I am writing on the theme: The Ecumenical Journey of the Indian Church. The Indian church consists of almost thirty different denominations, most of which are members of the National Council of Churches in India. Since they are all at different stages of the ecumenical journey and hold very diverse theological positions and mission strategies, it will be difficult to reflect all their experiences in an article like this, however valid their experiences may be. I am personally sorry that I am unable to include in this article the experiences of the Northeastern churches but affirm that they are an integral part of the ecumenical journey of the Indian church. I have confined my observations to the mainline denominations of India, which have all-India experiences and involvements. I am happy to share my thoughts through these pages, mostly based on my memory of the events, people and experiences, during the last five decades, a period during which I served the church and the ecumenical movement as a full time worker in different capacities. I am not able to present an academic and well researched paper at present. I suppose there is no dearth of such writings, but dealing with the topic mostly through the perspective of ones own active involvement during a period of half a century will have its own values, and of course limitations. Hence with all its scope and limitations, let me offer my views on “The Ecumenical Journey of the Indian Church”.
Ecumenism has been understood popularly as a union of churches and also identified solely with ecumenical organizations like World Council of Churches, regional and National Councils of Churches, WSCF, YMCA, YWCA and so on and so forth. However, in recent years, it has dawned upon the churches and Christians that this does not reflect the original meaning of “Oikoumene”, the inhabited earth. This realization has led to some major implications for the praxis of ecumenism, such as inclusion of environmental concerns, unity of all religions, and the unity of humanity itself, which raises questions of justice, peace, life, human rights, etc. So the “journey of the Indian churches” should be seen in this wider understanding and this article attempts to do the same.
Ecumenical Orientation of the Indian Church:
The church in India has had a long tradition of ecumenism and also stands out as front runner in the ecumenical journey with the formation of Church of South India in 1947 and the Church of North India in 1970. We often forget the fact that Christianity came to India in an ecumenical form - in terms of One Church, socially conscious, open to all faiths and persuasions and affirming the unity of God’s creation. It grew in that spirit in spite of the divisions brought by denominationalism in the western churches. According to tradition, St. Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus, came to India in 52 A.D. and initiated a church there. It was truly ecumenical in the sense, it was not a denominational church and it had a very open and friendly relationship with the predominantly Hindu society. In feudal central Kerala, the society at that time was dominated by upper castes and hence the early church was very much upper caste in nature. However St. Thomas’s ministry was not confined to upper castes alone and particularly in Tamil Nadu it transcended caste barriers. So it was ecumenical in essence and in practice. Later on the post-Reformation missionary enterprise also was ecumenical in practice, though the carriers of the Gospel were very sectarian and motivation was more on denominational interests than ecumenism. Nonetheless there was some kind of co-operation and understanding between Protestant missions working in India from the very beginning. The work of William Carey in West Bengal and the establishment of Serampore College and similar developments bear testimony to this trend, though it might have been more because of practical considerations than based on genuine theological reasons.
The beginning of the twentieth century saw more organized efforts in ecumenism. The South India Missionary Conference in Madras (Chennai) in January 1900 was a major event in the Indian ecumenical journey. The Conference discussed various important matters of far reaching significance including the native church – its self-support, self-government and self-propagation. It also affirmed the Comity of Missions and the need for cooperation between mission bodies. It is very significant to note that as early as that period, the contextual nature of mission and the inextricable relation between Church and Mission were highlighted. Another significant development was the Ecumenical Missionary Conference held in New York in May of the same year which had 2500 participants and an attendance of 170,000 to 200,000 people. The word Ecumenical was highlighted “as the whole area of the inhabited globe (Dictionary of the ecumenical Movement pp 690). So the point I am trying to make is the fact that the Indian church from its beginning, had very major ecumenical input and orientation.
However the growth and history of the Indian church do not reflect these ecumenical beginnings. Along with churches elsewhere, the Indian church also got into denominationalism during the post-Reformation missionary era. The Roman Catholic Church took, and still holds, a very rigid position in keeping up the denominational status. It also maintained, and still maintains, a non-negotiable position vis-à-vis other religions. However the Roman Catholic Church has been more successful in living up to another ecumenical principle in that it transcended caste barriers and unified its membership under one denomination. The Syrian Orthodox Church (Indian), The Syrian Orthodox Church (Antioch-related) and The Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar are the ones who claim to be direct descendants of the Church established by St. Thomas. But they tend to remain exclusive both in terms of denominationalism as well as in terms of caste, language etc. They seem to be contended and happy in their world of “Syrianism” and are rather silent on issues of marginalization of dalits, women and such other sections of the society. These churches are very active in ecumenical organizations both in India and abroad, but the inner contradictions are very glaring. These churches have tremendous potential and have raised many outstanding ecumenical and national leaders. To name a few, Poulose Mar Gregorious, Poulose Mar Poulose (Chaledean Church), and Mar Osthathios. Today, there are a number of young Bishops who are making valuable contributions to church and society. Nonetheless, the majority of the membership of these churches are still entrenched in tradition, culture, rituals, out of context theology and church government. The Mar Thoma Church is different in that they try to accommodate both eastern traditions and western missionary zeal. While the Mar Thoma Church has grown and is growing as a major denomination in the world with professed ecumenical commitment, there are some major contradictions such as celibacy of the bishops (thereby implying that women, marriage and sex are not holy enough to be associated with the bishops), keeping women out of ordained ministry, identity with upper castes, etc. These positions affect their ecumenical credibility, particularly in the Indian context. They have produced outstanding leaders who made more of an impact on the ecumenical movement than on their own church. The ecumenical movement will always remember with thankfulness Dr. M. M. Thomas, Mar Yuhannon Mar Thoma, the present Metropolitan Mar Chrysostom, T.K. Thomas and several others. However, it is sad that these churches, with their great resources and rich traditions, are caught up in parochial, denominational concerns and interests and are not moving forward with the times, providing leadership without self interest to the church in India in its ecumenical journey.
The ecumenical inputs and experiences of the first century were recaptured and creatively channeled in the latter part of the twentieth century in India in a few significant ways. As mentioned earlier, the ecumenical journey involves the whole inhabited earth, which means - unity of all God’s creation. The implications are that the journey involves issues of justice, peace and life. In practical terms, the ecumenical journey in the Indian context is directly related to unity among churches and Christians, harmony and active cooperation between all religions, the church becoming a progressive movement towards the reign of God (values of the Kingdom) along with other religions rather than moving backward to fundamentalism and conservatism and engaging in inter-denominational and inter-religious fights and quarrels, but taking up issues of poverty, women’s rights, caste and such other issues of marginalization. I am happy that the Indian church has been able to move in that direction to a certain extent during the last century. For the sake of clarity let me identify three major aspects of this journey.
Church Union in India:
We all do understand that the organic union of churches is only a part of the ecumenical journey and not it entirety. But we also know that such unity is very crucial for the praxis of mission of the church and hence a very important aspect of the journey. In this respect, the formation of the Church of South India in 1947 and the Church of North India in 1970 remain major landmarks in the journey of the church in India, just as they are important events in the history of the Church Universal. Negotiations started as early as the nineteen twenties led to the formation of united churches in India, excluding the Anglican Church. They were the United Church of Northern India and the South India United Church. But the joining of Anglicans and the formation of CSI and CNI constituted a major breakthrough in ecumenical history. Four denominations joined together to form CSI, and seven denominations formed the CNI. While CSI allowed a period of thirty years for the unification of the ministry, a very crucial issue, the CNI was able to unify the ministry on the day of inauguration itself. This only shows that the Indian church was able to take advantage of the spirit of the times and move ahead. The ecumenical spirit was blowing strong at that time with the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948. The political freedom of India as well as many other countries also helped the growth of ecumenism. The future of the Indian church after Indian independence and the missionary task ahead were some of the major motivations which led to this critical development.
I had the privilege of being in the Synod of CSI as a youth participant in the latter part of the fifties, and I witnessed the struggle of the growing church, though I could not understand all that was happening. Many men and women of God played important roles in this union. Let me mention only the name of Bishop C. K. Jacob of central Kerala, who initiated me into full-time Christian ministry. In the formation of CNI, I could participate as the youth delegate from CIPBC (Anglican Church) on the Youth Committee of the Negotiating Committee along with Bishop D. C. Gorai, who represented the Methodist Church. The dynamics of intricate negotiations were new to me at that time. The CNI remembers with gratitude the founding fathers and mothers of CNI and I would like to mention behind-the-scenes hard work put in by the late Bishop John W. Sadiq of Nagpur. Of course, we cannot forget the active role played by Bishop Bhandare and several others. Bishop Sadiq had also played a very prominent role in the World Council of Churches and in the Anglican Consultative Council. I have not seen any other CNI leader, past or present, playing such an important role at different levels of the ecumenical movement as Bishop Sadiq did. So the ecumenical journey of the Indian church made history by organic union and formation of two large united churches. However, there has not been any further union of churches in India or for that matter anywhere else. The ecumenical thrust moved from unity of churches to the second aspect of ecumenism vs. justice, peace and life concerns. The emergence of marginalized people as a force to be reckoned with in the church and in society led to the affirmation the “local” and the “context”. There arose some kind of a suspicion of large corporate structures whether in the Church or in society. Today’s postmodern society is wary of superstructures and the days of monolithic, large structures are numbered, scholars say. The emphasis of union of denominations gave way to holistic mission, struggle for justice and social concerns.
Conciliar Movements:
In 1978, the two united churches—CSI and CNI along with the Mar Thoma Church formed a “Joint Council of CSI-CNI & Mar Thoma Churches in India”. It was a very farsighted move by the then leaders of the three churches. But from the beginning it was obvious that it would have only very limited scope and place in the life and work of the three churches. The churches had varying levels of expectation, as some thought this would lead to the formation of “The Church of India” while for others it was only another move to gain more foothold in the ecumenical movement. The role and place of the Joint Council when there is a National Council of Churches of India, was not well defined or articulated. So there were many ambiguities. The Joint Council took shelter in the concept of “conciliar movement” and made it clear that the organic unity of these three churches would not be the best course of action. So the council lacked a clear perspective and motivation. Hence it worked more as a paper organization with occasional meetings for 25 years, rather than as a movement for deeper ecumenical experiments. It was my good fortune to become the first full-time Secretary of this Joint Council in 1999. It was a wonderful experience though at times very frustrating. It gave me an insight into the internal dynamics of the Indian church and the lip service its leaders give to ecumenism. Of course there were many exceptions. The CNI under the leadership of the late Bishop Vinod Peter and the then Treasurer Rev. Enos Das Pradhan and others gave great encouragement and support to the Joint Council and also to me personally. The late Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Church Mar Alexander Mar Thoma also showed his gracious support. I was impressed by the commitment of some of the lay people involved in the Joint Council and their selfless service. Mr. .P. M. John of Calcutta is a good example of the leadership of lay people and it is in this that we see hope for ecumenism in the future. I was able to lead the Joint Council from stagnation to some sort of life by encouraging it to change the name to “Communion of Churches in India”. It was to raise the level of understanding of the Council from a mere organization to a sacramental understanding of the unity, affirming the God-given unity which already existed among the churches. The emphasis was to grow together in unity towards an authentic eucharistic community, rather than just do a few things in the name of unity. I hope and pray that the churches in India will recall the unity that was brought to us through the St. Thomas tradition and move towards regaining the original unity and simplicity in our church life and in the ecumenical journey.
Ecumenical organizations helping the Journey of the Indian Church.:
The National Council of Churches, the Student Christian Movement, the YMCA and the YWCA were all initiated in India from the early missionary period during the latter part of the 19th and the early part of the 20th century. These were initiated by the missionaries and supported by mission organizations. The NCCI was formed as National Christian Council and remained as a missionary enterprise till the 1970s when it became the National Council of Churches under the leadership of Rev. M. A. Z. Rolston, a CNI presbyter. This is a milestone in the ecumenical journey of Indian churches. The affirmation of church and mission as two sides of the same coin, the acceptance of the context as crucial in the life and mission of the church as well as the recognition of the coming of age of the Indian churches all were evident in this change of name. So far, historically the mission bodies were more or less the sole actors in the area of mission and the church was more involved in the routine church life. This separation of church and mission was brought to an end to a great extent, and the affirmation of the unity of these two tasks of the church was emphasized. The YMCA and the YWCA were both formed in the 19th century, motivated by a missionary concern to serve young men and women affected by the impact of rapid industrialization in Europe. Both played a unique role by opening up to members of other religious communities in India without aiming at proselytization. The churches did not look at this development kindly as the church always had seen interaction with members of other communities as a means for conversion to Christianity and nothing less than that. So the Y Movements got distanced from the church to a great extent. But the alienation from the church opened the YMCA movement particularly to the influence of ultra-conservative groups, so much so that the movement is in a rather confused state of affairs today. Many of us owe our Christian influence to Student Christian Movement. It was a major influence in the fifties, sixties and seventies. Our generation was much influenced by great people like Rallia Ram, Harry Daniel, Fred Karat and others. But the movement is much weaker today, thanks to our churches who, seeing the success of this ecumenical movement of students, wanted to capture it for denominational interests and unfortunately succeeded. Another reason was the growth of conservative groups offering God’s blessing and prosperity here and now and also hereafter. The Indian church failed to uphold a holistic understanding of faith as the leaders themselves did not have such an understanding. The leaders, many of whom personally knew how to intervene, chose the easier and more popular way to please all and to keep their personal popularity. I must also add that the leadership of the SCM went completely overboard with the ecumenical theology and did not steadily educate the membership in faith concerns. Several years ago some of us in the Urban Rural Mission used to have conversations with ecumenical leaders and I remember one such occasion when Emilio Castro, then general secretary of the WCC told us to be careful not to run too much ahead of our base as people at the base may mistake us as part of the enemy line and not part of their own side. This has happened in many ways in different situations and I am afraid SCM is one such casualty. All that we have today to offer to our student community is a choice between a conservative, narrow expression of faith on the one hand, and secular materialism on the other. At this rate the ecumenical journey will stop pretty soon in India and sectarian fundamentalism will become the order of the day.
The Indian church and the participation in the struggle for Justice, Peace and Life:
One of the central themes in ecumenism is involvement in justice, peace and life concerns. As we all know one of the major differences between ecumenical and conservative evangelical positions is the place of social involvement in their theology and praxis of faith. Involvement in here and now social issues is very central to ecumenical theology. Mission is holistic. Intervention, through preaching and action in the life of the world today, including dealing with structures and systems which control or influence life here and now, is central to faith. The conservative position, meanwhile, is basically focused on the other-worldly, with preaching and social action aimed at securing a place in the next world. So social action becomes a secondary concern and winning souls for the next world becomes central. Well, one should admit and appreciate that there are many levels of understanding and shades of opinion and experiences within the spectrum of these two positions. I would say that the Indian church has always been closer to the conservative position while actively involved in social action.
So there is a difference in the very perception of social action. The rise of ecumenical thought and action became prominent in the latter part of the last century. The Christian Gospel has always generated sympathy for the less fortunate. Such sympathy at the beginning of the missionary enterprise in India resulted in the establishment of mission schools, hospitals, orphanages, etc. and helped not only Christian converts but made tremendous contributions to the life of our nation itself. The modern educational and medical system, changes in some values and attitudes, and so on and so forth are results of such missionary involvement. Social involvement was mainly charity, to help the needy with the help of the rich, to uplift the marginalized with the help of the dominant. The basis of the success of the effort was the acceptance of the system as it was, rich and poor, upper caste and lower caste, male domination and suppression of women, etc. Of course, there have been some improvements all around as mentioned above and some major effects like the abolition of sati, a critical approach to the practice of dowry, some amount of opportunity for dalits and other marginalized sections including women to obtain education, etc. However, a charity-based approach could not make any major impact on the system. The Indian church basically was, at the turn of the century and for many decades that followed, an extension of the western denominations. Thus it was always at the receiving end, and as such had very little to do with decision making.
The situation changed after India became independent and the church found a new role and initiative with the formation of the united churches. There have also been major changes in ecumenical thought and action. The emphasis shifted from church union to unity of all humanity and later on unity of all God’s creation. The WCC Assembly in New Delhi in 1961, at which I had the privilege to be the youth delegate from CSI, was a major land mark in defining the unity between Church and Mission and emphasizing mission to six continents, thereby making the “younger churches” equal and responsible partners in the Church Universal. For the younger churches, particularly for the churches of India, poverty was not somewhere out there, but right there in their midst. Many soon realized that charity would not solve the problem, but that new and adequate structures and systems needed to emerge, so that a movement towards a more egalitarian society, one which dealt with the problem of marginalization, was possible. But this realization grew only gradually, and with the tension and conflict that normally accompanies change. The role of Urban Rural Mission in India in making this transition from a charity-oriented mission to organizing the victims and conscientising the masses to enable them to participate in the decision-making process, has been a gradual and difficult process. The CNI played a major role within it in many ways. The leadership came from both laity and clergy and eventually led to the formation of the CNI Synodical Board of Social Services, Health services, etc. However, the process was not very easy. During the Indira Gandhi emergency rule of the 1975-77, the social activists took a strong opposition against violation of human rights and dictatorship. Some Indian church leaders, being in the habit of supporting the powers that be, came out in support of the government, some others were disillusioned, and the social activists on the whole were against emergency. This was a major change in the ecumenical journey of the Indian church. The evils of the emergency and the anti-democratic thinking behind it became apparent only after the emergency ended and the people, in a democratic way, gave their verdict. The whole experience helped the Indian church to be bold in its mission, in its ecumenical journey.
During the years that followed, the journey took the Indian church towards a shift in emphasis, from charity to social change. The church became somewhat politically conscious. Movements of the marginalized - women, dalits, workers, the poor, children, as well as environmental concerns, all found space within the church. CNI has been able in many ways to give a great deal of support for such movements of the marginalized. I have found CNI, among the churches of India, more flexible and open to new ideas and opportunities. It is also comprised of people with fresh theological insight, practical wisdom and ability and courage to move forward. However, how such talents are used and how CNI defines its life and mission in the twenty first century is yet to unfold. On the whole during the last two decades or so the Indian churches have developed a number of societal programs ranging form charitable institutions to community-based engagements with the people. Funds are easily available for this purpose and hence power politics is bound to increase. Lack of theological clarity makes many leaders and programs lose the perspective and just be activists for the sake of action. The journey in this crucial area has been on for the last few decades and it is high time to stop and review the perspectives, direction and set new goals and involve a new generation of social activists.
Social involvement has become the ‘in thing’ today. However there is not enough theological clarity in the church in India about social action and in a sense there is very little effort in that direction. We in the church in India seem to be living with borrowed jargon and slogans from all over. We owe a great deal to outstanding Indian leaders like Samuel L. Parmar of CNI, P. D. Devandan of CSI, M. M. Thomas and such others who played very important roles in the ecumenical movement in the area of the church’s involvement in society. Individuals such as these were important for our developing deeper theological insights. However the Indian church could not follow up the task or come to grips with developing an Indian perspective on social involvement or the Kingdom of God. The very expression Kingdom of God is dear to many as it for them relates to the future heavenly abode prepared for them exclusively. For many others it is the reign of God where values like love, justice, peace, affirmation of life, harmony so on and so forth will flourish. They believe that the world is moving towards that goal and such a progressive movement of history will lead to fulfillment in the future. These positions reveal a number of fundamental issues related to Christian faith.
The first position is a static one and will resist change in all areas of life such as-economic disparity, social and caste stratification, male dominance, sexual orientation and other such values. They will not be willing to look at the Holy Scriptures with the help of modern scholarship and scientific methodology but will defend their position with all their strength. In fact they tend to become aggressive especially when they feel that they are losing ground. They will have no problem with social involvement but only with covert hope and desire to use that for conversion to the faith. They will accept the role of Mother Theresa but express anguish at the fact that she is not aggressive enough in preaching and converting people to the faith. At the other end of the spectrum we have social activists who are committed to the values of the kingdom and are motivated to sacrifice their lives for a “new tomorrow”. The beginning of this expression of Christian mission in India was in the late fifties and early sixties, under the CSI in Bangalore and in Durgapur under the then Anglican church of India. The Indian church historians will be doing injustice to the future generation if they fail to acknowledge the contributions of the stalwarts of this mission breakthrough—Canon Subir Biswas, Kenyon Wright, Harry Daniel, Paul Siromani in CSI and many others. It was started as industrial mission and at that stage there was only limited ideological or theological debate or articulation. The WCC encouraged this as a part of the Division of World Mission and Evangelism (later CWME) after the New Delhi WCC Assembly, where there was a major reinterpretation of mission. Later the Asian impact changed the name and scope to include in the movement urban and rural concerns as well. The National Christian Council of India (later National Council of Churches of India) included this emerging movement in its fold without defining the role and expectations which later led to some confusion. By the 1970s the movement spread to several towns and rural areas. While this article does not attempt to go in detail about the history of the movement, it is important to make a reference to major shifts in the life of the movement. There arose in the sixties an unprecedented debate on the global level on poverty, injustice, marginalization and the United Nations Development Decades ( a UN program) highlighted and gave this concern a major push. The 1968 Assembly of the World council of Churches in Uppsala, Sweden was a major spring board to the movement. The formation within the WCC, the Programme to Combat Racism (PCR) in 1969 and the Commission on the Churches’ Participation in Development (CCPD) in 1970, influenced and widened the scope and arena of social activism as a whole in the world and all these made a major impact in India. By then Asian Christians were already getting awakened to united action to engage in seemingly hopeless fight against feudalism, onslaught of capitalism, neo-colonialism, dictatorship and abject poverty and a sense of betrayal by the ruling class. Christian Conference of Asia formed in 1957 as East Asia Christian Conference played a very major and unique role in promoting this movement. All this led to a search for ideological under girding and many Indian Christians turned to Marxism for that purpose and were able to develop comradeship with many other people from different faiths or of no faith and the search was intensified and social action became a major factor affecting and influencing the journey of the Church in India. This leftist orientation and the confrontational posture of the social activists created many tensions and conflicts with establishments including the church and many carry the scars of such conflicts with them even today. Mention may be made of our own CNI social activists in this context like Rajendra and Shashi Sail of Raipur, late Rev. Bilas Das of Calcutta and several others. The church of India should take note of the harsh experiences such people had to undergo and should include them in church’s journey though at times their unorthodox behavior and conflict orientation may be found difficult. The church should be a place where those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness can come and feel at home and the church should avoid becoming a club where only like-minded are welcome.
We had a glimpse of the two extreme ends of the spectrum of social involvements. I must hasten to add that a majority of social activists and programs fall in between and with different levels of understanding. Some are confused about the perspectives, some are searching for meaning to the actions they are involved in and yet others are comfortable to be activists though they may not have any particular theological or ideological frame work for a holistic involvement. Such a situation may be comfortable to deal with now, with many staff, enough finances, activities, but might in the long run prove to be counter productive and defeating the very stated purpose. Hence there is need to develop theological and ideological perspectives in the given Indian situation. In terms of the vision of the Kingdom of God we can go from Isaiah’s vision (Isaiah 65) to Marxist ideas or to Gandhiji’s Rama Rajya concept. While there are differences between all these, there are many similarities. One of those is the emphasis on radical systemic and structural change. The systems and structures do play a very major role in our ‘becoming’. Hence the sole emphasis of the ultra evangelical position that if human beings change, everything will be alright and so personal conversion is the only answer, is not tenable. Human beings cannot change unless the structure and systems are conducive to the change and help the process. However to advocate waiting till the structures and systems change to deal with human beings also is not adequate. There is need to help people to transcend their structures and systems by making them aware of the possibilities and conscious of the weight of structures and systems which keep them under bondage. The faith in ordinary people to be subjects of change and of their own history and destiny is a major emphasis in this process. The church must become powerless and be with the people sharing their powerlessness and along with them depend on the power of the powerlessness of the cross. All religions end up being in the power struggle and need authentic search to recapture their basic and core faith elements. There has been a lot of work done in this area in Latin America and in Europe. The Community Organization methodology developed in USA became very popular in URM circles and in India also. While there are many things to learn from all these experiments, the social activists should remember that the cultural milieu of India is different from Latin America or Europe and we have to adopt the concept and make it an Indian strategy to deal with our problems. We cannot copy either the methodology or expect the same outcome of another situation. We have to look back and learn from our history, particularly of the missionary era. So as the Indian Church is now getting more and more involved in the life of the people, it has to develop its own theological insight and ideological frame work, rather than just following the pattern set for us by mission boards or the new incarnation of them as development agencies for meaningful and creative engagement in the life of the nation and for the exercise of Christian mission. We, both traditional and progressive Christians, have so far only copied ideas and methodology from other parts of the world and have not worked out our own. The church leadership has only presided over this confusion and has not been able to mobilize our own resources to meet the challenge of the times. I would at this point add that we are living in a global village today and ideas and experiences travel freely and at times lose their original identity. But we have to remember that the emerging post-modern trend calls for “local” and for experiences to be authentic and contextual. In this new era, “out there” monolithic structures and centralized systems, including those of the churches will be called to question. So why wait, why not start the process and be in the forefront of the journey now?
Inclusive and Contextual in the Ecumenical Journey:
I have no hesitation to include in the St. Thomas tradition of the church in India, the early church’s inclusive character and contextual approach to theology and church governance, as part of our heritage. I have also no hesitation to point out with all respect that the Kerala churches who in a sense exclusively claim the St. Thomas tradition are not contextual or inclusive enough. They seem to think that being traditional is to cling to the past rituals and recreate past environment in the present. There is still debate going on as to whether St. Thomas actually came to India or not. This debate is mainly to prove the Apostolic succession which is a futile effort in all respects. The true sense of traditional is to uphold the important values of the past and apply them to the present in a form and way so that they will be properly understood and to move on with the times under God recreating, renewing, rediscovering and reinterpreting faith, order, mission and the priorities as the Holy Spirit leads His Church in this world. That is the way the heritage is to be understood and applied. As far as the contribution of the modern missionary movement to the Indian church in the area of understanding the context and being inclusive, was minimal. The missionaries by and large saw our situation and determined that we were living in darkness and failed to interact with living religions of India but outright dismissed them. So they plucked us out of our context, culture and religious faith. This might have been inevitable at that time but the Indian church could not break away from that trend even today. There have been some exceptions and efforts were made by some missionaries themselves but with limited scope to deal with Christ as unique and “crown of all religions’’. Some Indian Christian leaders also attempted to explore this area but could not get encouragement from the mission churches of the past and sadly even from the National churches of the present. The outstanding contributions of Dr. Stanley Samartha, in this field is admired by many but not pursued diligently. It still remains as a past time of certain professional theologians. As Christianity grew in a predominantly non-religious part of the West with no living religions to relate to, the missionaries who came from that cultural setting lacked the insight to deal with living faiths of India and when encountered the popular religiosity of the masses, they mistook the entire expression as evil and power of darkness. This made them eager to ask the converts for complete and total breakaway form their religion and community and in many cases changing names, moving out of the community etc were encouraged. The Hindu community which had already experienced militant and forceful conversion at the hands of the Muslim invaders did not take the rather mild persuasive tactics of the Western missionaries seriously. Moreover the helpful and service-minded involvement of the Western missionaries was appreciated and conversion was tolerated. In fact many among the Hindus were fascinated by the Gospel preached by the missionaries and their powerful yet passive disposition. But they were put off by a Western Christ, they saw being presented. May be the Church Universal missed a wonderful opportunity for a major breakthrough of the Gospel of love with far reaching theological and missionary implications not only just in India but in the whole world. So the journey of the Indian church was not an ecumenical one in this respect and it was a lonely one in a religiously fertile soil.
However, the 1990s saw major challenges to the Church from both militant Hindu groups as well as from several quarters including serious minded Christians. Having led somewhat an isolated journey so far, more or less within the mission compound, the Indian church is unable to face these questions. No one can justify the atrocities against Christians during the last decade or for that matter against any one or any community by another community at any time. It is to be dealt with legal and other lawful recourses jointly by all those who believe in human rights, religious freedom and equality of all citizens. In fact the minority communities are able to survive and exercise their rights and privileges today only because of the support of right thinking members of the majority community. The trouble makers are only few but they are motivated with hate, political ambitions, personal or local issues. Nonetheless, such situations ought to help us in our retrospection as a religious community. Where have we gone wrong? Have we been able to show forth the love of Christ to the people of India? Christians often forget the fact that Christianity share the characteristics of Judaism and Islam and belong to the broad division of religions into “Desert religions” and “Riverbed Religions”. Christianity being a desert religion along with Islam and Judaism share the common characteristics: one God, revealed scriptures, organized congregations, corporate worship, dogma and heresy as well as missionary zeal. The Riverbed religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and so on are quite the opposite and do not have the same characteristics. So it seems that aggressive evangelism came to the church through a cultural influence mixed with human weakness to lord over others, much against the posture and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. He showed us a unique way on the Cross but our journey took us away from the Lord’s teachings and hence we hear in the world today Christian nations and conservative leaders speak of “preemptive attack” “hunt and kill the enemy ” and such language and expressions even in the name of Christ. The words of Gladys Stains standing in beside the bodies of her murdered husband and children, forgiving those who committed that heinous crime and asking the authorities to do the same sound even today as the best proclamation of the Gospel than all the preaching of the Church. Why the church is different from this? Is there a way to get back to Jesus? Are we preaching and teaching an exclusive message in the name of Christ? Where are our priorities? Where are we headed for in our journey? These are foolish questions as the church, the body of Christ, who had no place to lay His head is the second big landowner next to the government of India, legal battles of churches and Christians are no secret, churches’ institutional power and meddling in politics are well known, high profile Western evangelists and faith healers project Christian faith in India for the common person so on and so forth. As long as we have so much power, influence, resources and self-interest, our claim to the uniqueness of Christ will be met with unhealthy competition, hostility and even ridicule. The uniqueness of Christ is a misrepresented and misunderstood concept in a predominantly non-Christian but religious India. The church assumes the role of dispensation of salvation, whatever it is understood to be, excluding the majority of our people from the Love of God by our attitude, pronouncements and actions. The church has to reexamine its faith expressions in all humility, and redefine mission, salvation, and the Kingdom of God. The church must live out the Gospel of Love here and now in India.
Moving ahead in the Ecumenical Journey:
The Indian church, when compared to churches elsewhere, in spite of many setbacks, has every reason to feel happy about its achievements during the past almost two thousand years, especially during the missionary era and since the formation of the united churches. Though the spirit of ecumenism was there from the beginning, it matured and started to bear fruit during and after the formation of the united churches. In all identified areas of ecumenical concern, the church in India has made great impact, standing out as a major contributor to ecumenical thought and praxis. The Indian church unions still stand out as practical examples of ecumenical life and witness. The journey from being recipients of the charity from the rich and powerful countries to active and prominent leadership in the struggle for justice, peace and life has been a difficult but worthwhile journey. The involvement of the united churches with marginalized sections like Dalits has been a major breakthrough in the journey of these churches. There is a long way to go in this regard, without forgetting the need to be vigilant in the area of feminist struggle. One area where the journey is yet to begin for the church in India is its approach to other living faiths. That is a process that will help bring about a renewed understanding of major Christian themes in the context of India.
In this article I have tried to point out certain hurdles in the path of the ecumenical journey of the Indian churches. Such hurdles were not of anyone’s making but were inevitable in the historical process. In the area of church union, the United Methodist Church withdrew at the last moment from negotiations to form Church of North India, for reasons best known to them. However, one of their bishops preached a sermon in January 1970, at St. Thomas Church in Nagpur, during the final meeting of the Negotiating Committee, comparing church union efforts as a repetition of the Babel experience of the Old Testament. I recently heard in the US, a similar thought being expressed by ultra conservative Christian leaders. As there seems to be a comeback of such unthinkable views and an increase in the strength of conservatism and fundamentalism all over, the Indian church in its journey should take a note of these elements and their influence in the world today. However, it is important to note that the days of organic unity of churches have passed. In the postmodern climate, the major denomination and large establishments have become outdated. Local and congregational influence will be on the rise in the years to come. As I have mentioned earlier, this demands a different strategy for the Indian church. The ecumenical task is not to create superstructures of ecumenism, but to encourage genuine unity at the local level. So far ecumenism has survived with national and international organizations, world conferences, etc. out there - far away from the local context, making it possible for church leaders to make excursions into ecumenism. Now the pattern will change, whether we like it or not, and local efforts and participation of ordinary people will be the new strength of ecumenism. In this respect the role and place of “Communion of Churches in India” also will have to be examined, its future mission and ministry. CCI, in my humble opinion, should recognize its limited scope and direct its attention to the experience at the local level, the Eucharistic unity that already exists within the churches. In practical terms, as no one has succeeded or will succeed to bring in some sort of understanding between the three churches even in terms of establishing congregations within the area of another church, it is better to give up those kinds of hopes and aspirations and instead, mobilize as far as possible local memberships to come together and experience and celebrate the unity that exists. This may particularly help the CSI and Mar Thoma congregations to come out of their shells and be part of the ecumenical journey wherever they are placed. The need for such a breakthrough is much needed in our major North Indian cities as well as in the USA and Europe. The CSI and Mar Thoma congregations live in isolation and fail to be part of the scene. The Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Church, Mar Chrysostom, expressed his strong views against the existing pattern of church life of these congregations in a recently published book: Mission in the Marketplace. But the tragedy of the situation is that even his own clergy and members are oblivious to such ideas and life goes on as it was in the beginning. The credibility of the leaders and their views unfortunately gets affected in this process and our vision for the future gets blurred. So there is a need for rethinking of the strategy of the ecumenical journey in terms of unity of the churches.
The second area, as we have already seen, is the unity of all God’s creation which in practical terms includes issues of justice, peace and life. We have seen that the very motivation for the emergence of the ecumenical movement was a deep felt desire for the spread of the Gospel. But under the guidance of the Holy Spirit it grew in depth and width, including in its fold all of God’s creation and the movement of society towards the Kingdom of God. The movement was also influenced in the course of history by emerging theories and scientific revelations from time to time. These insights made their manifestations in different and unorthodox ways, creating tension and conflict. Attitudes to the Scriptures, to evangelism, church governance, mission and such other fundamentals of the Christian faith and practice, started to change. While the church as a whole saw the emergence of secularism in England and the writings of G.J. Holyoake a disturbing factor in the mid nineteenth century, by the middle of the twentieth century secularism found its place in major Christian thought and writing. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous German theologian, saw secularization as an expression of the adulthood of the world and commended it. Harvey Cox, who made tremendous contribution in the field of Church and Society in the more recent past, affirmed it as coming of age of humanity. The positive approach to such emerging thought and insight opened the gates of the ecumenical movement as well as those of some major denominations in such a big way that the flood of fresh thinking became a major threat to many. Hence we saw the emergence of fundamentalism during the early part of the twentieth century in the US claiming to be in the tradition of the Reformation, making a case for a return to the fundamentals of the faith. It got quite a bit of support and took different forms. The present fundamentalist onslaught, thus, had its beginnings in the Christian circles. The fear, suspicion, exclusiveness, tension, conflict and eventual hate and violence, all had a good and sincere beginning. This phenomenon is easy to spread, since it finds fertile ground in the individual hearts and minds of people. We are all victims of such fear and suspicion, with our own exclusivity and self-centeredness. The corporate expression of this fear and suspicion is found in capitalism, caste and race exclusiveness, discrimination, power politics, the present forms of globalization, and so on and so forth. The implications of such a polarization are worldwide. We in India also are involved in it. So social involvement and participation in the struggle of the marginalized, whether they be poor, or dalits, or women, must be a conscious choice for each one of us as well as for the church in India. I suspect that the major motivation towards social involvement for at least a few in church circles in India is easy availability of funds, along with the desire to do some good. There may be some with less honorable motives. But church people are basically good, albeit possibly lacking in theological or social wisdom. The experience of the CNI a few years ago to organize a major consultation process involving all the major sections of the membership on “Towards a Holistic Understanding of Mission’ under the leadership of Bishop Anad Chandu Lal was a worthwhile experience. It may not have led to any major change but definitely contributed in raising relevant issues and struggling with the answers. I hope the church in India in their journey will take stock in such ongoing efforts and be always engaged in thinking, formulating and setting goals and directions. We need not be too worried about the western church’s practice of attaching labels to different approaches to Christian Faith. We have to develop our own style and praxis. We are one as a family and hold together all views and learn from each other without mutually excluding each other but building on our deep rooted Indian spiritual inclinations.
The third major area as already identified is the relation to other faiths. Because of a strong mission history, the Indian church has not been able to break new grounds in this area. However the present situation demands major and substantial discussion in all humility and openness. The voices that plead for this aspect are feeble and often get side tracked. The Indian church has a major responsibility and ability to meaningfully and creatively explore this area. There are many keys available to open this dead lock, some of them being the question of poverty and the common concern and search for meaningful answers, the place of women, caste and ethnic issues, etc. which may lead to rethinking the major theological issues such as Salvation, the uniqueness of Christ, Mission, Evangelism etc. The beginning has to be grounded in issues related to everyday life, rather than academic and philosophical concerns. The down-to-earth concerns will add an urgency and common experience and will be less polemical. We have in the Indian church enough leadership to engage in this effort. Many of our good theologians and able leaders seem to spend time and energy in useless and unproductive pursuits which only add more conflict and division. Such resources should be used for worthy purposes.
In closing, let me once again affirm the unique history and the exciting possibilities of the Indian church in the ecumenical journey. Church union was the beginning and the motivation was Mission. But the journey took the Church Universal as well as the Indian Church through unchartered but exciting journey to explore and to experience deeper unity of all God’s creation. These are exciting times and there are unlimited opportunities to move ahead. It is only prudent to set the priorities right so that the time and resources could be spent in the most useful way. That is my wish and that is my prayer.
