvalla, in 1926. In the same year, the community school for backward class children was started. There were a home for motherless babies, a creche, a dispensary, industrial section and all the other activities of the community. When the C. M. S. headquarters secretaries visited Bethel in 1934, they were impressed by its distinctive Indian character and the emphasis placed by the Ashram upon, " meditation and devotion." Branches of Bethel have subsequently been opened at Trichur, Kallada, Parkal and Melukavu. 'Bethel Day' has throughout been a very popular annual feature drawing a large crowd year by year.

In 1922, the Rev. T. K. Benjamin, was appointed Archdeacon of Kottayam and Bishop's Commissary. It was said at that time, "This is essentially a step in the right direction and cannot fail to be of great benefit."

Parkal Mission

Inspired by the example of missionary societies, the diocese of Travancore and Cochin started organized missionary work in and outside the diocese. The first native missionaries were sent out in 1924, and the field was Parkal Taluq, Hyderabad in the Dornakal Diocese (Now C. S. I. Karimnagar Diocese).

Progress was rather slow at first, but after about a decade the work gathered momentum. The backward Mala and Madiga castes first came under the influence of the Gospel, but later higher castes were also attracted. Today there are 10,000 baptised christians, 100 christian villages, 50 worshipping centres, 19 churches, 28 mission houses, 2 orphanages, 2 child care centres, 6 schools, 2 hostels, 3 hospitals, 4 ashram centres, one technical school and one nursery school. Bishop Gill retired after a fruitful ministry in 1924.

The fourth Bishop of the Diocese, the Rt. Rev. E.A.L. Moore, (1925-1937) was a missionary in Madras. He was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury and was welcomed to Kottayam with much enthusiasm. Bishop Moore was a bachelor of rather austere and ascetic habits, and far from taking a salary, put back his allowances into a diocesan fund. Diocesanisation progressed rapidly and a well - drawn up Constitution was passed in December, 1926 and came into force on 1st January, 1928.

Medical Mission

It was at this time that the medical work was begun in a systematic way. Bishop Moore started clinics in country boats called 'Floating Dispensaries' to take medical aid to out of the way places in water-logged areas, each in charge of a doctor. In one month alone we read that 2,000 patients were treated from one of these mobile dispensaries. They ran for about 20 years and thereafter discontinued. By that time small mission hospitals were growing up in different parts of the Diocese.

It was in Bishop Moore's time that the first two men from the backward Christian community, P.J. Isaac and C.I. Mathai, were ordained as pastors. By this time the diocese became fully organized with its diocesan council and standing committee with the several boards. The missionary conference was abolished and the several congregations in the missionary districts were brought under the district councils. The previously existing four district councils were sub-divided into nine, each with its own separate chairman. The retirement of Bishop Moore came, in the words of the Bishop of Madras, "after a long service in Madras, Tinnevelly and Travancore. He was a very fine administrator and a scholar but he was always anxious to keep in the background and avoid any display of his gifts''.

The Rev.B.C. Corfield, (1938-1944) a C.M.S. Missionary in North India succeeded Bishop Moore. He was consecrated as Bishop in St. George Cathedral, Madras on 18th October, 1938. His period roughly covered the years of the second World War. Within the country, nationalist feeling was mounting. There was unrest among the backward christians within the diocese and they were more politically conscious. They began movement for a 'Separate Administration' fearing the days when a more democratic regime would mean that they were over shadowed in the Church by their more advanced Syrian brethren.

In 1938, a deaf school was started at Pallom and in 1941 it was moved to a rented house in Tiruvalla. In 1951, a section of the Tholassery Mission Compound was given for the school and good buildings were constructed. The Sisterhood connected with Bethel and fore-runner of the Women's Order of the C.S.I. was formed. In 1944,a large group of women of the Church was admitted by Bishop Corfield as Associates of the Ashram Fellowship. There were about 500 members at the time of its inception.

Indigenous Leadership

In 1944 Bishop Corfield, quite unexpectedly, resigned as the fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Travancore and Cochin. Archdeacon C.K. Jacob was selected to the Bishopric, the first nonmissionary Bishop, and he was consecrated in 1945. Bishop Jacob was well known for his fervant life of prayer and his knowledge of the Bible. Besides, he had an intimate knowledge of the Diocese in all its parts and majority of the Church Workers were his students. His first Diocesan Council was memorable in that it was conducted for the first time entirely in Malayalam as well as the first under an Indian Bishop.

The Diocese under the Church of South India

The formation of the Church of South India, was one of the remarkable events in the History of Christianity. Bishop Jacob was the Presiding Bishop at the great service of Inauguration and Consecration of the new Bishops which took place in St. George's Cathedral, Madras. Bishop travelled extensively and it has been said that he put Travancore on the map of the world. Owing to his many absence from the diocese, he appointed the Rev. M. J. Chandy as his permanent commissary.

Bishop was keen on higher training and securing wider experience for his clergy. In spite of a continual clergy shortage, he sent pastors to minister Malayalees in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Bangalore and Singapore. In 1948 the newly - built Mothers' Union House, St. Monicas at Kanakkary was dedicated, together with a Girl's Guild Section.

In September, 1949, the Third Jublilee of the C.M.S. was celebrated in Kottayam. At that time the Youth Conference of the Central Travancore Diocese pledged itself to try to show its gratitude to God by committal to the same glorious evangelistic task to which the Society had been committed for the last 150 years. A Womens' Missionary Auxiliary(W.M.A)was formed in the diocese in 1950 with the aim of stimulating missionary interest, prayer and witness from our women. On Whitsunday 1952 an Order for Sisters of the C.S.I. was inaugurated in Bangalore. Consequently the Bethel Sisters became members of this Order.

In 1951 the diocese was divided into eight District Councils, with 65 pastorates and 364 stations. Church membership was estimated at 80,000. There were 56 diocesan clergy. 150 primary, 15 middle and 10 high schools were there under the Diocese. Though the financial position of the diocese had improved, it was not yet self-supporting. The 'Home Mission' extended its work in the Eastern Hills, and also along the coastal areas. During this period, there were nine medical mission centres in the diocese.

Under the initiative and able leadership of Bishop Jacob, the Third World Conference of Christian Youth was held at Kottayam in 1952. The Rajpramukh (former Maharajah) inaugurated the conference and it was attended by 300 delegates from various countries.

The youth of the diocese sponsored four young people and in 1954, they set out for Nagapur Diocese and established a mission at Patpara. But in due course because of various reasons it was discontinued. The year 1954 witnessed the centenary of the first ingathering in to the church from the backward classes. Sunday School work, always strong in the diocese, had at this time 18,000 scholars, including some non-Christians, in 365 centres with some 1,800 teachers.

Due to ill health, Bishop Jacob resigned in 1957 and in December he was called to his eternal abode. The church mourned at his death, that a great bishop, a true shepherd of his flock, and tributes to his outstanding life and leadership poured in from all over the world. The Rev. M. J. Chandy was appointed as moderator's commissary, and cared for the diocese faithfully till the new bishop was consecrated.

By the middle of 1958, the Rev. M. M. John, (1958-1974) the then vicar of Kanjikuzhi Pastorate, had been selected to the Bishopric. He was already well-known through out the Diocese, and had higher training in Canada. He was to be our first Bishop with in the C.S.I. and the first to be consecrated within the Diocese itself. In July 1960, the Peet Memorial Training College at Mavelikara was inaugurated on the upstairs of the huge old mission Bungalow where the Rev.Joseph Peet had lived and served from 1838 to 1865. In 1964, a second college was started by the Diocese at Mavelikara.

The College is named after Bishop Moore, a true scholar and an educationalist. In the same academic year, a high school was started at Olessa, and permission was obtained to open a high school at South - Puthuppally, a long-felt need of the Southern Pastorates. The following year a Technical Training Institute was started at Muttom, in the Melukavu District.

1966 was the Triple Jubilee year of the start of the work of the CMS in Travancore. The Diocese celebrated the Jubilee in November, 1966 and to commemorate the Jubilee, an annual convention was started at Kottayarn. Notable speakers from all over the world were invited and a large number of people attended the convention. The 10th session of C.S.I Synod which meets in turn in different dioceses, was held at Kottayam during the year. Another event of the Jubilee year had been the Golden Jubilee of the Youth Movement of the diocese, which was started in 1916. About 300 young people with their leaders attended the 50th Annual session of the youth conference in May and public meeting was arranged in the CMS College, Kottayam to mark the occasion. The conference decided to start a Youth Centre at Changanacherry and to send missionaries outside Kerala to work among the people, those who have not yet heard the Gospel.

The Diocese was divided mainly into two Zones-North and South Zones, and placed under two district ministers, Rev. C.I. Mathi and Rev. M.V. George respectively. During this period there were ten district councils, each district council was under the charge of a district chairman, a senior pastor.

It was in 1966, a section of the backward community led by Rev. V. J. Stephen, left the diocese and the C.S.I and formed a new church, known as the Kerala C.M.S. We can note that comparatively only a small section of the backward community had joined the new church, and the majority with ten pastors from the backward community remained loyal to the Diocese and C.S.I. In order to cope with the situation the diocesan executive committee appointed a development officer and an educational director from the backward community.

Assistant Bishop

The diocesan council which was held in October 1966, decided to have an Assistant Bishop, to help the diocesan Bishop in administrative matters, from the backward community. Rev. T.S. Joseph was selected the bishopric and he was consecrated on 1st July, 1967. It was a remarkable event in the history of the diocese, as Bishop Joseph was the first one, who came to this high position of the church from the Dalit community. As a result of his efficient and earnest work, the people who left the diocese and joined in the Kerala CMS came back in large numbers.

Andhra Mission

The diocesan Youth League had selected Mogulappally, a very backward village 14 miles away from Parkal, as their mission field which they named as Andhra Mission. The Rev. P.O. Ninan and his wife were the first missionaries and they went to the mission field in 1967. Today there are six centres with 31 christian villages, two missionary pastors and six church workers. There is one homeo hospital, one tailoring school, one typewriting institute. Here the work is mainly among the higher caste people.

Missionary Conference

District missionary conferences became a regular feature, organized by the district chairman and the missionary. The conference started with a thanksgiving service, then a colourful procession and in the afternoon a public meeting. To a great extent this missionary conferences helped to inspire the missionary spirit of the church and led several to commit themselves for the Christian work.

The Diocese observed the year 1973 as the 'development year' and Mr. K. J. John was appointed as the development officer. The Treasury of knowledge, celebrated its 125th anniversary in 1973, its first edition had come out in 1848. Likewise the youth publication 'Yuvalokam' also celebrated its Silver Jubilee, in the same year.

In May, 1974, Bishop M.M John retired after 16 years of fruitful episcopal ministry. Several educational institutions were started during his period. The Diocese developed and extended its work in various spheres.

He was followed by the Rt. Rev. T. S. Joseph, (1974-1981) the assistant bishop, as the 8th bishop of the Diocese of Madhya Kerala. He was installed in the cathedral on 27th December, 1974.

Professional Fellowship

A retreat was organised at Buchanan Institution, Pallom for those who were working in various institutions, on 9th August 1975. At the business session of this meeting, it was decided to form the Professional Fellowship and elected Rev. M. C. Mani as its president and M.C. Andrews, secretary. It was also decided to conduct zonal conferences once in three months. Today, it is one of the best organizations in the diocese, having units in almost all the churches. Professional Fellowship is publishing a monthly periodical named 'Atmaya sandesam' in which the articles are mainly contributed by the laity.

Frontier Mission

The Diocese began a frontier mission within the diocese and Rev. K. Michalel John was appointed in charge of the mission. It was a mission work among the people, who were living in the most backward areas. There were eight sisters to assist this mission work. Pallom and Kanakkary were the two centres, they had concentrated for their work. In each area about 1000 families were chosen to assist them in bettering their social, economic and religious life. The sisters used to visit the houses and teach the poor people how to manage their home, children and advise them what are the precautions they have to take to resist various diseases. The workers of the frontier mission also help the poor people to budget their expenditure according to their income and teach them to save a little money for their unforeseen needs.

C.S.I Ascension Sevananilayam

"Ascension Sevananilayam" was started in 1978 near Kottayam Medical College in order to help the patients those who are coming to the Medical College Hospital for treatment. It serves as a true resting place to the sick and the suffering with a pastor always available for their spiritual need. Those from far away places find this institution to be of immense help.

B.J.S.M Hospital

Bishop John Sashtiabda Purthi Memorial Hospital, Kodukulanji was inaugurated on 2nd April, 1978. It was constructed with the help of the Protestant Central Agency, West Germany and about 54 lakhs of rupees expensed off for the completion of the hospital complex. Though conceived as the nerve centre of the Diocesan Medical activity, it did not come up to expectation. Stiff competition and lack of medical personal were the causes for this as in the case of many other hospitals of the Dioceses.

Uttar Pradesh Mission

In 1980, the diocese celebrated it centenary at Kottayam. One of the notable decisions of the centenary was to open a new mission field in Uttar Pradesh in memory of the Diocesan Centenary and this mission is often known as the centenary mission. Mr.& Mrs. P.N. Ninan were sent as the first missionaries and they started their work at Qazipur in 1982. Today there are 3 missionaries to look after the mission vigorously. A school, a nursery school and a clinic are running in addition to the mission work.

The Rt. Rev. T. S. Joseph retired on 18th January, 1981 after successfully completing his tenure of 7 years as the Assistant Bishop and 6 years as the Bishop of the Diocese. A man of prayer and simplicity he shepherded his flock faithfully. Rt. Rev. M. C. Mani, (1981-1993) became the 9th Bishop of the Diocese and he was consecrated on 8th February, 1981 at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kottayam.

In order to help the poor and the needy, who came from various castes and subcastes the diocese started the 'Bishop's Discretionary Fund'. In 1981, a School for the partially Hearing was started at Adoor and is one of the pioneer schools in this field. This has developed into a full-fledged school. Another remarkable contribution of this period was the beginning of a Junior college at Melukavu. The College was named after the great missionary Rev. Henry Baker and it was dedicated and formally inaugurated in November, 1981.

Theological Institution

A Theological Institution was started in 1989 at Kottayam, the headquarters of the Diocese for the continuing education of pastors, evangelists and for lay training. The Diocese endeavours to build up a library and also an archives in Kottayam. Moreover, the Diocese constructed a Retreat Centre in 1991, where seminars and workshops for the clergy, evangelists and for the laity are conducted.

Bishop Rt. Rev. M. C. Mani retired on 3rd July, 1993 after 12 years of episcopal ministry and Rev. Sam Mathew was selected for the Bishopric. He was consecrated as the 10th Bishop Diocese on 1st September, 1993.

The main intention of this period was a spiritual renewal in the Diocese. Bishop urged his clergy and church workers to make their congregations active and lively. He instigated them to divide the congregation into small prayer groups, each group under the leadership of a lay leader and provided Bible notes to teach in these groups. All the organizations - Women's Fellowship, Youth Movement, Sunday School Union, Professionals' Fellowship and Choristers' Association are very active and vibrant wings of the church.

Renovation of the village churches, mission houses and development of the marginalised communities are to be the priority of the Diocese. Active support and co-operation of the people are needed to take up these issues. A Commission named 'Jerusalem Mission' is instituted to carry out a detailed and comprehensive study of all the churches in the Diocese to identify the needs and potentials. This can be the beginning of the attempt to revive and re-vitalise the church to cater to the needs of the present time.

Through out the diocese, Missionary Festivals are organized in order to inspire the missionary thought of the people. Tens of thousands of people with Bible participated in the rallies organised in the various districts of the Diocese. These Bible Rallies created new enthusiasm among the people and raise new challenges in the christian community. Besides, these district level rallies, where 25 to 50 churches come together for witnessing, bring down the ecumenical activity to the grass root level.

This Indian church looks forward eagerly to a time when the Gospel will bring perfect justice and peace among the people of India, and the whole creation with its fascinating divergencies will be united in the Salvation. It is primarily through the concern for the total humanity that the Church fulfils its mission.

DIOCESE AT A GLANCE
Baptized Christians: 1,50,000
Church Council Districts 11
Pastorates 103
Pastorates outside the Diocese 32
Congregations 382
Pastors 170
Evangelists 140
Hospitals 8
Educational Institutions 141
Colleges 3
Boarding Homes and Day Care Centers 17
Theological Institute 1
Mission fields outside Diocese 4

THE CHURCH OF SOUTH INDIA

When we look back into the pages of history, we can understand that how God guided and united this Church into one flock. The Church Union Movement in South India which eventually resulted in the birth of the CSI on 27th Sept. 1947, is one of the greatest miracles in the history of Christianity. After twenty-eight years of joint consultation in trying patience and fervent hope, the negotiating churches finally entered into an organic union. The Church Union in South India was also an answer to the effectual prayers of God's people in several lands.

Long before the dawn of the 20th century the need for mutual consultation and co-operation was keenly felt among the various Protestant or Evangelical Churches in South India. They included the Anglicans, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists. These denominations were so badly divided that they could present only disunited front to the people of other faiths. The lack of solidarity was very glaring and the denominational churches were quite ineffective in witnessing Christ. Under these circumstances, the need for united action and closer co-operation was felt very much in several quarters.

Missionaries in different parts of India felt around 1850 that they should meet periodically in conferences in the interest of their common work. Accordingly Provincial Conferences were held in major cities such as Calcutta (1855), Benares (1857), Ootacamund (1858), Lahore (1862), Allahabad (1872) and Madras (1879). With the spread of Western education, gradual growth of self-reliance and the spirit of independence among various groups, there came an urge for a united Christian Community, unhampered by denominational differences. The formation of the South Indian Missionary Association in 1897 was another development. The South Indian Missionary Conference of 1900 held in Madras brought together some one hundred and fifty missionaries representing some forty-five different missionary organizations.

By the turn of the century there were strong forces in the mission field in South India which were clearly working in a unifying direction. The founding of the Christian Literature Society, the Christian Endeavour Convention, the Y.M.C.A. (1890), the Student Volunteer Movement of India and Ceylon (1896), Indian Missionary Society (1903) and the National Missionary Society (1904), was of great importance, for these organizations and movements were instrumental in bringing together European and Indian Church leaders of different denominations on a common platform and for a common cause. Similar role was played by educational institutions such as the Madras Christian College, the Women's Christian College, Madras, the United Theological College, Bangalore and Jaffna College, North Ceylon. These joint enterprises in which several churches shared undeniably provided great impulses for union.

In India the organic church union was started in 1901. The first of its kind was a federal union of two Presbyterian missions in South India. In 1908, the South India United Church (SIUC) was formally constituted. We can say that, it was a union paving the way for a wider church union. The SIUC was an amalgamation of Presbyterians and Congregationalists.

In 1919, two or three of the Indian delegates to the National Missionary Council at Jabalpore conceived the idea of a Conference of Indian ministers to consider the question of church union. An informal meeting accordingly took place at Tranquebar in May, 1919. Those present were members of Anglican and South India United Church. Bishop V.S.Azariah and Rev.V.Santiago played a leading role. They decided to proceed further with the question of church union on the basis of Lambeth Quadrilateral. Lambeth Quadrilateral was a four point formula accepted for the church union by the Anglican Bishops in 1888, who used to meet together in Lambeth every ten years. The four point formula are as follows

a. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments,

b. The Apostle and Nicene Creeds,

c. Two Sacraments- Baptism and Lord's Supper and

d. The Historic Episcopate ( Episcopally ordained ministry ).

After the Tranquebar consultation, the churches officially appointed a Joint Committee. The first meeting of the Joint Committee was held at Bangalore in March 1920 and a Scheme of Union was drawn up. Further signs of encouragement appeared on the horizon when the Methodist Church entered into the negotiations in 1925. In the Joint Committee meeting held at Bangalore in 1929, an agreement was reached among the three negotiating churches that all their ministers should become, by the act of union, ministers of the Word and Sacraments in the United Church.

In the first phase of the consultation, the Congregationalists did not accept the Historic Episcopate and the theory of Apostolic Succession. The Methodists also demanded much importance for the ministry of the laity. Difficulties were faced from the Anglican side too. The crucial question of the balance of power between Bishop and the Synod created some problems, which, however, were tackled by the Joint Committee. Necessary changes were made in 1932 in the edition of 1929 Scheme of Church Union. Again and again revisions were made periodically in the drafted church union scheme. When the negotiations entered their third decade there was widespread weariness and pessimism "There seemed no end of revision and no sign of decision". In 1941 the Joint Committee came out with seventh edition of the scheme of union (which came the final scheme). The negotiating churches gave their approval. When this decision was reached, it was felt that the churches were ready to advance more definitely than before. By 1947, the concerned General Councils of the three churches, (SIUC, Anglican and Methodist) voted in favour of the church union and the way was now wide open for the inauguration of the union in September of that year.

India became independent on 15th August, 1947 and the bitter struggle for political independence ended. A new chapter was opened in the political scene of India and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister. The same year also witnessed the end of the long process of negotiations for church union. Thus the CSI was constituted by the union of the Madras, Madura, Malabar, Jaffna, Kannada, Telungu and Travancore Church Councils of the South India United Church; the South India Province of the Methodist Church comprising the Madras, Trichinopoly, Hyderabad and Mysore Districts; and the Madras, Dornakal, Tinnevelly and Travancore & Cochin of the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon. Bishop C.K. Jacob of the Travancore & Cochin Diocese was the presiding Bishop at the great service of Inauguration and Consecration of the new Bishops which took place in St. George's Cathedral, Madras. The CSI began with fourteen dioceses and a membership of 10,17,184 of whom 2,63,680 were communicants. The North Tamil Church of the SIUC which in 1946 decided not to join the CSI, joined the United Church in 1950. The Bombay Karnataka Council of the United Basel Mission Church in India joined the CSI in 1958. The Anglican Church of Nandyal Diocese which chose to stand outside the union in 1947, merged with the CSI in 1975. Today the Church of South India consists of 21 Dioceses covering entire South India and Sri Lanka.

This Indian Church looks forward eagerly to a time when the Gospel will bring perfect justice and peace among the people of India, and the whole creation with its fascinating divergencies will be united in the Salvation. It is primarily through the concern for the total humanity that the Church fulfils its mission.

Dioceses of Madras

The Diocese of Madras came into existence in the year 1835. After the formation of the CSI in 1947, it has become the oldest Diocese and the only Diocese situated in a metropolis, Chennai. The Diocese is enriched by the strong presence of all the 4 traditions that have come to the CSI. The richness of the Diocese is also exhibited through the Churches of several linguistic traditions of Tamil, English, Malayalam and Telugu. The Diocese is also one of the largest Dioceses comprising the city of Chennai and the Districts of Villupuram, Cuddalore, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Vellore, the Union of Territory of Pondicherry and part of Chittoor District in Andhra Pradesh.

The Diocese has a total Christian population of 2,07,576 members in the 888 congregations nurtured by a Bishop and 144 Presbyters, 640 Catechists, 33 Honorary Permanent Deacons, 50 Bible Women, 5 Women Workers and over 500 Lay Preachers. Over 33,000 children attend the Sunday Schools.

The first priority of the Diocese of Madras is Evangelism carried out through 98 Missionaries at present. The Department of City Mission had identified 6 rapid developing zones in the city and has drawn a scheme, "Sponsor a Square foot" to purchase land for future church buildings as the city grows.

The Educational ministry of the Diocese is carried on in 36 Pre-schools, 162 Primary and Middle schools, 39 High / Higher Secondary Schools catering to the needs of over 70,000 students. There are 37 residential hostels enabling children from the villages to continue to have their education in the high and higher secondary schools. There are special schools for the Hearing impaired, mentally retarded and polio victims.

Several innovative programmes such as Bridge Course, Advance Leadership Training for meritorious children are undertaken. The Diocese has successfully completed re-building of over 20 schools in the first phase of reconstruction at a cost of Rs.1.5 crores and is committed to complete the second phase of rebuilding 23 schools and 10 hostels.
The Healing Ministry of the church is carried on through the 5 Mission Hospitals and several rural clinics.
The Board for Socio-Economic Concerns have special programmes to take care of the needy, aged, mentally retarded, hearing impaired, Dalits, un-organised labourers, slum and pavement dwellers (Bethany) and street children. The Diocese is participating in the Decade for Girl Child Programme of the Synod. An exclusive programme for Mathammas (temple prostitutes) is envisaged.

The Rural Development Ministry has brought in over 200 acres of unused lands situated in the rural areas under cultivation by developing agriculture, animal husbandry farms. Organic farms are being introduced and farmers are given training in Organic Farming.

Equipping of the laity through theological education is the most important focus of the various ministries of the Diocese.
The Diocese undertakes ministries to the SeaFarers, Eunuchs, Women and children in distress (Counseling Department) Youth and Women. The Department of Liturgy and Music and Christian Tamil Literature contribute to the enrichment of the Life and work of the church.

The Ecumenical enrichment to the Diocese comes through various partner churches overseas especially the Diocese of Carlisle, The Diocese of New York, St. Peter's Church, Morrison, St. Albans, N.J. and the Uniting church in Australia.
We are thankful to our former Bishops who guided the Diocese. The Rt. Rev. Dr. V.Devasahayam is the present Bishop in Madras.

Present AdministratorsThe Office Bearers

The Rt.Rev.Dr.V.Devasahayam
Bishop in Madras and President-M.D.C
RES: 28115804

The Rev. Dr.Arun Gopal
Vice President M.D.C.

The Rev.B.J.Premiah
Secretary - M.D.C

Ms. S.Yesudial
Hony, Treasurer - M.D.C.

Rev.Manuel S.Titus
Bishop's Chaplain

Dioceses

Abbreviations of Colleges affiliated to the Serampore College, [University]: - For reasons best known to the author who edited this article, it is proposed that only Serampore recognized theological degrees be shown.

ACTC = Andhra Christian Theological College, Hyderabad

BC = Bishops College, Calcutta

GLTCRI = Gurukul Lutheran Theological College & Research Institute, Chennai

KTC = Karnataka Theological College, Mangalore

SATHRI = South Asia Theological Research Institute, Bangalore

SC = Serampore College, Serampore

TTS = Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary, Madurai

UTC = United Theological College, Bangalore