The Church of Christ

(Based on the Word of God; dedicated to the promotion of independence, Indianisation, unity, co-operation, and to the removal of corruption and evil in all forms and in all places.)

A Needed Prayer for Today

Let the earth and the water, the air and the fruits of my country be sweet, my God.

Let the homes and marts, the forests, and fields of my country be full, my God.

Let the promises and hopes, the deeds and words of my country be true, my God.

Let the Lives and hearts of the sons and daughters of my country be one, my God.

— RABINDRANATH TAGORE

What Church?

‘I would be quite ready to be baptised, but then I must be baptised into on particular church. As I am at present I can mix freely with all my Christian friends, for they know that I am a Christian at heart. But once I commit myself to one particular church, members of other churches will look askance at me,’

This we, in effect, what a friend said to me the other day. I have known him for some time. He is what everybody would call a Hindu, but his religion is very largely Christian. Christ is the centre of his life, the Bible his first book. He does not just talk, but does things; he goes out to serve the poor for Christ’s sake. What am I to say to him? Am I to try to persuade him to accept baptism at my hands or at the hands of some priest of the denomination to which I belong? I have been thinking much about this, and now this is what I want to say to him. As he is a reader of Epiphany he will perhaps be interested to read it.

One Church: You are making a great mistake in thinking that there are many churches, but there is plenty of excuse for you, for many people think in the same way and on the face of it they seem to be right. But in truth there in only one Church and can only be one. We all confess this truth when we recite the Creed: ‘I believe one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.’ You must let me try to explain to you what that Church is. You think that the Church is an organisation founded and kept going by men - indeed that is what it looks like from the outside. No one can deny that as an organisation it is hopelessly divided. Some Christians claim that their particular organisation is the whole church and that all others are outside the church. But this attitude is rarer than it used to be - it is so palpably untrue. Even the very exclusive Roman Catholic Church, since the Vatican Council, has ceased to take up this position. It is probably only found now among certain fanatical sects. But many hold that their church is the beet and that others are more or less defective, and so their sense of superiority makes them very conscious of their separation from their Christian brethren.

The church has an organisation but ite organisation is not its foundation. Its foundation is Jesus Christ Himself. It springs out of Him and every great truth about Him has some bearing on the nature of the Church. Let us take some of these one by one.

1. The Incarnation. Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. He is the new Adam in whom the whole race of the old Adam is being made new. The Church is therefore that new human race recreated in Him.

2. The Atonement. Jesus Christ died on the cross to reconcile man to God and to free him from sin. The Church is the society of those that have been reconciled with God, whom God was accepted as righteous in Jesus Christ.

3. The Resurrection. Jesus Christ rose again from the dead on the third day. He is the Resurrection and the Life and has completely triumphed over death, so the Church is the society of those who have risen with Christ and are already living, even in this world, a life which cannot be destroyed, eternal life.

4. The Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ promised to send another Advocate to His disciples. This happened on the Day of Pentecost, which is in some respects the birthday of the Church. So the Church is a society inspired by the Holy Spirit, living by the power of the Spirit in the midst of this world.

5. Son of God. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Father. So the Church is the family of those whom God has accepted as His sons in Christ, who have therefore been reborn.

6. The Coming. Jesus Christ is to come again to judge the living and the dead. The Church is a group of men and women who are waiting for His coming. They live in this world, but this world is not their home. They are foreigners and pilgrims here, their true citizenship is in heaven.

We could go on expanding this list, but we have said enough to show what the Church really is. From its very constitution in Christ it is one and cannot be divided into many fragments.

A Visible Church: Some might answer. That is all very well, but what you are talking about is the invisible, mystical Church. Let us have a purely spiritual Church and do away with all the worldly organisations which people call churches. I can hear may friend saying, ‘I already belong to this invisible church.’

But how can the Church be invisible when it consists of very visible men and women? Christ did not find an invisible Church but chose twelve men of flesh and blood whom everybody could see and sent them out to preach the Gospel and to be the nucleus of His Church. Everyone could see them and the converts who accepted their preaching. Moreover, He told them to perform two ceremonies, Baptism and the Breaking of Bread. These rites have to be performed by visible men and women assembled in a visible congregation in a particular place. For this purpose a society has to be organised, men have to be appointed to do things. There have to be some rules. Money has to be collected and administered. All this involves organisation. The Church must have an organisation if it is to exist in this world.

But the constitution of the Church does not rest on these things as in other societies. The reality of the Church springs from its relationship with Christ. Each member of the Church must first come to Christ, believe in Him, be accepted by Him, be reborn in Him, receive His life and be filled with the only Spirit. The ceremonies of the Church bear witness to this. Baptism administered to each individual speaks of a new birth and a cleansing. Holy Communion speaks of Bread from Heaven, and a new life. The Laying on of Hands bears witness to the unseen Lord directly supervising His church. The Church is not man-made but Christ-made. It springs out of what Christ is and has done. Every individual must come to Christ by personal choice; once he has come and Christ has taken him and put him right with God, Then he hears Christ saying to him, Behold your brother, your sister; you are not individual disciples but members of my family. We do not make the Church, but we accept the Church as an existing fact when we have come to Christ. The foundation of the Church is not in its organisation but in the direct link of every one of lie members with Christ.

There has been no break in the life of the Church since the day of Pentecost. There have always been men who are sent by God (apostles), shepherds appointed by the Good Shepherd, teachers and other people specially set aside to lead to serve the Church, but the Church is not constituted in their external succession, but in a continual direct connection of each member with the unseen Christ. The ministers cf the Church are appointed by the laying on of hands with prayer (ordination), but each ordination is the direct action of Christ in His Church. There is one Church, because, as the Apostle Paul said, there is ‘one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.’ The Church is the Body of Christ and Christ cannot have many bodies nor can His body be divided.

The Church misused: The Church has had a long history in this world, and in many ways it has been a glorious history; what a record of holy lives, heroic deeds and faithfulness unto death! But it has also had its shameful side. Man has misused the Church, tried to turn it into a human organisation after the pattern of the organisations of the world. The most awful things have been done in the name of the Church and the has led to the divisions which we see.

But man cannot divide the Church itself, only the outward organisation of it. We have to learn to look below the surface of these so-called churches and discern the one Church which is there all the time. Too often men have taken the church organisation with which they are familiar and supposed that that is God’s plan for His Church and have expected everybody else to conform to that pattern. Rather what we should do is to watch for clear evidence of the mind of Christ and the activity of the Holy Spirit and learn to adapt ourselves to His pattern.

So I would say to my friend. If you really desire to receive baptism, you must receive it at the bands of a minister of some denomination, but it is not he who will baptise you but rather He in whose name he performs the rite, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. You will not be baptised into any man-made organisation but into the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ. You will have to see your name recorded in some church register, but that your name is written there is of no importance. What matters is that your came should be enrolled in Heaven (Phillipians 4:3) in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelations 21:27).

Finally, I would say to every Christian who reads this, Endeavour to obtain a true vision of what the Church is. We are engaged today in schemes of reunion which are aimed at bringing together the divided organisations which call themselves churches. All this will be in vain unless we are also advancing to a deeper understanding of the true nature of the Church. We need to realise too what a stumbling-block wrong nations of the Church can be one who is seeking Christ.

— The Epiphany August 30, 1969. (Leading article).

The Mystical Body of Christ and the Present Denominations

(Continued from the previous issue No. 2, 1970)

It has been asked - “Is there any Christian who can produce a single text from the Scripture in support of our present denominational system?”

No, the present denominational system is not fully scriptural nor is the present unitary Church so - Roman or Anglican or Orthodox. The way the denominations have developed and come to the present state cannot be supported by scriptures. Human system, whether democratic or unitary, is really alien to the life of the Church - the Body of Christ. But men, being imperfect should organise as best as they can in the changing world always remembering that the main task of the Church is fellowship, worship, witness and redemption. The fellowship of Christ is a spiritual movement endured with the power of the Holy Spirit using organisation and wealth for divine purposes and always ready for change and leap forward. But denominations as branches of the Vine of the Church of Christ or as limbs in the Body of Christ - the church - are legitimate. In fact, they are natural and inevitable. How can the Vine bear fruit, or be a Vine at all in a meaningful way, without the branches and how can the Body function without its members? Through natural growth the Vine will branch off - the Body will decentralise into limbs and organs. Then they will function fruitfully. The Church is composed of human beings and because of their sin not fully controlled by the Holy Spirit, much that is merely human has entered into the building up of the Church - exclusive discipline, prohibitive barriers, pride, prejudice, claim to absolute truth, unwillingness to cooperate or to fellowship. Similarly, those Christians who claim to be organically united under episcopacy and apostolic succession have also committed mistakes in the development and conduct of the Church. They have shown intolerance to those have differed from them instead of harmonising difference in the love of Christ, have become authoritarian in disciplinary and governmental matters and in theological interpretation instead of exercising humility and in fear of God respecting human dignity and personal liberty. They have punished and exterminated without discrimination saints who were at the time supposed to be unorthodox and heretical without realising the depth and breadth of Christian Truth and the multifaceted nature of the Christian way of life. The result has been inevitable succession all through Church history.

Hence, both the orthodox churches and the invalid denominations have both missed the bus. The remedy is the confession and purging the sins of both parties and the recognition by mother churches of denominations as different legitimate branches of One Holy Catholic Church and acceptance by the denominations of the apostolic nature of the Church of Christ - its orthodoxy and catholicity. Union is not the answer. The Church is organic indeed as Vine with Branches and as Body with Limbs. She is not by nature or essentially organisational or administrative. The external and visible organisation will differ in form from age to age, from clime to clime, race to race according to climate, culture, spiritual heritage, social and political conditions, and the genius of different peoples.

There are many texts in the Bible supporting this view of the true unity of the church. The High Priestly Prayer of our Lord in the 17th Chapter of St. John is a plea to his Father for unity of the heart and mind in love among his disciples. Our Lord’s comparison of the church to the Vine and the Branches (St. John 15) and St. Paul’s definition of the Church as the Body of Christ with different members (1 Corinthians 18) should be enough conclusively and clearly to prove that the N.T. envisages a church with unity in diversity and diversity in unity - never a uniform monolith or mono-branch church.

The authoritarian uniform Roman Church is the religious counterpart of atheistic dictatorial communion. The ultra-protestant sects like the Pentecostals, Seventh Day Adventists, Baptists, Quakers, Salvation Army etc. are like the numerous national monarchies, republics - sovereign and exclusive in their own way. The solution for true unity lies with the middle placed churches. Will they recognise and exercise this sacred privilege?

In this connection, it is significant to understand how God saved His Church from Judaistic narrowness nod authoritarianism (as represented by Jerusalem Community) by raising up Paul through his Son - Jesus Christ. The Jewish Church was so dominantly ruled and moulded by Law and tradition of men instead of by the commandments of God that it lost the capacity as a church to receive the Dispensation Grace, and the blessings of freedom from law through Jesus Christ whom only a few individuals accepted.

There was a rarity of polity, ministry, mode of religious and social life in the Early church - All united by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. Why, after the apostolic times, an Order of recognised Apostles has not arisen in the different communions needs to be reflected on and investigated into. This unity of love - this spiritual and social fellowship - was rigidly bound and transformed into a formal ecclesiastical unity using the conceptions of the Roman Empire and Roman Law since Constantine. This tragedy of mixing up the affairs of God with those of proud and powerful man has been the root cause of the sinful aspects of the divisions of the Church. Through wise counsel under the guidance cf the Holy Spirit it is possible to revive and recover the apostolic unity of the spirit binding visibly the various branches of the One Church.

— (Concluded) R.C. Das, Varanasi.

A Bishop’s Letter

My dear Friends,

We are living in the Church season known as the great forty days referred to in Acts 1:2-3, when our Lord showed Himself alive to His disciples after His passion by many infallible proofs, and spoke of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. He also prepared them for His return to glory and the coming of the Holy Spirit who lives within us and makes Christ contemporary to each believing Christian. Christianity does not mean the cult of a dead hero. It is surrender to a living Christ who helps us by being the inner principle of all our living. The Christian life is the life of Jesus Christ at work in the members of His body the Church. The emphasis is not on our efforts but His power exercising itself in those people who commit themselves to Him. The real scandal is caused by the half committed Christian who nominally accepts Christ but disobeys His teaching on fellowship, self-sacrifice, forgiveness or marriage. These people make it worse by presenting Themselves even at the Holy Table and thus bringing themselves into the condemnation which our Lord clearly makes of the hypocrites. The hardest things He said were against the hypocrites, who pretended to be religious while denying God’s deepest laws of love and obedience. The man who cannot believe, for example St. Thomas at one stage in his life was treated very tenderly by our Lord, but the hardened and insincere person, who pretend to believe and would like a coat of whitewash by occasionally putting in an appearance in Church, will have to face a very stern judgment because they make the little ones of Jesus to stumble and constitute a scandal. This is a call to us to live the Christian life sincerely. Sincerity is the test of religion. Let us move forward by the grace of God in Christian love committing ourselves wholly to the Lord Jesus who will give us the power we need. All the time we shall need repentance and faith warmed by prayer. The Joyous Services of Easter were most uplifting. Let the joy bells continue to ring in our hearts as we go forward to the glorious festivals of the Ascension and Pentecost.

Let us always remember in times of stress that we are called upon to listen very carefully to what God is trying to teach us in the midst of our sufferings or difficulties. The listening ear is what we need as we say our prayers. Christians are under judgment just the same as anybody else. We must resist the temptation to be petty, gossipy, jealous or aggressive. None of these things has anything to do with Jesus Christ.

Wishing you every blessing and asking for your prayers,

Yours affectionately,

LAKDASA, CALCUTTA

Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan

Calcutta Diocesan, Magazine. May 1970.

An Example of Local Ecumenism

A report of the Madras Christian Council of Social Service has come to my desk. Founded in 1965, the Council has been engaged in the work of encouraging “the expression of Christian love through social service by parishes, Christian organisations and individuals.” Most of the important Churches and Christian organisations of Madras are represented on its Council, which has Archbishop Arulappa and Bishop Newbigin as joint chairmen. The Council has already to its credit a good deal of pioneering in the field of social service by way of service to the slum dwellers, organising a mobile milk canteen, a programme of Hospital visits, Training Course for volunteers in social work, collections for wells in Bihar, and for flood relief in North Bengal and North Bihar, and a growing fund for Emergency Relief. And their plans for the immediate future include a project to help the Corporation in supplying water to the slum dwellers, the organisation of a Convalescent Home and a Home for Beggars suffering from leprosy. As a cooperative Christian effort in meeting the needs of the neighbourhood in local situation, the Council is a laudable expression of ecumenism. Ecumenism must become local if it is to be made real. And the fact that it is not an inward-looking activity as most ecumenism tends to be, but a going out of the Church into the larger society is doubly welcome. Of course if they are taking their work in the city slums and among the city beggars seriously, they will eventually have to take Corporation politics more seriously; and one hopes that the Council will not withdraw at that point. I wish the Council every success in their work and hope that Christian churches in other cities and towns will follow their example of ecumenical effort in the service of the neighbourhood.

— M.M.T., Guardian.

Ten Reasons Why We Reject Unity Proposals

1. The Movement for Church Unity is unevangelical in its nature. This is freely recognised and candidly acknowledged by its leaders who have been at pains to denounce evangelical “fundamentalism” while seeking to woo evangelicals to their side. This was shown clearly at the 1964 Nottingham Conference when the Rev. John Hustable openly attacked a specially invited group of evangelicals on their belief in the full inspiration, authority, reliability and verbal accuracy of the Bible, and their insistence on the substitutionary, and expiatory character of the death of Christ.

   The evangelical has no intention of being steam-rolled out of existence. He believes that his doctrine of an Infallible Word, the Sufficiency of Holy Scripture as the absolute and only guide to eternal life and godliness; the teaching of Justification by faith alone in the atoning blood of Christ as the sole means of everlasting life, and the eternal retribution to be visited upon the finally impenitent, and the bare minimum of the Christian gospel, and cannot be surrendered without surrendering the entire Christian religion and destroying the Church.

2. The Movement is Romeward in its ultimate aim No one any longer takes the trouble to bide this. The enthusiasm with which the leader and most of the rank and file attend Roman Masses, and the adulation now paid to the Roman Pontiff and to big officers, must be set beside the repeated declarations by the Pope sad his spokesman that Rome has no intention of abating one title of her claims to be the One True Church to whom all others must come, and to whose Sovereign Pontiff, as the successor of Peter, and the Vicar of Christ on earth, and the sole and infallible arbiter of Christian doctrine, every knee must bow.

3. The Movement is built on the dangerous fallacy that a religious monopoly would be a good thing for the word. It ignores the fact that Europe has had this kind of thing before, and groaned under the tyranny of a religious dictatorship for a thousand years. The Reformation blew this tyranny to shreds, end liberated powers of mind and conscience from which Europe and world are still reaping the benefit. A religious monopoly means in the end, the rushing of all who will not conform, and a denial of divine right and duty of dissent.

4. The results of Church Union, wherever tried, have proved disappointing Great things were promised for Scotland in the Presbyterian Reunion of 1929, and of the Methodist Union in England, but the result is now known. Closing churches (by the hundreds), dwindling membership, empty Sunday schools, and the increasing worldliness and indifference of the churchgoers, is the consequence. The only people who are gaining ground are the Roman Catholics (by immigration from Ireland) and the Mormons.

5. Much of Church Union talk is double-talk The Anglican refuses to recognise the “order” of either Presbyterian or Methodist. Episcopal re-ordination and confirmation are demanded as the bare minimum for this “reunion.” The traffic is all one way. The keyword of this unity movement is always “surrender,” and surrender, in most cases, to the successors of the very people who originally created the disunion by thrusting from them those who in conscience could not and dared not conform.

6. These who unite with Rome are due for a rude awakening As the Anglican treats the non-conformist end his “orders,” so the Romanist treats the Anglican whose orders and episcopal succession he fundamentally denies. The Anglican must be re-ordained before he will be recognised by Rome as a true priest. Moreover, he will be required to dismiss his wife to a convent, withhold the cup from the laity, believe in purgatory, accept confessions, worship the Virgin, supplicate the saints, fill heaven with mediators, and accept complete mental and spiritual domination by the Sovereign Pontiff of Rome.

7. The end of the road for the Church Unionist is to be united to the foulest, bloodiest, and most corrupt institution history has ever known The end of the road is Rome, and Rome is all that this heading indicates and more. Even now, in Protestant England, Rome is largely an alien church with an alien religion. She builds her churches cut of the proceeds of drink and gambling. On her own admission (see Douglas Hyde in the “Universe”) she furnishes to the courts a calendar of criminals out of all proportion to the numbers of her adherents. Why in traditional R.C. countries like Italy, France and Latin America, Communism find such a prolific breeding ground?

8. Church Unity will make no real impact upon the world Contrary to the ideas expressed by unity leaders, the world is not waiting for Christianity to settle its problems and unite. This unity is itself a symptom of the surrender of the mind to the materialistic forces which are destroying the earth. Modern materialism stops from the same unbelief which has banished faith in the Bible from most of the Christian world. The church is playing the world’s game when it seeks a unity which depends upon the surrender of the Bible.

9. Organic unity in the Church is an impossibility The Holy Spirit has managed very well without it in past times. As long as the human mind is what it is, it will be impossible to run all thought into one mould for any length of time. A completely united Christendom today means a new nonconformity tomorrow. The only guarantee of liberty and progress in any sphere - religion, politics, and or science - is the existence of dissent. The destruction or elimination of dissent means the destruction of knowledge and liberty.

10. The Evangelical has bigger issues to face The corporate unity of Christendom is NOT the burning issue of these times. The real issue is the survival of the truth - that is the assertion of the Holy Scriptures of Old and New Testaments, as the Divine Word, exclusive, unique, verbally inspired (for there is no other form of inspiration possible), the Christian’s only and all-sufficient rule of faith and practice. On this basis the evangelical will unite with any person who sincerely hold to the historic and apostolic Christian faith.

— Reprinted from The Contender, Australia. BIBLICAL WITNESS, May 1970.

Does This Mean Nothing to Us

(HARIJAN CHRISTIANS IN THANJAYUR)

By Ralph R. Keithahn

In March the Gramden Servoday movement entered the Thanjavur Districts. Three fourths of the people hare signed documents placing their land into village ownership. “Signature Campaigns” a step forward in the right direction may become revolutionary.

Gramdan work is now going on in all Tamilnadu districts; I often wonder why Christians are not by our side! This is the Gandhi Centenary Year! Bishop John Sadiq of Nagpur very recently pressed an address in the Cathedral as Nagpur saying, “Since this day in Sevagram I have become a humble though faltering pilgrim on the path of non-violence. But greater than me have followed that path involving suffering which I have never tasted and sacrifice that I have not made … It was at Sevagram that I learnt then, and have been learning since, what our Lord taught so clearly when he said. The life of man consists not in the abundance of things which he possesseth … I wonder if we ever thank God that 80 percent of our people live in villages. I am sure that ultimately the true strength of a nation will lie not in the number of steel mills, and overcrowded suburbia, but in a life lived close to nature and its healing run invigorating power … Dr. Stanley Jones … says, This new India has inherited its soul from Mahatma Gandhi; and its symbol is Sevagram; and it has inherited a body from British imperialism, and its symbol is Delhi.”

Let me not quote further. My good friend, Bishop Sadiq, has struck a very important note to which we must be sensitive in the building of the new humanity. What hurts me in that I do not find the Church by our side when we go into these areas of activity.

One of my Christian friends and co-workers is walking in Thanjavar at the moment. He writes, “When I visited a Harijan Christian village they complained to me against the practice of untouchability; even among the Christians, Paraya Christians are not treated equally. They are telling me that they are thinking in terms of becoming Muslims since there is no untouchability among the Muslims. Even Shankarrao Deo was shocked when he saw the poverty of the Harijan Christians.”

Every one of us ought to be ashamed about such conditions. I have seen Christians in similar conditions in Kerala, in my own Tamilnadu in all of it districts, etc. I shall never forget the evening, several years ago, when doing reconciliation work on a political platform in Tiruvalla, a Harijan came to my side and quietly said, “I am a Christian. I am on this Communist platform not because I want to be but because I feel our only hopes are here. Please tell this to the Church leaders; if we find hope there, we certainly shall be in the Church tomorrow.” How often I have repeated this to Church leaders, to my Christian brothers and sisters and to myself. Why do we go on baptising people into this kind of situation? If this is Christianity, if this is the Church, then I want nothing more of it. I am too old to join some other group or organisation or religion. I can understand the troubled conscience of my beloved friend, Dr. E.F. Paton, He has joined another section of Christianity. For me that is not a solution. My obedience is to Jesus Christ who had no place to lay his head. I believe in the “Body of Jesus Christ” and shall always seek that Sabha that tries to relate itself to these circumstances. However, I shall never cease to cry out against those so-called followers of Jesus Christ who “add house unto house and field unto field” until there is no place where our brothers may live any more!

Do we realise that most of these Harijans in Thanjavur district do not even own the land on which their houses are built? That is why they live in partial slavery. This is true of many, many Christian families in Kerala even today. Perhaps our Communist friends have done more to change these conditions than have we Christians.

The followers of Gandhiji have entered Thanjavur, They are concerned about this terrible evil of untouchability. Does this mean nothing to us!

The report is that “Shankerrao Deoji was shocked when he saw the poverty of Harijan Christians.” All of us ought to be shocked. I remember several years ago when my Bishop was shocked by seeing practically naked members of his Church in nearby hills. I do not know whether we have done anything about it. If not, way not! I am constantly shocked when I go into the villages and see the terrible conditions of my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ our Lord; but we go on building houses that cost thousands of rupees in urban areas. How many Christians waste thousands of rupees on the education of their children while their neighbours children in the villages do not have enough food to est. How can our Bishops and Church leaders go on talking about building Cathedrals when our village Christians are in such conditions as these! Does this mean nothing to us!

If this is the Church of Jesus Christ, then let me have less and less to do with it. Let me concentrate more and more on discipleship to Jeans Christ who walked the paths of Galilee, bringing some kind of relief, comfort, inspiration, courage and strength to the very needy. I constantly remind myself that His disciples were not from the homes of the privileged but from homes of fishermen, tax-collectors - from common people. It is true that nothing less than His crucifixion could shock them out of their mediocrity. Nevertheless, they suddenly knew that Jesus Christ was alive, and they went out to “turned the world upside down.” The world is turning us upside down today! Are we worthy of this Christ of Galilee! May this poverty and degradation of our brothers sisters in village and slum stir us into some kind of action.

— GUARDIAN

In Memoriam

1. Bishop K.C. Pillai

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors, the staff and fellow believers of The Way Incorporational I am privileged in paying tribute to a dedicated man of God, Bishop K.C. Pillai.

We first met the Bishop in the spring of 1953 when he came to Yan Wert, Ohio and was in our home and in our church for a few evenings. His vast knowledge of the Orientalisms and customs of the Bible so impressed us that I asked of him the privilege of sitting at his feet, and working with him through the Bible on all the Orientalisms, customs and mannerisms. Some few weeks after our first meeting he returned to Van Wert, and for a period of six weeks he taught me every Orientalism that he could observe from Genesis 1:1 through the Book of Revelation.

Personally I will always be indebted to this great man, but will all the followers of The Way ministry across the world, for the basic things that the Bishop taught me I have taught to others, and it has helped all of us greatly in the right dividing and understanding of God’s Word.

The Bishop was for years harassed and persecuted by the National Council of Churches leaders. Why, I was never quite able to figure out except that he was on Indian, and coming to the United States touching us the great accuracy of God’s Word was apparently contrary to the image the National Council desired to reflect.

Since the year 1963 the Bishop was a frequent visitor in our home and on our teaching stall. Both of his printed volumes on Orientalisms and culture were edited by Way graduates. Hundreds of his teachings are in The Way Tape Library and among other Way believers. The Way magazine has for years published his articles.

Bishop K.C. Pillai was like a diamond …

… a precious stone of enduring quality, great value, renowned for its beauty and strength. With a great spiritual quality of integrity and continuity of purpose his dedication to the accuracy of God’s Word and its presentation was par excellence. There is perhaps no one in the entire world who has a more comprehensive knowledge of the Orientalisms and customer in the Bible than the man from India who had been born and raised in the culture and the background of which the Bible is a part.

His native tongue was Telugu and the Bible he read with me was in Telugu, Being a highly educated man he was capable of reading with me from the Rig Veda and the Hindu Holy Books of India in the Sanskrit language, and we explored and resolved many apparent problems in the Word of God from his academic and intellectual point of view.

Not only did we find the Bishop a fine scholar and a man dedicated to the teaching of Orientalisms and customs in the Word of God, bus we also found him throughout all the years a most courteous and outstanding guest. He was always gracious and kind. He was a man of culture. He had a great love for India and the Indian people and very especially the Christian believers. He was dynamically interested in an All-Indian Federation of Churches, owned, operated and run by Indians rather than a foreign group of missionaries, theologians, or Council of Churches. Wherever Bishop went he was always at home, whether among the top echelon of the ecclesiastical world or among scholars in our universities or among believers in a humble little Pentecostal Church. Wherever he went and wherever he spoke, he always impressed people with his love of The Word and its accuracy.

The Way ministry and the believers in our country have lost a great light which truly is “costly in the sight of the Lord.” Mrs. Wierwille and I have lost a dear friend. Today the Bishop is lying as rest in Birmingham, Alabama. He departed this life on February 10th, 1970; the next moment for him will be the moment for Christ’s Return and our Gathering Together unto Him. This assurance of the redeeming love of God is a hope to which we who love the Lord look forward. But in the meantime our impressions of this man of God shall always remain a spot in our hearts. With him, we experienced great truths in the Word of God, with him, we loved deeply, with him, we believed profoundly, with him, we accomplished many purposeful ends which have blessed people around the world in The Way ministry and beyond.

— Victor Paul Wierwille.

2. Dr. Forrestor Paton

Death has removed from our midst one of the foremost missionary heroes in India who enriched the life of the church by selfless service to the nation. To Dr. Paton who early in life saw an exacting vision nothing was more compelling than his absolute loyalty to it. He had brought to its realisation his own immense resources in a most instilling manner. What Dr. Jesudasan as Periyanne and himself playing a more and more self-effacing role the team pioneered in establishing an Ashram on Indian traditional lines. This experiment strengthened considerably the beginnings of a new enchantment with the culture and spiritual heritage of India on the part of the rethinking Christianity groups, domestic and foreign. Absence of colour consciousness coupled with innate genuineness and sincerity impelled Dr. Paton also to seek identification with the political cause of the Indian people. It was this trait of identification which was so unobtrusive and sat so lightly on him that drove him to participate in the national struggle as an ordinary volunteer. His own experiences at the hands of the police enabled him to counteract the false propaganda that the authorities were behaving decently with the satyagrahis. His public statement not only proved to be a morale booster to the movement but also was an eye-opener to many innocents in England as to the nature depth of Indian nationalism and the futility of brutal measures to stem its sweep.

Selfless humanitarian service and simple piety characterised Dr. Paton’e rich life. It is true complexities and corruption of power and the shared nature of responsibility in sin and crime make a nonsense of simple virtues. The Ashram movement and the rethinking groups have generally extolled simple virtues, non-realisable absolutes and the glorious spiritual past at the cost of the rough end tumble of the immediate secular with its dirty options in the political felt for striving for a better tomorrow. Whatever that be the contributions of missionary greats of the stamp of Deenabandhu Andrews still Bishop Pakenham Walsh, Dr. Paton, R.R. Keithan and several others of the last generation have to be gratefully acknowledged by the church in India. They reveal the much tiredness and rich variety that committed lives can bestow in service to the poor. About Dr. Paton it may be safely added “there was a true Englishman in whom there was no guile.”

— E.V.M., Comment - Guardian - MAY 14, 1970.

A Noted Preacher Turned Down

A church was in need of a pastor. One of the deacons wrote the following letter, as if he had received it from an applicant, and read the letter before the pulpit committee:

“Gentlemen: Understanding that your pulpit is empty, I should like to apply for the position. I have many qualifications that I think you would appreciate I have been pleased to preach with power and have some success as a writer. Some say that I am a good organiser.

Some folk, however, have some things against me. I am over 50 years of age. I have never preached in one place for more than three years at a time. In some places I have left town after my work caused riots and disturbances, I have to admit that I have been in jail three or four times, but not because of my wrong doings. My health is not good though I still get a great deal done. I have to work at my trade to pay my way. The churches I have preached in have been small, though located in several large cities.

I have not got along well with the religious leaders in different towns where I have preached. In fact, some of them have taken me to court and have violently attacked me, physically.

I am not too good at keeping records. I have been known to forget whom I have baptised. However, if you can use me, I shall do my best for you, even if I have to work to help with my support.”

After reading this letter to the committee, the deacon asked if they were interested in this applicant. They replied that he would never do for their church: they did not want an unhealthy, contentious, trouble making, absent-minded jailbird. They then inquired as to the name of the applicant and received this answer: “The Apostle Paul.”

— Extract - Courtesy - THE CEYLON CHURCHMAN, The Guardian, 1st January 1970.

The Preacher

A youth from other town recently preached in a church nearby. He spoke proudly and in detail that he was a recent convert from a rich family in the north and that he had great success in “getting people right with God.” The manner of this young men’s speech showed that he wanted, consciously or unconsciously, to prove to us that he was “somebody.”

Who are any of us to use God for the purpose of building up our own ego? It is certainly a truism that most of us human beings feel uncertain about our own value, and yearn for the approval of God and of our fellows. This ailment of human beings requires careful, penetrating consideration.

We must think about it logically, back to its principal premise. Why should we be unsure of ourselves? Jesus told us plainly that our spirits and God are one. If we believe Jesus we dare not feel insecure.

Uncertainty about our own worth is a characteristic of many of the conditions of man - youth, poverty, failure to accomplish what we set out to do, and many other factors. The first problem before us is to discover the reason for our uncertainty, for our feeling of inferiority. To do so requires long and deep consideration of our own mental processes. But to spend time on this matter is of utmost importance because this ailment effects our behaviour. We are not truly Christian until we have discovered why we do not believe Jesus when he told us that we are one with God.

If we are followers of Jesus sincerely we are obliged to arrive sincerely, without any delusions, at the state of mind whereby we honestly feel deep within ourselves that our inner beings are one with God. When we arrive at this conviction our inner insecurity, with its disastrous effects on our personal relations with people, will disappear.

Many of the sin’s people commit are due to their feeling of, inferiority. No one wants to feel inferior; everyone’s dominant desire in life is to feel equal to our fellows. It is because of this desire that many of as spend much of our thought and action in trying to prove to ourselves and others our personal dignity. We do strange, sinful things to prove ourselves equal. We take offence easily and quarrels often result; we exaggerate our worth by our words and actions and thus lose our creditability; we spend money we need for necessary things for things that make appear prosperous; we like to recount the mistakes of others because thereby we prove to ourselves that we are better than the person we are describing or addressing; we try to advise people because we must prove ourselves that we to wiser than they are. So many wins we commit because we do not really believe Jesus when he said, “I am in you, and you are in me” (John 17:21,23. Editor).

But worst of all our sins is the pride by which we feel _we have made others “right with God_.” This is using God for a selfish purpose.

Who are we that we can judge that other people are “lost” and need “saving”? Not one of us knows enough about another person to know his spiritual condition.

And how can we ever be lost from God? God is never absent. Else he would not be God.

Our task is only to recognise God within ourselves and act accordingly. We will then have no need to justify ourselves to others.

MANORAMA RAMKRISHNA MODAK,
MODAKWADI, AHMEDNAGAR, MAHARASTRA

The preacher referred to, if correctly understood and reported, must be a bigot and a spiritual egotist. There are, unfortunately, many such in that field. We are indebted to the esteemed and eminent writer (widow of the late Bishop Ramkrishna Sahu Modak - who was President of the All India Federation of National Churches) for bringing to our notice in this pointed way the all too common malady in our preaching in India.

With due reference to Mrs. Modak, we make a few comments in view of possible misunderstanding and misconstruing by some readers of her language. The italics are ours.

1. Christ never taught that our spirits and God are one, or we are one with God, our inner beings are one with God. What he said is “I (Jesus) and my Father are one (John 10:30). Normally the term ‘one’ in this connection will mean”identical.” This oneness is ontological and refer to ‘being’ or substance. Now, we men being creatures made by God the Creator and Maker cannot be one with Him in “substance” or “being”. If it is meant to be “union,” then we can have union with God when the only hindrance ‘sin’ is purged, and we are forgiven by God. But Christ - the eternal Word - the Creator of the world is one with or equal to God in substance. This supported by and taught in Scriptures and authoritatively affirmed and expatiated in the creeds of the Church. So the language of our correspondent is misleading and confusing.

2. We - imperfect men cannot make others right with God. That is the prerogative of Christ who gave His life for sinners on the cross and paid the price for salvation. But those who have been born again through the Lord’s grace can help by their personal experience sinners find the Saviour.

3. We have no authority to judge or condemn, others as sinners. In fact, we are forbidden by our Lord to judge others. (Matthew 7:1-5). But the children of God who have had the new life in them have a right to warn in love. That is an important part of true evangelisation. Believers and disciples of Christ who are baptised with the Holy Spirit are given the power of discerning other spirits (conditions of other men’s spiritual life) by the Holy Spirit. Judgment is reserved by God in Christ.

4. We cannot be lost from God in a metaphysical sense. God is the ground of all existence and upholds in His mighty will and power all things that are - both good and evil. He is in everything and everything subsists in Him. But in a moral sense He is absent from sin though not from sinner. He does not concur with sin. He disagrees and disapproves, and even hates sin. The sinner is lost in the sense that he rebels, is and separates, from God in his sin. This is the sinners moral absence from God with Whom he has ceased to be in loving fellowship. To be sure, God is metaphysically (spiritually) present everywhere but His will withdraws, disavows, divorces and disapproves but always in love. Even when He warns through punishment He does it in love. A simple illustration from ordinary family life will help in understanding. A wicked disobedient child physically and even mentally is in the family and the family with him. But in spiritual and moral fellowship he is rejected and lost among the other members especially alienated from the parents. Because the others do not approve and cannot participate in his sinful life.

5. We can recognise God within ourselves only when our internal eyes are opened i.e., our hearts and souls are purified by God’s grace. Christ says “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8). “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man cometh to the Father but by me.” (John 14:6). We shall have no need to justify ourselves to others when we have come to the Father and known Him through the Son. But there is always need to testify to our justification by God amongst others because the evil world is too blind and hard. Even our Lord and His apostles had to speak loud and hard to warn the disobedient and rouse the sinning.

— EDITOR

My Mission

    I am a Christian: Catholic in spirit,
    protesting against evil.
    I see the Eternal Christ in each devout soul,
    My mission is to share the gift of the
    Jesus of Nazareth with those who
    have experienced the Christ in their own way.
    I take the prayer,

    "Thy Kingdom come,
    Thy will be done;
    on earth as in heaven" seriously

    And have found the "Gramdhan Sarvodaya"
    Movement (Vinoba's Land-Gift Movement):
    the most effective for me in realising that prayer.
    I am not so much concerned as to where
    My comrade is
    in the great pilgrimage of life,
    as to his growth towards maturity.
    I consider the nurturing process
    of prime importance in home, temple and community.
    Gandhi taught us not to seek privileges
    but duties:
    "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.
    And all will be added unto you. (Jesus)
    I seek your prayers that His will
    may be done in this 1970 pilgrimage.
    I consider this
    the most potential era of man's development.
    I have faith in the coming into being of "noorsphere"
    (Teilhard du chardin and of "Superman", Aurobindo Ghosh).
    But I don't close my eyes to the barbarianism of
    modern man. I am convinced there must be
    non-violent revolution overdo "One Humanity.",
    Western Democracy is insufficient;
    it "divides the house."
    Modern Christianity is inadequate;
    it does not take Jesus Christ seriously.
    We must move on to a now union of "Spirituality and Science," (Vinoba).
    This will help you to understand why I am committed
    to frontier living at every point of human experience,
    convinced with Gandhi that all this is impossible
    Without "a living faith in Truth (God)."
    May we have precious moments together.

— Guardian 16-4-70, Ralph Richard Keithahn.

Notes

A. Shri Sriprakas on Indian Christians

In our last issue No. 2, 1970 were reproduced “some observations on Christians in India” made by Sri Sriprakas of Varanasi, ex. Governor of several States. We sincerely hope that Christians will be grateful to Sriprakasji for his sympathetic ideas and will take them to heart. They deserve their respect and attention.

With due reference to the distinguished citizen of India we may be permitted to make one or two comments on his attitude to Christ. We can understand the position of those who do not believe in the cult of personality. We also appreciate be statement that be regards Jesus as one of the greatest spiritual leaders of all time. He regrets that innumerable miracles surround his life. Yes, it is a fact that his whole life is full of miracles - spiritual, moral, physical and natural. In fact, if the miracles were omitted his life would be reduced to almost nothing except that his teachings would be there. But is not the teacher - his character and person - greater than his teaching? Who can respect a teacher with defective character giving high teaching? Then be further remarks that the miraculous part of big life is not helpful to us “because such miracles do not happen in our lives … then Jesus and his life are of no value to us.”

It has to be sorrowfully admitted that since about the 4th century miracles have largely disappeared from Christian life and the Church has neglected one of the greatest gilt of the Holy Spirit which was definitely given to believers and the church as a whole by God himself through his Son vide St. Paul’s First Letter to the Church of Corinth. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself commanded his disciples “to heal diseases, cast out devils and raise the dead.” There has been loss of faith especially in modern times due to raise of materialism and misunderstandings between science and religion. Sriprakasji is right in saying that miracles are not necessary for the growth of true Christian life. Miracle is a natural by-product or a concomitant of intense faith. But the church has not lost the gift and power altogether. We all know that after Christ his immediate disciples - and the apostles particularly - performed great miracles. There have been scores of believing disciples down the centuries in whose lives miracles have happened and even today there are hundreds of such people even in such a worldly minded country as U.S.A. who have the gift of divine healing of the diseased and devil possessed. This unworthy writer and believer while in St. John’s College in Agra, 1919 was miraculously sealed from a dirt malignant disease. He did not have any serious illness nor the need of a doctor or his drugs since then. In a frail body he has kept fit and well and the Lord blessed a few here in Varanasi of serious diseases through his ministry of prayer. The young sadhu Sircar actually healed hundreds of Hindus and some Christians from diverse ailments in this small Ashram and in St. Paul’s Church, Sigra, during a full month - when Sriprakasji was out of town. My old father who sincerely regretted my conversion to Christianity one day (again in 1919) Was instantaneously healed by sheer exercise of personal faith from an acute colic pain which no Vaid or Hakim could remove in his lonely village in Dacca and separated from me by a distance of 12 hundred miles and without my knowledge at the time. Mainly for this he comes to the conclusion that Christ was a true and living Guru and accepted Him as his Lord and Saviour. This most painful disease was his constant companion over many years but was absolutely free from it for nine years of his Christian life until death.

As to the cult of personality. All true religion is a personal surrender to and union with a personal God. Apart from it and without it a more abstraction, human speculation and agnosticism. So it is a matter of choice but spiritual uncertainty and superficial satisfaction of humanism on the one hand and the joyous victorious life hid in and with God who personally saves winners and consoles sufferers.

The reason why we are dilating on this with some emphasis is that at the present there is a woeful lack of dynamic creative faith that removes mountains. Christianity is not a religion of speculative philosophy but one of moral faith, on the part of man, in the Gospel - the assuring Word of God.

If Sriprakasji and millions of others have not seen miracles of grace happening it is the failure and responsibility of Christians largely deprived themselves of the blessing due to small faith. Let the warning sink into Christian hearts. And let the advice of an eminent man of India be heeded that the Christians may be found completely in the main stream of national and cultural life of Bharat. Otherwise, they, like Muslims, will soon be a thorn in the flesh of the political and social body of India.

B. Certain Unsuitable Terms

Both in the west and in India, in English and in Indian languages, certain words are in constant use in practically all evangelical theological literature such as challenge, encounter, counter, confront, confrontation, campaign, operation mobilisation, fight, crusade, battle, fort, reinforcement, front, strategy, etc. Each of these words and many another has primarily a military significance. Militancy is a characteristic of western mentality. Western culture is saturated with it whereas eastern especially Indian culture is mainly and essentially non-violent and passive.

Now, presenting the Gospel in India in militant language, or thinking of evangelism or writing of books in military terms is neither understood nor appreciated particularly by Hindu people bred mainly on passive conceptions of God. That is why they dislike the O.T. God and much of its language. But they find in the N.T. and especially in the life and teaching of Christ a different climate in which they feel at home and are happy. They regard Christ as the incarnation of love, compassion, humility and, true humanism. Of course, the Christ-character possesses also the active and stern qualities of strength, courage, holiness and truth. But these are so subsumed by his love and humility that the average Hindu does not in the beginning recognise them.

In a country like this to are militant terms is not only, not suitable to draw men to Christ, but it is harmful also to those who use them. Their mentality gets vitiated, and they present a perverted image of Christ without knowing it and quite unintentionally. We know that the militant language is used in a spiritual and symbolic sense but humans, even the best evangelists, got contaminated with constant use of words whose connotations are primarily military. Let us present to India the King wearing the crown of thorns.

C. In Recent Months Serampore College Has Faced Some Agitation

It was motivated politically and culturally though academical reasons also have mingled with it. For some years past the college has met with some external rebuffs and internal dissatisfaction. The recent agitation by some members of churches is over the alleged transfer of the college to Calcutta and its amalgamation with Bishop’s College. In these days of ecumenism co-operation is always for the better. But amalgamation would be going too far. Serampore, to be sure, is Holy Ground, and a centre of pilgrimage, to the memory of Carey and his colleagues, not only for Christians but for all, Disposing of its commemorative buildings and transfer of its Library and Museum from the soil out of which arose the rudiments of the new and modern life of India would really constitute a sacrilege. The bones of Carey cannot be transferred, and his memory cannot be separated from the locality.

We have always held that the Science and Arts Section and the Theological Department should be sufficiently separated as to leave no room for any complaint or misunderstanding. Especially, management, use of building and finances should be point of a wise division.

The more important and vital matter for the good of the Church is a thorough reorientation of the theological institution. So far it has been run entirely on western lines with heavy finances and complex and mostly futile organisation and committees by men indued with foreign ideology, outlook and culture. Let there be serious indigenisation of its life, teaching, curriculum and its mission to India and usefulness and its contribution of leadership to the Church of India. Serampore has not yet fulfilled its true objectives in the right way.

D. Reunion

November 1939, will see the birth of the Church of North India - outcome of 40 years labours. It is a triumph of the essential unity in Christ which is inherent in the church even when outwardly divided. On the implementation of the union movement and after inauguration of the new and united church, its Bishops and lay leaders should soon take effective steps for full fellowship with the Church of South India. This accomplished, it will be sizeable church in the whole of India - primarily a master of thankfulness to God and secondarily a matter of honest pride for Christians in India.

It would not be, we hope, out of place in this connection to make a few reflections and some practical suggestions.

1. Let us not be too proud and complacent about the numerical strength of the ensuing church. The true strength of the Christian faith is the faith itself and does not lie in the number of its followers nor in money, nor in its possible political importance. In fact consciousness of such worldly strength might lead to a double danger to the church. It may incline the church to be too busy with its own affairs, to be self introspective and to get into a shell-thinking that the shell will protect its soul. Or it may produce an aggressive attitude in the church leading to harmful action against other groups and communities. The church for its own growth and welfare and for the fulfilment of its primary mission amidst a large people, must act as salt and as light and as a beautiful city set on a hill. Development of the church as a political or as even a social force in separation from other groups will spell disaster for all concerned. As followers of Christ we cannot cultivate the Rajasik and Tamasik Gunas but only the Sattwik virtues.

2. Too much dependence on, and attachment to, money and manpower has led to the fall of not only individuals but of nations. Money buys comfort and luxury in excess which produces laziness, indifference, cruelty and immorality and corrodes character. Man power leads to force, tyranny, aggression, quarrel and fights and mutual destruction. Let the salaries and emoluments of Bishops and Priests be at a sacrificial level from the standpoint of national economy. Let the other workers of the church such as Evangelists and colporteurs be paid a living wage. As far as money and house accommodation are concerned there must be a near equality. Give according to ability and receive according to need. Let this principle of the apostolic communism, (common life of fellowship and love) rule all church relations. Bishops and other servants of the church should be chosen on the basic of a call from God recognised by man and not a call by man (committee) to be approved by God. Bishoprics should be much smaller and number of Bishops larger than in the present system. These for basic ideals and principles, if honestly followed, will reduce competition, quarrel, jealousy and heart burning and produce more love. Wishing the coming church of North India happiness aid peace, joy and victory.

E. The Image of Our Motherland

At this writing (August) looks gloomy and awesome. It could be likened to that of mother Kali shooting out her red tongue and madly dancing the dance to destruction and death. Only the good and compassionate Shiva could restrain her whirling march by falling under her feet.

That is speaking symbolically. Is there any force of good and righteousness in the country to save the people from chaos and rain? This question is agitating the minds of all well-wishers of this ancient and new country possession great potentialities for the future. It is no use enumerating our problems, pains and disasters. They are all very patent. They have been narrated and debated ad nauseam in legislatures, in the Press, in public meetings, in cabinets and private homes. Our rulers and political leaders have all these years fed the people with promises and slogans, schemes and projects - mere words and only papers - so far as the real problems affecting their welfare are concerned. The legitimate aspirations of the people under independence have received a rude shock. One can almost say they have been deceived and betrayed. The Haves in all sections of the population, who are a small minority, have themselves created, by their selfishness and greed, the Frankenstein of communism, and Naxalite violence. We cannot honestly hold any extraneous influence or party responsible for the sad and fearful situation we are in. A ray of hope appears to be in the unification of all socialistic and democratic forces in the country under the only possible leadership of Indira Gandhi. If we want to save the country from, external invasion and internal Civil war, all forces or socialism without violence must rally under her banner. Even then ministers and other loaders must shed from their hearts the love of power, pelf and property, and play the role of true selfless servants of society. For this, they sorely need, whether they like it or not and irrespective of caste and creed, a dynamic touch or love divine as incarnate in the Son of God

F. Indianisation of Minority Communities

They (like Mussulmans and Christians) have been demanded by the Jana Sangha party among a few others. This attitude on the surface of it might look rather odd in a country and under a government that claim democracy and socialism as their goal. Jana Sangha is practically Hindu communal organisation though theoretically its membership is open to men of other communities. This is made plain by their other demands such as Akhana Bharat, Hindu Raj, and ban on cow slaughter.

On no impartial analysis of their demands one could find some justification for them. Men from all communities and nations and tribes have been generally admitted to the citizenship of democratic countries like America and United Kingdom and to that of communist Soviet Russia. But on one condition. They all accept the culture of those countries, as their own. They are all either Americans, or British, or communists. Their way of life, loyalty and emotion are national and local. There is no room for extraterritoriality. Asians, Africans, Latins and Eastern Europeans, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists have merged themselves into one general American, English and Soviet society. You are no longer known by your old national or cultural categories. You are American or English or communist.

But here in India the stress on difference, separation and distinctiveness is too great. Muslims have a civilisation and culture which is in toto alien-Saracens-Arabian. Their names, dress, food, prayers and attitudes are generally foreign. They are Mussulmans first. The position of Christians is far better. Islam is a great religion non-idolatrous monotheism, brotherhood of the believers, a universal outlook. This alone, if properly cultivated, could capture the imagination and will have thoughtful people and the brotherhood has a practical appeal to caste-ridden, oppressed and suppressed poor. One God, one Islamic humanity - a world outlook - a noble religion us for as ite essence is concerned. Why should not Muslims be fully acclimatised in India? Where are excellent features and elements in Hinduism which are capable of general absorption. Mussulman need to, and can, shed a number of foreign appearances and trends, then the Hindus will feel happy and confident. Tho communal conflicts are due partially to the differences and angularities between communities and their presence does not promote national integrity or emotional equality. Mere political loyalty in the absence of social and cultural amity is dry and ineffective to forge a warm and dynamic nationalism.

These remarks apply also to Christiana in India though in a lesser degree. Large numbers of Christians especially in the villages have been indigenous from the beginning and never gave up their culture. Some among intellectuals and urbane need to shed foreign ideology and practice particularly in their theological thinking and the mode of their religions life.

But Jana Sangha and groups of their way of thinking may be told in all frankness and friendliness that they must forthwith abolish caste and untouchability from India - which are great obstacles to social unity. They should no longer harp on a reunited India after the fact of Pakistan. It irritates and alienates. We may appeal and move for good neighbourliness, close co-operation in many matters. Nor should they talk of a ban on cow slaughter (a ban, by implication, on beef eating affecting the good of a large and poor community) but rather let them cooperate with members of other communities and with Government to evolve a wise cow protection plan.

Christians in India should learn serious lessons from such demands and instead of trying to avoid them or fight them with a counter challenge should put their own house in complete order, otherwise tensions will increase and rivalry and conflict will hamper the prospect of peaceful social life and smooth end progressive running of Government.

In the Fellowship of Faith and Work

1. Pastor D. Dutt of Calcutta safely returned home from his Evangelistic tour in Europe after several months. His mother Mrs. B. Dutt has been ailing for sometime past. It has seriously affected finishing her Bengali book on the life and teaching of our Lord. However, it is good to hear that several chapters of the book have gone to Press. She will be affectionately remembered by many as she goes to Simla for a holiday.

2. It was sad to bear of the sudden death of Mrs. Williams of Azad Hind Church of Bombay recently. His Eminence mar Athanasius J.S. Williams is the primate of be Indian National Church and President of the All India Federation of national churches. This report was sent to as by Mrs. Manorama R. Modak of Ahmednagar - Secretary of the Federation - who also said that Bishop Williams is fortunate to have living with him his good son and family. Our sincere prayers for the Bishop’s consolation and peace.

3. Rev. S.K. Mundle who has been looking after the Santala in Jalpaiguri district within the jurisdiction of the Anglican Diocese of Patna is taking a round trip holiday visiting Bhagalpur, Dumka and Calcutta. Hardly any of our readers would be aware that the very large and established village home in the south of Calcutta to which Fr. Mundle belongs met with a sad disaster during the regime of U.F. Government. The entire material property of the whole home village was robbed and swept away by anti-social elements. Fortunately no one was physically hurt. But an elderly brother of Fr. Mundle evidently succumbed to the shock of the sudden violence of the incident. One would sympathise with the members of this well known family for the loss and metal point they base suffered. One can also pray that in rebuilding their home, new foundations with Christian principles will be laid. And that Fr. Mundle, as the spiritual leader of the family, will make his fitting contribution.

4. The Late Bishop Ramkrishna Sahu Modak was the president of the All India Federation of National Churches. He and his consort Srimati Manorama lived in New York for many years and promoted American sympathy and co-operation for the establishment of an Indian Church independent of foreign administrative and financial control. While his rather sudden death immediately after their landing in India is sincerely regretted, it is a matter of satisfaction that Srimati Manorama was taken up be residence in their ancestral homestead in Ahmednagar, and was accepted the Secretarialship of the Federation. She has completed writing three books one of which will be an autobiography of her eminent husband. One hopes and expects that she will be able to bring about a tangible union amongst the independent congregations and scattered groups of Christians.

5. Ishanananda S.K. Paul has been concentrating on his Ashram in Jamboo (Orissa) during this rainy season. It is encouraging that his only son who has shown interest in religious life and work is expected to be baptised in the local church by immersion.

6. Our friend Rev. Akeel Knudsen writes from Denmark: dated 14.7.70

   My dear friend,

   I have been rather preoccupied when I received your letter of last month, although my thoughts often were with you until I got today the latest number of your so highly valued magazine - the Church of Christ.

   It is indeed at once a bold and a necessary step to form an Indian O.T. of your ancestral religious writing and experience. It is in addition a most difficult endeavour for how few are the educated, intellectual knower of Hinduism and Buddhism that will be able collectively and scholarly to make such a gathering of the best of the Indian heritage that it might be sufficiently representative of the spiritual approach to what can be found and really has been found by gatherers as such to Christ in true harmony with His dynamic and cosmic spirit. I suppose that you yourself in your long life of Christian discipline, faith, thought and practice already have complied a lot of material to be used for the purpose. In any case, more and more of the true and beat of the Indian heritage will enter into the life and practice of the Indian Christians. So His spirit will be the leader and inspiration in the attempt.

   Yours over in Christ,

   A.J. Knudsen

   (b) Denmark doted 28.7.70.

   Yes, dear friend, it seems so difficult for us to understand the ways of the Lord with regard to ourselves and the cause we love and try to serve, suffer and sacrifice for seem to be built otherwise than we wanted and still cannot but want. But you, dear old Christian Hindu, the faithful servant of Christ, you seem to have found the solution and to be comforted by the thought that care of singular personal men and women that are seeking truth is dearer than what we call “causes.”

   Now, as to my comments on the Church of Christ No. 2, 1970 I do feel it is the best and noblest of all the numbers I have read because of its so timely outspokenness, I thoroughly agree with you in the first part of the article on the “mystical Body of Christ and the present Denominations” and shall read the second part with the greatest interest. And your notes on “all India Congress of Evangelism” at Deolali (pp. 22-26), I have translated it in full, and I am sending it to northern missionary Review. I do so because of the deep necessity of helping the established missionary societies to see really and understand, how great is the cleft between their foreign (foreign in all respects although supported by honest believers) missionary churches and the endeavours of you and the small minority of Hindu Christians that work for and serve, suffer and sacrifice for the genuine self-governing Indian Church of Christ.

   Yours as ever in Christ,

   A.J. KNUDSEN

7. THE MINISTRY OF SADHU A.N. SIRCAN in Andhra during March, April 1970

   It was our privilege to arrange Gospel and Divine Healing services with the Bengali Sadhu A.N. Sircar, during March and April 1970, in Andhra Pradesh. Jesus of Nazareth used His servant Sircar so mightily for His glory. What He did 2000 years ago be could do the same today through His instrument. During these campaigns many miracles were performed. The blind could see, the dumb could speak, the deaf could hear, the paralytics could walk, instantaneously. The sick were healed, demons were cast out; above all the lives of many were transformed.

   Sadhu Sircar could boldly testify along with his Master Jesus Christ, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” (Luke 4:18) Accordingly, Brother Sircar, has been instrumental in restoring the broken lives, homes and Churches to peace, happiness and unity. There is a constant praise in the life and lip of the ones that attended these meetings in all the areas he visited. He touched every individual, anointed with oil and prayed. Some were immediately healed, some on the same night, some after receiving blessing from him for a few days.

   The meetings were held in Akividu, Gajjaram, W. Godavary, Samalkot and nearby village, Pithapurem, Tuni of E. Godavary, Chintapalli, Visakhapatnam. We are grateful to God and thankful to the local organisers and hosts in these places.

   The Sadhu was assisted in all these places by Brother I.S. Vedaratnam, Evangelist from Kovur, Madras, who taught in every place Hallelujah chorus which was a great inspiration to everyone - both young and old, poor and rich, Christian and non-Christian. His singing, testifying and playing drum were a great encouragement.

   We are thankful to several servants of God who brought the Gospel message in those meetings. Christ has been clearly presented to the multitudes. The majority of the audience were Hindus. We thank God for these faithful ministers of the Word of God.

   Some meetings had to be shifted from Church compounds to public meetings. There was no time to give witness by those who were healed later. Some could testify soon after they were prayed for. The multitudes court hear in the loudspeakers the dumb speaking. In our own city of Visakhapatnam during three night meetings we could hear 24 dumb people clearly speaking. The Gospel message went forth powerfully.

   It was our privilege to distribute much of the literature during all these meetings. Sound evangelical Gospel tracts, Gospel portions, Testaments, Holy Bibles were distributed which satisfied the hunger of souls. Three of the books written by Sadhu Sircar, namely: The Divine Light, The Vision of God in English and Telugu, The Grace and power of the Holy Spirit (autobiography of Sadhu Sircar) in English, were also sold. These are still available with us.

   The soon returning Lord Jesus has given another opportunity to Andhras to hear His gospel, accept Him as their personal Saviour and get ready to meet Him when He returns.

   Our heartfelt thanks are due to Dr. Rajam Sircar who supplied the Scriptures and mobilised much prayer for these meetings.

   Thanking all those who prayed for these meetings.

   Revival Literature Agency,

   Visakhapatnam, A.P., 5-6-1970

   Yours in His Service,

   GEORGE RAJU, Secretary.

8. In the summer (April 22nd to June 19th) Acharya Das took a round trip of New Delhi, Simla, Haridwar and Shabjahanpor meeting his two sons and two daughters with their families including 8 grand children. He will continue to be in residence at the Varanasi Ashram indefinitely until next winter.

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, B.K.S.

Edited and Published by:

Rev. R.C. Das, M.A.,
Khristpanthi Ashram,
129, Dashashwamedh, Varanasi, India

Printed at:

Evangelical Press,
“CHRIST NAGAR MISSION”,
Badagayedapadavu Post, Mangalore Taluk, S. India