Wednesday, 29 March 2017

Ecumenism in India - Church union movements

Introduction
In the history of Christianity, nineteenth century is known as the century of missions and twentieth century as an era of cooperation and church union in India. As a result of pietism and evangelical revival protestant countries began to form missionary societies and send their missionaries to various parts of the world. India too received protestant missionaries in the beginning of eighteenth century and they came and established their own denominationalism for which they belong. Later some of the Indian Christian leaders wanted the Indian Church should be truly Indian. Its aim was unity or oneness instead of division, and native instead of foreign.[1] Cooperation among churches in India had begun from the mission fields and that headed to church unions. The cooperation emerged through various meetings and conferences, leading to church union movement will be discussed in this paper.
1. Cooperation among Churches and mission societies
German pietism of the seventeenth century is the root cause for kindling missionary zeal among the Christians in Europe. Halle acted as the centre of pietism and missionary activities. Pietism resulted in revival and thus the spiritual climate created Christians in Britain to come together in fellowship, crossing the boundaries of denominations and to be burdened with winning the souls of people, in the unevangelized part of the world. As a result missionary societies on denominational as well as non or inter- denominational lines were established, and they all had initially ‘winning the souls’ as their aim rather than transplanting their denominations in the mission field, which opened the possibilities of common action in the mission field. The evangelical revival enabled the western Churches to modify their rigid stand on dogmas which resulted in the thinking of cooperation in missionary activities and also in bringing union.[2]
2. A brief sketch of prior cooperation among Church/ mission in India
Cooperation among churches or missions is not a new phenomenon, all threw the history of Indian Church there were numerous evidences. The cooperation of such organization had a particular task in the field of mission.
2.1. Danish- German Co-operation
The King of Denmark, Frederick IV, a Lutheran Christian and the Church in Germany through University of Halle filled the space in the Royal Danish mission which was a mission that entertained cross- cultural missionary cooperation.  
2.2. Lutheran- Anglican Co-operation
The Society for the Propagation of the Christian Knowledge organized by the Anglican Church formed in 1699, did not know to do mission work. But the Lutheran Mission was already in the mission field and it was progressing. So SPCK decided to cooperate with Danish Lutheran mission in Tranquebar by sending copies of the New Testament in Portuguese, established the first printing press in 1721 and needed funds.[3]
3. Influential factors for cooperation among Missions/ Churches
3.1. Missionary conferences in India
William Carey was the first to think of missionary cooperation in the mission field, and suggested convening of a world level missionary conference at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa either in 1810 or 1812 for the sake of discussing the areas of cooperation in the mission fields as well as for sharing of information, joys and sorrows. His proposal was rejected, but after hundred years it took to the world level conference at Edinburgh in 1910.[4] Though it was not materialized immediately, Carey decided to gather the missionary societies and the church organizations for city level missionary conference.[5]  
3.1.1. City Missionary Conferences                                                                            
Three major cities in India Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta were the coordination centers of the missionaries in India. The mission coordinators realized the need of unity among them and it can make big influence in their work in the rural areas. This leads towards the formation of city missionary association.
3.1.1.1. Bombay Missionary union or Bombay conference
Taking the cue of Carey, the missionaries of different missionary societies working in Bombay decided to meet together. The representatives of Church Missionary Society and the ABCFM had met in 1825 and started the Bombay Missionary union. They discussed the areas of cooperation in their common task of evangelism, their problems, difficulties etc.
3.1.1.2. Conferences at Calcutta and Madras
City fellowships were started at Calcutta and Madras. In 1830 at Madras the first meeting was convened. In Calcutta, the missionaries initially met in the house of the Baptist missionary in charge of the Baptist Mission Press, on the first Monday of every month during breakfast time regularly. During these conferences they had never discussed about any type of doctrinal issues rather than discussed about the areas of common objectives such as ecclesiastical openness, monthly prayer, interdenominational fellowships, shared their problems and ideas and sought advice and help. The missionary cooperation moves towards the regional conferences in these areas.    
3.1.2. Regional or provincial Missionary conference
The city level meetings led to regional or provincial conference, Calcutta in 1855, the Northwest general conference at Benares in 1857, the south India Missionary conference at Ootacamund (Ooty) in 1858, the Punjab conference at Lahore in 1862, the south India and Ceylon Missionary conference at Bangalore in 1879.
3.1.2.1. The Bengal General conference, Calcutta
At Calcutta on September 4-7, 1855 the regional and national inter- denominational missionary conferences was held. Representatives of six missions and three European churches were present. In this conference they mainly discussed about mission and issues in evangelization such as use of local languages for communicating the Gospel and encourages the native church workers.[6]
3.1.2.2. The North West-India General conference, Benaras/Varanasi
The first North Indian missionary conference was held at Benares/Varanarsi on January 6-9, 1857. There were resolutions made on vernacular preaching, native agency, native female education, the government system of education and caste. Issues highlighted in Benares conference were the production of Christian literature and the emergence of indigenous leadership.
3.1.2.3. The South India Missionary Conference, Ootacamund
The first South India regional missionary conference was held at Ootacamund from 19 April to 5 May, 1858, where missionaries from eight societies took part and discussed and made resolutions on vernacular preaching, native agency, female education, educational policy, and caste. More particularly this meeting talked for the first time about the formation of an Indian Church, a pioneer on ecumenism.
3.1.2.4. The Punjab Missionary Conference, Lahore
This conference held at Lahore between 26th December, 1862 and 2nd January, 1863. It made an appeal for an indigenous, united Indian church. At this conference, a proposal was made for first time for an All India Missionaries’ Decennial Conference.
3.1.2.4. The South India and Ceylon Missionary Conference, Bangalore
Missionaries from fifteen societies attended and fifteen Indians took part in this conference. There were significant people like W. Burgess, Jacob Chamberlain, W.T. Sathianathan, B. Rice and A.H Arden participated actively and read their papers on different issues. Among them, Sathianathan and Arden in their presentation, focused on the issues related with native churches and education.[7]  The conference directed its “attention toward the future outward recognition in church union of an already inwardly experienced Christian unity.” This conference recommended family reunions and federation of Churches.[8]
3.1.3. All India Decennial Missionary Conferences
These regional conferences led to All India level Missionary Conferences which were held once in ten years, and so termed as Decennial Conferences. They were at Allahabad 1872, Calcutta 1882, Bombay 1892, and Madras 1902.
3.1.3.1. First Decennial Conference - Allahabad
The first conference convened from 26th December, 1872, to 1st January, 1873. 136 missionaries from nineteen mission societies participated, and twenty eight were from India. Papers were presented by the Indian members namely W.T. Sathianathan, R. Jardine, J. Barton and K.C. Chatterjee on different topics.[9]  The conference shared common concerns for unity and co-operation in evangelization and gave due recognition to the growing rise of native Indian Church. It also considered the utmost need of holding a decennial national missionary conference in order to promote the tempo of inter – mission co-operation.

3.1.3.2. Second Decennial Conference - Calcutta
The second conference was organized from 28th December, 1882 to 2nd January 1883.  It was attended by 475 delegates from twenty seven missions, among 46 were Indians.[10]  W. Hooper, W. Miller and W.T. Sathianathan presented papers in this conference. Besides, the discussions on the transfers of power from mission to Church were emphasized. It stressed on selfhood of the Indian Church with its three self –formulas; self-support, self-government and self-propagation.
3.1.3.3. Third Decennial Conference - Bombay
The third conference was conducted from 29th December 1892, to 4th January 1893. There were 620 members from forty missions with 67 seven Indians. Kali Charan Banerjee, H. Martyn Clark and Bishop Thoburn were significant delegates who presented papers on various topics.[11]  The Bombay meeting raised issues that would strengthen mission work in India. In spite of its evangelistic concerns, the conference took serious note on the status of the conference as a constituted body. It was thus far a fellowship without any organized administrative procedure or a constitution. Finally it appointed a standing committee to look into the administrative part and other affairs of the conference. At this conference, K.C. Banerjee said that the Indian Church should be “one, not divided, native, and not foreign”.
3.1.3.4. Fourth Decennial Conference - Madras
The fourth conference held at Madras on 11 - 18 December 1902 and was the last of the important field conferences in India. It was attended by 286 delegates representing 55 missions. The conference gave shape to it as a well-organized and recognized institution. It also saw that the emergence of a strong native church and tried to give importance to native representation in such general missionary meetings.[12]  “The following three principles followed at the Madras Decennial Conference was adopted as a model at the Edinburgh Conference in 1910.
  1. The object is to promote as far as possible harmonious co-operation between the missions represented and their efficiency in working for the kingdom of God.
  2. In view of the recognized differences between denominations represented in the Conference, no question involving doctrines of ecclesiastical principles on which these denominations differ ought to be raised in the conference.
  3. It is not desirable that any resolution should go forth as a deliberation of the Conference unless the Conference has been able to come to practical agreement in its favour.”
3.2. Other Factors led towards Cooperation
3.2.1. Meetings at Hill Stations
Once in a year, during summer the missionaries from Europe and America belonging to different denominations or organizations working in Southern part of India use to gather in the hill stations such as Kodaikanal, Coonoor and Ootacamund (Ooty) and had informal meetings to share and exchange their views about their work and experience.[13] One of the important results of these hill meetings was the formation of the South Indian Missionary Association (SIMA) in 1897. This association was given the responsibility to organize the South India Missionary conference, in 1900 at Madras, which was an officially approved conference and it also officially invited missionary societies to send official delegates.[14] The way it was organized and conducted became a model for future missionary conferences, including the Edinburgh 1910. This conference mainly discussed about the self-supported native churches and pastors, comity among missions and co-operation in missionary works.[15] Thus the Hill stations acted as a tool for missionary cooperation and church union.
3.2.2. Christian Institutions
The higher educational institution attracted many young Indians who showed a deep interest in western education. Many young people gathered there from different parts of the nation, had the opportunity to meet young people from different denominations and different languages which ultimately led them to feeling of oneness in Christ. The institution which was founded by Scottish Presbyterians in 1837 came to be known later as the Madras Christian College (MCC) and got recognized in 1910 as a union institution. Women’s Christian College (WCC) in Madras, Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore also played a prominent role to unite various denominational people to come together.[16] In the same way the United Theological College, Bangalore was founded in 1910. The United Missions Tuberculosis Hospital at Arogyavaram is also an outcome of the mission co-operation.[17]
3.2.3. Migrations
One of the unifying forces among the Indians was migration where lies various reasons for it. Migrations led to inter caste and inter denominational marriages. Migrations widened the world view of Indian Christians and led to a new sense of belonging, leading to cross the boundaries of denominationalism. These migrants got assimilated with the local denominational mission work and in course of time played a significant role in church unity efforts.
3.2.4. Nationalism
From the middle of nineteenth century there were attempts by Indians to show their nationalist spirit. Indian Nationalism born in Bengal, soon spread to other parts of India. Nationalism led Indians to come together and nationalist spirit too made the missions to think of coming together in union.   
3.2.5. The fragmented Indian Christians
Even though Protestant Christianity began in eighteenth century the numerical strength was too low and were despised of their denominationalism. So the Indian Christians could not be an effective witness to the majority non-Christian population.[18] Many missionaries as well as Indian Christians, especially those who lived in cities or migratory areas, felt the scandal of a divided Indian Christianity. They felt the need for a united church for effective evangelism and Christian witness. 

3.3. Formation of National Missionary Council- National Council of Churches of India
These regional and national conferences were the basis on which the National Missionary Council and its local branches were built. In 1912 John R. Mott visited India on behalf of the Edinburgh Conference with the purpose of setting up local bodies, which would strengthen and widen the co-operation between missions. In 1913, eight provincial councils were formed namely in Bengal, Bihar-Orissa, Bombay, Punjab, Mid-India, Madras and Burma. On 4th February 1914, the first National Missionary Council was held in the YWCA building at Calcutta. In 1923 it was changed as National Christian Council of India (NCCI). In the 1940s, the NCCI leadership was passed over to the native Christians.[19]  
4. Union Movements
4.1. Foundations for Union Movements
4.1.1. Edinburgh Missionary Conference in 1910
The International Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910, was a greater motivation for co-operation and union among churches. One of the direct conse­quences in India of the Edinburgh conference was the formation of the National Missionary Council, which organized Regional Christian Councils.[20]
4.1.2. Tranquebar Manifesto
Bishop Whitehead, the Anglican Bishop in Madras raised the issue of unity in 1910 but nothing came out of the discussion. He continued to speak and write about this till in the year 1919 an informal meeting of Indian pastors of the Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican and South Indian United Churches convened by Bishop V.S. Azariah and Rev. Santiago, took place in Tranquebar.[21] It issued a statement known as ‘Tranquebar Manifesto’ following the basis of Lambeth Quadrilateral for church union. They are: The Holy Scriptures containing the Old and the New Testaments, as containing all things necessary for salvation; The, Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed; The two sacraments ordained by Christ Himself- Baptism and Lord’s Supper; The historic Episcopate, locally adopted.[22]
The conference issued a call for union among the churches and a joint committee was set up for considering negotiations for union. The Lutherans did not join this committee the other churches, the Anglican, Methodist and the SIUC, participated in the negotiations. The first meeting of the committee was held in 1920 and following it many meetings were held to consider different issues until the churches could agree on a common basis for union.[23] 
4.1.3. Role of non-denominational organizations in Church Union Movements
The Young Men's Christian Associations (YMCA) formed under the leadership or initiative of the missionaries in various parts of the country, supported the church union Movement and participated in it. The Student Christian Movement (SCM), the Christian Literature Society, the Christian Endeavour, the Indian Missionary Society, Bible Society and the National Missionary Society have been instrumental in bringing together[24] all the European and Indian Church leaders of different denominations, treated them equally, which made the leaders in India exercise towards church union movements.[25]
4.2. Family Union
4.2.1. The Presbyterians
The first practical steps towards family union had been taken by people belonging to different missions of the same type of Church. Different Presbyterian missions in India decided to have a federation called ‘The Presbyterian alliance’ founded in 1875, it met annually. In one such meeting in 1901 at Allahabad a decision made by thirteen Presbyterian missions to form one single Presbyterian Church in India.[26] The definite achievement of a local union among Presbyterians in South India in 1901, brought together the communities of the American Arcot Mission and the two Scottish Presbyterian Missions (Church of Scotland and Free Church of Scotland) in and around Madras. In 1904 this body joined with eight Presbyterian missions in North India to form Presbyterian Church of India.
4.2.2. Congregationalists
Maurice Phillips (LMS) of Madras advocated to bring together LMS and ABCFM both were Congregationalists, a joint committee was organized and thus resulted in union. In July 1905 an organization of the united Churches was officially formed.[27]
4.3. Conciliar or Federal Unions
4.3.1. Union among the Lutherans
After the First World War I, in 1919 the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) came into existence by the merger of congregations or Christian communities raised by the Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission and the Church of Sweden Mission. In 1926 nine different Lutheran Churches which existed in different parts of India came together to form the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India, a federation of autonomous bodies. Now this federation is called United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India.
4.3.2. Formation of South India United Church (SIUC)
The first interdenominational Union was the SIUC formed in 1908, a union of all the Congregationalists and Presbyterians in South India and the Jaffna district of Ceylon in 1919, later the Basel Mission district of Malabar also joined. The first General Assembly was held at Madras from 25th to 27th of December 1908, and this formation was an important step in the developing Church Union Movement in India. The church order was a mixture of Congregationalism and Presbyterianism. 
4.3.3. Formation of the United Church of North India (UCNI)
After the formation of the SIUC, a parallel movement was formed in North India and named as UCNI a merger of Presbyterian, Congregational and Moravian churches. Its history began with the formation of the Presbyterian Alliance of India in 1875 by missionaries from the Presbyterian churches. The Welsh Presbyterian church in Assam also joined in 1921. Eleven Missions were represented in it and it ultimately resulted in the formation of the United Church of North India in 1924.[28] After the union eleven missions of Presbyterians and Congregationalists joined in it and its area stretched from Bengal, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab, following the Constitution of Presbyterian Church.[29]
4.4. The Organic Model Union
This model of union may be compared to the body of a living organism. Paul refers to the church as the body of Christ, “from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and up builds itself in love” (Eph 4:16). Under this form of union, different existing denominations are merged into a new centralized organizational structure. They do not longer remain autonomous or independent as they used to exist before. The merger does not imply accepting the organizational structure of a particular denominational church but a combination of different constituent models. The CSI and the CNI are the model for organic union.[30]
4.4.1. Church of South India (CSI)
The Church Union movement has special significance for bringing together non-Episcopal ordained ministries within the structure of an Episcopal church. Four different church traditions had been brought together in the CSI: Anglican (Episcopal), Congregational, Presbyterian and Methodist. This plan of union was on the basis of Tranquebar Manifesto, and the continuous measures of joint committee for twenty years negotiated with churches.
            In February 1920, the Episcopal Synod of the Anglican Province in India appointed a committee for negotiation. In 1925 the Methodist Church of South India came into the negotiation and it declared its willingness to unite with the other churches. In 1945 January, Anglicans passed a resolution to carry out the practical unanimous desire to enter into union with Methodist and SIUC. In September 1946, SIUC accepted the proposal of the unity. A year was spent in the final preparation for union and on 27 September 1947, the CSI was inaugurated in the St. George Cathedral at Madras.[31] The Church of South India is unique in that for the first time in history, a Church which has maintained the historic succession of the episcopate has succeeded in entering into full corporate union with non- episcopal churches.[32] 
4.4.2. Church of North India (CNI)
The United Church of North India (UCNI) sent out an invitation to other churches in 1924 and the Wesleyan Methodist Church was the first to respond to this invitation.[33] Following discussions with a view to a unified church were initiated by the Australian Churches of Christ Mission, Australian Methodist Church, the Wesleyan Methodist Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church during a round table meeting in Lucknow in 1929.[34] A ‘Basis for negotiations’ was published in 1939 was revised and developed in subsequent years, a plan of church union. A negotiation committee was set up in 1951, composing representatives from the Baptist Churches in Northern India, the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon, the Methodist Church (British and Australia Conferences), the Methodist Church in Southern Asia and the United Church of Northern India.
Two other bodies: the Church of Brethren and the Disciples of Christ joined in the negotiations from 1957. The plan reached its fourth and final edition in 1965, a finalized plan of Church Union, known as the “White Paper”, was made. The union was formalized on 29 November 1970 in the All Saints’ Cathedral Compound at Nagpur. All the negotiating churches were united as the Church of North India with the exception of the Methodist Church in Southern Asia which decided not to join the union.[35]
4.5. The Koinonia Model
4.5.1. CSI, CNI and Mar Thoma Syrian Church (MTSC)
After the inauguration of CNI a new attempt began in the history of Indian church, was union negotiations of the CSI, CNI and MTSC. In 1975 the CSI, the CNI and the Mar Thoma Church decided to begin negotiations. As a result a Joint Council was formed and its first sitting was in 1978.[36] The churches followed episcopal order came together with a desire to form an all India United Church to be known as ‘The Bharath Christian Church’. In 1974 they formed a Joint Theological Commission (JTC). It met at Madras on 16th January 1975 and at Bangalore on the 3rd and 4th June 1975.[37]
The JTC continued to work for 21 years and held its 9th meeting on July 5-7, 1999 at the CSI centre, Chennai, in which they decided to have a meeting of the Executive Committees of the three churches in November 1999. Such a meeting was held at Charal Kunnu, Kerala from 11-14 November, 1999. At that meeting a new name ‘The Communion of Churches in India’ (CCI) was proposed in place of JTC. The new name was adopted and announced at the meeting held on 11- 14 November, 2000 at Kolkata. These churches recognize themselves as belonging to the one church of Jesus Christ in India, even while remaining as autonomous churches, each having its own identity of tradition and organizational structure.[38] 
4.5.2. Fellowship in North East India 
The Bengal Christian Council (BCC) was formed in 1926. The Protestant Christian Missions from North East India accepted the invitation to become its members. In 1936 the various Protestant bodies met in Shillong. Six mission societies and two churches responded and attended the meeting and this was the beginning of interdenominational fellowship. In 1937, the Assam Christian Council (ACC) was formed and received favorable response from most mission and churches of Protestant traditions. The activities of the council are establishment of Union Christian College at Khwan, evangelism, literature, relief work, women, youth, church and other activities. In the meeting of 1942 it began to talk about the Church Union. From 1962 onwards ACC had come to known as North East Indian Christian Council (NEICC).[39]


Problems and Solutions
Doctrinal issues are the most significant problem for disunity. For uniting churches it was agreed that Lambeth Quadrilateral is the satisfactory basis. Secondly ordination of priests, it has been decided to accept the ordination of pastors whatever mode it is given and all the new ordinations would be Episcopal laying on of hands. Thirdly, In the matter of Baptism both infant and adult baptism are accepted, infant baptism is followed by confirmation and in case of following adult baptism a child dedication should be practiced. Fourthly, the church was dependent on western nations which made people to criticize and so the decision of native self-supported church was introduced. Fifthly, the principle of comity was followed, among missions and there arose co-operation in missionary works. Sixthly, the practice of hierarchy by missionaries enabled the people to think of an independent church. Various attempts were made by natives and thus all leading to union of churches.
Conclusions
The Church in India has a very long history, there are different denominations emerged through various mission societies. So in the mission fields the missionaries faced lot of problems in propagating gospel and the mission activities was not a great success. They realized the need of cooperation in Indian mission fields and attempts were made by them. The summer camp of missionaries were the first place to talk about cooperation and this led to various conferences which is the basis for Edinburgh missionary conference. These conferences resulted in Church union movement a basis for modern ecumenical movement most probably led by native peoples.
Bibliography
Baago, Kaj. A History of the National Christian Council of India 1914-1964. Nagpur: NCC,          Christian Council Lodge, 1965.
Devadoss, Issac. “A Historical Survey of Ecumenism in India” compiled by Watimongla Jamir.    History of Ecumenical Movement Issues, Challenges and Perspectives. Kolkata:          SCEPTRE, 2014.
Firth, C. B. An Introduction to Indian Church History. Delhi: ISPCK, 2005.
Gladstone, J. W. ed. United to Unite: History of the Church of South India 1947- 1997.      Chennai: CSI, 1997.
James, Woba. Major Issues in the History of Christianity in India: A Post-Colonial Reading.           Dimapur: TDCC Publications, 2013.
Jeyakumar A. History of Christianity in India. West Bengal: SCEPTRE, 2013.
Jeyakumar, D. Arthur. History of Christianity in India: Selected Themes. Chennai: Meiporul           Achakkam, 2014.
Kuriakose, M.K. History of Christianity in India: Source Materials. Delhi: ISPCK, 1990.
Massey, James. Ecumenism in India Today. Bangalore: BTESSC/SATHARI, 2008.
Neill, Stephen Charles, “Plans of Union and Reunion 1910-1948.” Edited by Ruth            Rouse and Stephen Charles Neill, A History of the Ecumenical Movement 1517- 1948.   London: SPCK, 1954.
Pradhan. Plan of Union in North India and Pakistan. Madras: CLS, 1965.
Snaitang, O. L. A History of Ecumenical Movement: An Introduction. Bangalore:    BTESSC/SATHRI, 2006.


[1] Woba James, Major Issues in the History of Christianity in India: A Post-Colonial Reading, (Dimapur: TDCC Publications, 2013), 280.
[2] D. Arthur Jeyakumar, History of Christianity in India, (Chennai: Meipporul Achakam, 2011), 107 – 109.
[3] O.L.Snaitang, A History of the Eumenical Movement: An Introduction (Bangalore: BTESSC, 2014), 63-64.
[4]Arthur Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 109.
[5]A. Jeyakumar, History of Christianity in India Major Themes (West Bengal: SCEPTRE, 2013), 178.
[6] Snaitang, A History…, 74- 75.
[7] Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 179-180.
[8] Arthur Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 111.
[9] Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 181.
[10] Snaitang, A History…, 77.
[11] Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 181- 182.
[12] Snaitang, A History…, 78.
[13] Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 176-183.
[14] Kaj Baago, A History of the National Christian Council of India 1914-1964, (Nagpur: NCC, Christian Council Lodge, 1965), 5.
[15] M.K. Kuriokose, History of Christianity in India: Source Materials (Delhi: ISPCK, 1990), 270.
[16]Arthur Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 111-112.
[17] Baago, A History of the National…, 5, 7.
[18] Arthur Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 112-114.
[19] Baago, A History of the National, 4- 5,7,15.
[20] J. W. Gladstone, ed., United to Unite: History of the Church of South India 1947- 1997 (Chennai: CSI, 1997), 10.
[21]. Issac Devadoss, “A Historical Survey of Ecumenism in India.” Compiled by Watimongla Jamir, History of Ecumenical Movement Issues, Challenges and Perspectives (West Bengal: SCEPTRE, 2014), 180.
[22] Arthur Jeyakumar, History, 120-121.
[23] Snaitang, A History…, 49-50.
[24] Gladstone, United to Unite…, 9.
[25] Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 177.
[26] Arthur Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 115-116.
[27] Issac Devadoss, “A Historical Survey …, 179-180.
[28] C.B. Firth, An Introduction to Indian Church History, (Delhi: ISPCK, 2005), 119, 238-239.
[29] Issac Devadoss, “A Historical Survey…, 179-180.
[30] Arthur Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 123, 127.
[31] Issac Devadoss, A Historical Survey…, 180.
[32] Stephen Charles Neill, “Plans of Union and Reunion 1910-1948.” Edited by Ruth Rouse and Stephen Charles Neill, A History of the Ecumenical Movement 1517- 1948, (London: SPCK, 1954), 474.
[33] Issac Devadoss, A Historical Survey…, 182.
[34] Firth, An Introduction…, 244.
[35] Pradhan, Plan of Union in North India and Pakistan, (Madras: CLS, 1965), 11-17.
[36] Arthur Jeyakumar, History of Christianity…, 123.
[37] Prathan, Plan of Union…, 38.
[38] Issac Devadoss, A Historical Survey…, 184.
[39] James Massey, Ecumenism in India Today (Bangalore: BTESSC/SATHARI, 2008), 24.
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Wednesday, 15 March 2017

Women in Modern Christianity

Women in Modern Christianity

Introduction
Nineteenth century marks the period of development of feminism in America and Britain nations. There are various factors led to the formation of feminism, feminist movements, and particularly feminist theology emerged in ecclesiastical arena. Pietism, Great Evangelical awakening and enlightenment contributed for the emergence of feminist movements and feminist theologies which could liberate women from oppression. Through these movements women got aware of their bondage and sought measures for liberation. This paper will help to understand how changes in church led to the formation of women’s movements, and growth of feminist theories and feminist theology which arose in 19th and 20th centuries.
1.Pietism - impact on women
Pietism emerged as a reaction to a complex of social forces that transformed western civilization from Religion to Secularism. It emphasized an internal, subjective and individual return to Bible and the expression of true religion through good works were emphasized. Women played a major role in the Pietistic movement for the specific reasons; a levelling of class and other traditional hierarchies, widespread apocalyptic fears which created an unusual situation, a negation of women’s prohibition of public speaking to some extent, and most importantly a new emphasis on the direct revelation from God, as something available to every human being who honestly sought it. Many pietistic women were devoted correspondents writing letters to religious leaders, recorded their convictions in diaries, formal theological tracts, sermons and also recognized as religious leaders in their area.
1.1.Johanna Eleonora Merlau Peterson (1644-1724)
Johanna an educated women, was most important figure in the Pietistic movement, spread pietism and also responsible for spreading many of the theological ideas for radical branch of movement. The thirty years of war, the social and economic turmoil of the era led Johanna to devote her life to religious activism.[1] Through Spener, she had contact with Maria Juliane Baur Von Eyseneck, wealthy widow both led the ‘conventicler’ Bible Study meetings. It attracted many women, and men who offered interpretations of scripture.
1.2.Susannah Wesley and her influence
During 18th century the protestant churches presented an academic way of Christian life, and people began to experience general religious awakening. Conversion or rebirth became the focus of Christian living. John Wesley was responsible for bringing this change of religious revival and arose Methodism at a crucial moment in English history. From the beginning women played a key role in the Wesleyan Revival, organizing and teaching the class meetings. Wesley allowed women to participate fully in the class meetings, to serve as leaders, gave permission to exhort rather to preach, so that their ministry become more public and official. This opened wider opportunities for women participation in the Christian community and women were allowed to serve as preachers and evangelists. Wesley had a conclusion that a women’s call was the key factor in determine her ministry.
Susannah the mother of Wesley spend more time with her children in spiritual instruction. Her influence extended beyond her family, by holding meetings within her home grew in popularity and increased the number of attendants. She never campaigned for women’s right to preach, but she simply shared her understanding of the gospel and invited others to journey with her. God used her faith to ignite the hearts of many both men and women. It is also said Susannah struck the flint of revival: John caught the spark and fanned it into a blazing fire.
1.3.Sarah Crosby – the itinerant preacher
Sarah travelled to 960 miles in a year and conducted four meetings daily, held 120 public services, led more than 600 private meetings and wrote 116 letters. She was appointed as leader of classes in Bristol and had 200 students under her, thus preached and taught effectively under Wesleyan revival. She continued her itinerant work for twenty years and after her retirement she headed several classes, bands and served as matriarch of a group of women preachers referred to as the female brethren.[2]
1.4.Lady Selina countess of Huntingdon
Selina a wealthy and influenced women secured a foot holding for Methodism and saved the travelling preachers. She sponsored for travelling preachers, opened various estates to preachers and invited her friends among the upper class to attend meetings. She also sponsored for the Trevecca School for training, pastoral assignments, finances and was the general overseer of the work. Within ten years she built more than twenty chapels for her preachers.
2.Great Awakening and women
The second great awakening offered women greater opportunity to actively participate on a lay level in revivalism. Women began seeking lay ministries which was voluntary in nature both inside and outside the church. At the gatherings the Holy Spirit touched the lives of women as well as men and they both responded in typical revivalist. Women responded to their spirituality in various ways. Many societies were founded or directed and supported by women and they were actively involved in ministries to the sick, poor, orphans, prostitutes and prisoners. Women’s social work was not focused only on women and girls, Louisa Daniel organized in 1860 an organization to serve men at various military bases, providing them with recreational facilities, home cook food and Bible study materials. Women were instrumental in founding voluntary societies both within their own churches and across denominational lines, through these societies’ women ministered to her women, to children as well as to men.
3.Enlightenment and women
The enlightenment period tried to replace a religious worldview with a view more associated in human reason. The status of women during the enlightenment period changed drastically, and concerned about liberties, social welfare, economic liberty and education. In many ways the position of women was seriously degraded during enlightenment. The rise of capitalism produced laws that severely restricted women’s rights to own property and run business. Women were forced out of a variety of business throughout Europe. Sixteenth century witnessed that two thirds of the business in London were owned by women but by the eighteenth century that number shrunk to less than ten percent.[3] Most scholars see the emergence of movements as an outgrowth of the enlightenment and the impetus that gave arise to thinking about human rights.[4]
4.Women’s movements
The 19th century saw the emergence of organized women's movements, which, enlarged their opportunities and forced the issue of their rights. The origin of women’s movement was generally traced to Olympe de Gouges’ declaration of the rights of women brought out in 1789 on the eve of French revolution. The social activities of Evangelicals, the agitations on behalf of better working conditions for women in factories and the women’s role in the American anti-slavery movement.[5] The changes in the status of women took particularly with the breakdown of feudalism and the rise of Capitalism.[6]
4.1.The women question and the women's movement for suffrage in England
Many of the historical changes that characterized the Victorian period motivated discussions about the nature and the role of women. This was what Victoria called “The Woman Question”. This question encompasses group debates about the physiological nature, the political capacity, the moral character and the place of woman in society. The question of the place of women in society and in politics arose most acutely in times of wars through the Revolution of 1848 to the dislocation of industrial change, and the raise for Empire towards the end of the 19th century. Yet the woman question was also debated at the level of everyday life. Because women contested the limitations placed on their education, their property rights and their status in marriage and family. The ideas of the suffrage movement in Britain descended directly from Enlightenment political philosophy and nineteenth-century liberal theory, notably through Mary
Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman and John Stuart Mill's The Subjection of
Women. They shared a fundamental theoretical premise: “the human attributes of men and women and the consequent social injustice involved in their unequal treatment”
4.2.The role of Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill
During the Enlightenment the “Rights of Man” were under discussion in England and in
France. Mary Wollstonecraft has been called the Mother of Feminism and the first feminist. She was identified with the revolutionaries of 1789. She proposed to apply enlightened ideas to women. To her, women were rational creatures who were no less capable of intellectual achievement than men. Her “Vindications of the Rights of Women” were published in 1792 and was addressed to Talleyrand, protesting against the exclusion of French women from citizen rights. It is an important work since it advocated the equality of the sexes. She ridiculed the prevailing notions about women as helpless, charming and foolish. To her, women were educated in “slavish dependence”. She criticized the sentimental and foolishness of women. Her text is a protest against women subjugation. Education held the key of achieving self-respect.
To make women able to achieve a better life, not only for themselves but also for their children and their husbands. Women provided education to their children: that is why education was so important. It took more than a century before her ideas were put into effect. Her ideas caused enormous controversy because they were so revolutionary. The question of women role and women rights was discussed by the public in the 1860. The first pamphlets in favor of the enfranchisement of women began to appear in the middle of the 19th century.
John Stuart Mill published “The Subjection of Women” in 1869. He used the image of slavery and bondage. He argued in favor of social, economic and political emancipation of women, and assumed that each individual had interests which only he or she could represent, and on these grounds Mill justified votes for women. He presented a petition in Parliament calling for the inclusion of women suffrage in the Reform Act of 1867. The 1860s saw the unsuccessful demand for female suffrage (the failure of the 1867 Reform Act) and the partially successful demand for a secondary higher education.[7]
4.3.Anti-slavery movement
In 1820 and 1830 in North US an exciting and contagious spirit of reform was in the air and it began in churches. Women of Christianity began to play an important role in these reform movements. They raised voices against slavery in America, which became a most serious moral and political issue in the society during nineteenth century. Grimke Sisters were outspoken and witnessed and they said it is not the slave who alone suffers from the licentiousness of the master and his sons, but the wronged and dishonored wife and daughter, who deeply injured and weep in secret places. In 1833 leading abolitionists met in Philadelphia to form the American Anti- slavery society, which permitted women to attend and to speak. Later nearly twenty women met to form Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and it grows and spread to New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. In 1837 the first anti-slavery movement was held at New York, where nearly 200 women participated. In this movement they first learned to organize, to hold public meetings and to conduct petition campaigns. The movement grew very faster and there were few more movements emerged and strengthened each other.
4.4.Women rights movement
Mary Lou Thompson says women who started out to plead for the slave found they were not allowed to plead. They were ridiculed and not accepted when they appeared on the speaker’s platform or in anti-slavery conventions. So most of the women spoke for their own rights though a formal organization advocating complete legal equality and suffrage was not formed for another twenty years. Feminist Scholar, June Sochen opines that anti-slavery movement and the women rights movement were tied together in various ways.
4.5.Seneca Falls convention and the Progress of Women’s movements
F.S Downs comments, “The beginning of the organized women’s movement is generally identified into the woman’s rights convention convened at Seneca Falls.[8] The upstate New York village of Seneca Falls hosted a gathering of fewer than three hundred people, earnestly debating a Declaration of Sentiments to be spread by newsprint and oratory, and met on July 19, 1848 for three days. Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton's, Martha Wright, Jane Hunt and Mary Ann McClintock were all separatist Quakers, long active in working to improve the position of women within their church were the prominent figures in organizing the convention.[9] The movement was given tremendous impetus by the civil war in the early 1860’s, during it women were called to assume responsibilities traditionally reserved for men. They developed organizations for the purpose of securing rights for themselves which were traditionally denied including the right to own property, the right to inherit, the right to keep their children in case of divorce, and the right to vote, to participate in the political process with men. The resolutions called for complete equality in marriage, equal rights in property, wages and custody of children, the right to make contracts, to sue and be sued, to testify in court and to vote. Within a year a National Women’s Rights Association was organized and State and National conventions were held regularly.[10] The Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention marked the beginning of the woman’s rights movement.[11]
4.6.Temperance movement
Alcoholism was a problem in the nineteenth century which affected women and the family members in numerous ways. Women were dependent on men for all their worldly needs, they believed that the only solution was to ban it. The movement gained momentum in twenty years and this was a middle class problem, and so middle class women and men who formed temperance societies to educate the masses to abstinence. Among all the reform movements, temperance was the cause which was taken up by Christian women more than any other cause. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was a descendant of the temperance crusade and encouraged Christian women to unite for temperance.
5.Women’s organizations
Nineteenth century is distinguished for the formation of a number of Woman’s movement. The second revival and the preachers’ encouragement to do good works helped to sprang up many voluntary groups. Women involved in various women’s organizations such as – Maternal societies, Benevolent Associations, Reform Associations, the club World and many other Women Organizations.[12] Among the organizations Women’s Missionary society was noteworthy, its origin of women’s missionary organizations goes back to 1800, when the Bosten Female Society was started by Mary Webb with fourteen Baptist and Congregational friends. The primary activities were prayer and fund raising for the cause of missions. Their initial interests was in mission work among the Native Americans but gradually their focus shifted to India and China. The success of missionary societies removed prejudice and opposition on the mission fields as well as home. Well trained young women became a source of strength to over worked missionary wives. 
6.Feminist theories and Feminist movements in twentieth century
The movements which emerged during the nineteenth century helped to get courage and fight for their rights. This movements united and led the women forward which is known as the Feminist Movement. Feminism may be defined as the movement that works for the liberation of all that need to be liberated particularly women.[13] Feminist theories emerged in the field of Women’s studies during 1970 in American universities. Feminist theories is a collection of feminist texts with shared goals, practices, and assumptions. Feminist theories stand in service to the women’s movements. Feminists sought to identify the various forms of oppression that structured women’s lives and they imagined and sought to create an alternative future without oppression.[14]
6.1.Liberal Feminism
The main concern for Liberal feminism is equality of civil rights particularly for women. Rosemary Radford Ruether states, “Liberal feminism has roots in both Biblical and Scholastic anthropology, but it represents a radical remodeling of the patriarchal component of these traditions under the impact of the eighteenth century Enlightenment”. The main activity of the liberal feminist in the first half of the twentieth century was to campaign for women’s right to vote, which paved the way for all other political office. They also sought full access to higher education in the fields such as law, medicine and ministry to which women were deprived historically. The early period is the heyday for the activists, but Second World War laid a pause for the campaign for women’s equality. The liberal feminists sought equal rights further by demanding equal pay for equal work, equal access to all levels of a profession. They also focused on male control over women bodies and claimed women’s right to reproductive self-determination, sex education, birth control and abortion. It also focused on factors such as women’s right to dignity, control over their sexual passions, against sexual harassment, wife battering, rape and pornography which dehumanize women.
6.2.Socialist feminism
Socialist feminism attempts to synthesize best insights of Marxist and Radical feminism. Capitalism, male dominance, racism, imperialism are intertwined and inseparable. Socialist feminism remains more historical than biological and more specific than universal: recognizes all the important differences among human beings—class, sex, but also age, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation. Women, like all human beings, are constituted essentially by the social relations they inhabit. A woman’s life experience is shaped by all these various dimensions. Refuses to reduce oppression to one single type or cause.[15] According to Storky, socialist feminism has its origin in the eighteenth century enlightenment. Reuther however traces it back to the nineteenth century classic study by Fredreich Engels, the origin and history of the family, private property and the state. There are other scholars who assume that the socialist feminism is the byproduct of the students’ unrest and civil rights movement of the 1960’s.[16] 
6.3.Radical feminism
Radical feminists appeal to women not as an economic class but as a class defined by the sex/gender system. Sexuality is the root cause of oppression women are oppressed because they are women. Radical feminists, through their analysis of the gender system, first disclosed the elaborate system of male domination known as patriarchy. Radical feminists focus on the subordination of women as its primary concern revealing how male power is exercised and reinforced through such practices as sexual harassment, rape, pornography, prostitution, as well as childbearing, housework, love and marriage. Radical feminists made stride in the battle against violence against women.[17] Radical feminists identify that biological differences as male and female are the sources of women’s oppression. They affirm that the only way for women liberation is to dethrone the whole patriarchal structures.[18] The important aspect of radical feminism is that they cannot be identified as a group. But they are found scattered here and there among other groups. They are anti-male attitudes which was exhibited right from the beginning.[19]
6.4.Feminist theology
Feminist theology is as nonsensical a concept as a theology of liberation, of hope, of questioning.[20] Feminist theology has its root in the women’s movement of the late 1960 and 1970 in North America. Feminist theology emerged as a grass root challenge to traditional views of women’s role in religion and society. Feminist theology does not represent the theology of every woman who reflects on her spiritual journey and her beliefs about God and the world. Feminist theology is an attempt to characterize feminist theology, Reflection on patriarchy, Feminist approach to the Bible, Feminist emphasis on mutuality and connectedness. Feminist theology takes feminist critique and reconstruction of gender paradigms into the theological realm. They question patterns of theology that justify male dominance and female subordination, such as exclusive male language for God, the view that males are more like God than females, that only males can represent God as leaders in church and society, or that women are created by God to be subordinate to males and thus sin by rejecting this subordination.
Feminist theologians move beyond traditional views of doctrines which are the conceptual arenas in which character is shaped. Doctrines shape not only individual identities but the identities and practices of entire communities as well.[21] Feminist theologians also seek to reconstruct the basic theological symbols of God, humanity, male and female, creation, sin and redemption, and the church, in order to define these symbols in a gender inclusive and egalitarian way. In so doing they become theologians, not simply critics of the dominant theology.[22]
Conclusion
Women in modern Christianity made the church and society to think about the role and place of women. Modern period witnessed the growth of feminist movements, feminist theories and particularly feminist theology for Church. Through these movements women sought liberation from the existing patriarchy, in society and church. The theories have led to many in this contemporary world, which will continue to live and grow, as long as women anywhere have grievances they can proclaim and as long as they are willing and able to organize to rectify them. Feminists tend to read the Bible in a critical method which gave rise to Feminist theology. 
Bibliography
Heine, Susanne. Women and Early Christianity. London: SCM Press, 1986.
Imchen, Narola. Women in the History of Christianity. Assam: Tribal Development and      Communication Centre, 2010.
Jones, Serene. Feminist theory and Christian Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress press, 2000.
Martin, Francis. The Feminist Question. Michigan: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing Company,   1994.
Ralte, Lalrinawmi Women re-shaping Theology. New Delhi, ISPCK, 1998.
Webliography
http://www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/academics/SummerSchool/Dateien2011/Papers/juncker_remy.pdf (Accessed on 24-01-2017)
http://www.opinionarchives.com/files/dissent_womens_hist_month.pdf (Accessed on 24-01-2017)
http://faculty.ycp.edu/~dweiss/phl380_feminist_thought/what%20is%20feminist%20theory.pdf (Accesed on 24-07-2017).
http://www.biblicaltheology.com/Research/AdebayoFO01.pdf (Accessed on 24-07-207).



[1] Narola Imchen, Women in the History of Christianity (Assam: Tribal Development and Communication Centre, 2010), 112, 114.
[2] Narola Imchen, Women in the History …, 116.
[3] Narola Imchen, Women in the History …, 117-121.
[4] Francis Martin, The Feminist Question (Michigan: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing company, 1994), 146.
[5] Lalrinawmi Ralte, Women re-shaping Theology (New Delhi, ISPCK, 1998),16.
[6] Narola Imchen, Women in the History …, 126.
[8] Narola Imchen, Women in the History of Christianity (Assam: Tribal Development and Communication Centre, 2010), 129-132.
[10] Narola Imchen, Women in the History …, 132- 134.
[12] Narola Imchen, Women in the History …, 137- 139.
[13] Narola Imchen, Women in the History …, 140-141.
[14] Serene Jones, Feminist theory and Christian Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress press, 2000), 3.
[16] Narola Imchen, Women in the History …, 142- 143.
[18] Narola Imchen, Women in the History …, 145.
[19] Francis Martin, The Feminist Question (Michigan: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing company, 1994), 147.
[20] Susanne Heine, Women and Early Christianity (London: SCM Press, 1986), 49.
[21] Serene Jones, Feminist theory and Christian Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress press, 2000), 13-16.
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