Introduction
The word
ecumenism doesn’t contend with unity among churches or denominations rather it involves
cultural, social, religious and traditional ecumenism. All through the history
there are various efforts taken to have ecumenism among these factors and had
achieved various results such are Ashramas, serampore and Missionary societies.
1.
The Ashram Movement
The historians
have been rummaging through the record in search of some Christian institutions
of the past which can be presented now as “pioneers of the Ashram Movement”.
All Christian historians concur that the need for Christian ashrams was felt
when the spread of the gospel became more and more difficult due to the rising
tide of resurgent Hinduism. The pride of place in this context goes, to the
“ashram” of Robert De Nobili and his successors at Madurai. Then there is a
long gap till to the short-lived ashram which Brahmabandhab set up on the
Narmada in the closing years of the nineteenth century. From 1921 onwards we
are presented with some mission stations which styled themselves as ashrams, or
are named so now.
1.1 Emerging Ashramas :-The
first cues came from ashrams founded by some leaders of the Indian
Renaissance-the Bharat Ashram founded by Keshab Chandra Sen in 1872 at
Belgharia near Calcutta, the Ramakrishna ashrams which functioned as bases of
the Ramakrishna Mission since 1897, the Shantiniketan Ashram founded by
Rabindranath Tagore at Bolepur in 1901, and the Satyagraha Ashram which Mahatma
Gandhi started at Sabarmati after his return from South Africa in 1915. The
names of Ramana Ashram at Tiruvannamalai and Sri Aurobindo Ashram at
Pondicherry are added to the list by some historians. Christian ashramas were
inspired by the Brahmanical ashrams and Buddhist and Jain monasteries, of
ancient and medieval times.
1.2 Christian Ashramas: -
After Brahmabandhab, K.T. Paul, General Secretary of the National Missionary
Society (NMS) founded in 1905, was the first to propose formation of Christian
ashrams in a meeting of the NMS at New Delhi in 1912. The ashrams were expected
“to attract the most spiritual Christian youths” and provide them with
“evangelical equipment to meet the best exponents of the non-Christian
religions on their own grounds”. But the idea did not take shape till 1921. The
NMS was an organization outside the mission proper controlled by foreign
missionaries.
The Christian poet from Maharashtra, N.V. Tilak,
founded an institution at Satara in 1917 and named it God’s Darbar. He had “a
vision of Christ founding Swaraj in man’s heart”. Jesus was hailed as the guru.
The inmates of the Darbar were baptised and unbaptised disciples of Tilak. He
sometimes preferred to describe his creation as an ashram. “But it is recorded
that some missionaries misunderstood and opposed Tilak’s attitude and style.”
The “ashram” collapsed and disappeared when Tilak died two years later. Dr. E.
Forrester Paton of the Scottish Mission forward the idea of Christian Ashramas
and found favor with the mission. He joined the NMS and roped in a native
Christian, Dr. S. Jesudasen of the same organization, to start in 1921 the
Christakula (Family of Christ) Ashram at Tirupattur in the Madras Presidency.
1.3 Ecumenism and Ashramas: -
The Christakula ashrama was patterned on Gandhian lines. The inmates were clad
in khâdî, ate vegetarian food and remained celibate. “Because both the founders
were medical doctors, the major social service activity of the ashram was
medical care. But village evangelism was a high priority with the ashram and
education and agriculture development were systematically offered.” The ashram
did make some experiments in Tamil-style church architecture and Tamil
Christian hymns. But for the rest, it was a normal mission station and so it
has remained till today. In later years, it was given “grants by European
funding agencies for health, agriculture and tribal development”.
1.4 Christa Seva Sangha: -
The Christa Seva Sangha, was also founded by a foreign missionary, J.C. Winslow
of the British Society for Propagation of the Gospel. He had consulted Dr.
Paton before the Sangha was launched at Miri in Ahmadnagar District of
Maharashtra on June 11, 1922, the feast day of St. Barnabas. The inmates became
known for wearing khâdî, performing sandhyâs in Marathi and Sanskrit, and
singing bhajans to the accompaniment of Indian musical instruments and spent in
evangelistic work in the Ahmadnagar villages.
Fr. Winslow visited England in 1926 and as a result
in 1927 and 1928 the Sangha was reinforced by four priests and three laymen
from England”. With the help of Dame Monica Wills, he was able to purchase a
piece of land near Bhamburda station just outside Poona to build an Ashram and
permanent headquarters”. In 1931, the Sangha purchased “a large field adjoining
the river at Aundh, four miles to the north of Poona, as a site for
establishing a village Ashram from which work might be carried on among
villages. By 1934, the Sangha had so much money and manpower that it was
bifurcated into two. The new establishment at Aundh retained the old name. The
set-up at Poona was rechristened as the Christa Prema Seva Sangha and handed
over to another British missionary, W.Q. Lash. He became the Bishop of Bombay
in 1947.
In subsequent years, the Christa Prema Seva Sangha
became more prominent than its parent body. It built a hostel for college
students-Hindu, Muslim and Christian-who could spend their holidays there in
inter-religious dialogues. It became affiliated to the Society of St. Francis
in England and provided hospitality to all sorts of missionary organizations,
national and international, for holding conferences. Poona became the clearing
house for the Ashram Movement of the mission. Dr. Philipos Thomas writes, “The
Poona Ashram has been revived and it acts as an ecumenical Ashram in which
Roman Catholics and Protestants work together Inter-Ashram Conferences are held
every year and their reports, messages and prayer circulars are sent to every
Ashram. This is one way of strengthening the fellowship between Ashrams.”
1.5 Jesus as Sannyasin: - A
Christian painter at Poona plied his brush and made Jesus a native son of
India. Hindus could now see Mary, the mother of Jesus, dressed in sârî and
wearing an elaborate Hindu coiffeur, in scenes such as her own childhood,
Nativity of Jesus, Mother of India, Our Lady of India, Annunciation, etc.
Hindus could now see Jesus in a Hindu setting, blessing the fishes held up in a
plate by a Brahmin boy, meeting and talking to a Hindu woman at Samaria,
sitting in padmâsana while his feet are anointed by Mary Magdalene dressed as a
Hindu damsel, being attended by two Hindu women at Bethany, getting tied to a
Hindu-style pillar and scourged by two whip-wielding Hindus, being crucified
while two Hindu women stand by the cross with mournful faces, being taken down
from the cross by four Hindu women, and so on. The evening at Golgotha became
crowded with Hindu men and women. St. Thomas stood attired as a Hindu sannyasin
with two similarly dressed Hindu disciples kneeling at his feet. The design for
Indian Christian statuary showed Jesus hanging on a cross while a rishi-like
figure, riding a Garu Da-like bird, sat on its top and two Hindu women stood on
both sides, one praying with folded hands and the other offering incense.
Hindus now had no reason to reject Jesus as a Jewish rabbi who lived and died
in a distant land; he was very much of a Hindu avatâra. Hindus could only
wonder at how a historical person who appeared at a particular place and time
could be transplanted elsewhere and in another period with such perfect ease.
1.6 Rishis: -
S. Jesudason of the Christukula Ashrma says that “Rishis gave us ashrams and
the ashrams gave us rishis in return”.
It is true that they founded and lived in ashrams. But to say that
ashrams produced rishis is ridiculous. There is no evidence that Hindus ever
accepted a man known as a rishi simply because he lived in an ashram. The
rishis known to Hindu religious tradition were first and foremost the living
embodiments of a vast spiritual vision evolved and perfected by Sanatana
Dharma. The total absence of that vision in Christianity is a guarantee that
Christian ashrams will always remain sterile so far as rishis are concerned.
The rishis were never so dumb. Hindus have inherited a large literature in
which spiritual experience has been described in detail, in prose and poetry,
by means of similies and metaphors. Their rishis have continued adding to it till
recent times.
1.7 Roman Catholic:-
The Roman catholic church did not made attempt to found ashram movement but Fr.
Jules Monchanin, the French missionary, gave the project a practical shape in
1950 when he, along with another French missionary, Fr. Henri Le Saux, founded
the Saccidananda Ashram at Tannirpalli in the Tiruchirapalli district of Madras
Presidency. They had clad themselves in Kavi robes, the traditional sign of the
great renunciation in the land of India. Round their necks they wore the Benedictine
cross and engraved in its centre the pranava, symbol of God the Ineffable and
of the Eternal word springing from His Silence, a solemn affirmation that the
Christ revealed in history is the very Brahman itself, the object of all the
contemplations of the Rishis. They had taken new names. His own,
Parama-Arubi-Anandam, bore witness to his special devotion to the Praclete, the
Supreme (Parama), Formless (a-rubi). They called their solitude the Shanti
Vanam, the wood of peace. Its formal name was Saccidananda Ashram.” Fr. Henri
Le Saux took the name Swami Abhishikteshwarananda, Bliss of the Lord of the
Anointed Ones, that is, Jesus Christ. His friends and followers found the full
name too difficult to pronounce. So he cut it short to Abhishiktananda more
shortened as Abhishikta by his followers. Dr. Taylor writes, the ashram did not
really work like an ashram and finally Abhishiktananda wandered off to the
Himalayas and became the most exciting Indian spiritual theologian of his
generation.
1.8 Shantivanam: -
Dom Bede Griffiths came to Shantivanam to make a new foundation. Dom Bede had
been in India for many years at the so-called ashram in Kurisumala where he
must have observed how to do and how not to do things. Anyway, it seems that
Shantivanam is now thriving.
2.
Serampore Mission
Christ-centered
humanism has the best opening making its impact in this dialogic social
existence. This is the cultural mission of Christian ecumenism in contemporary
society, and more specially in India. The mission of the Serampore Trio can be
seen in the light of contemporary ecumenical concept of mission. The missionary
vision and mission strategies of them were significantly ecumenical both in
Christian and secular lines even in the nineteenth century itself. In the early
years of nineteenth century, the trio had emerged as a dynamic force of
Christian mission which spoke of cosmic Christ. William Carey and his team
strongly believed that mission was concerned not only to a person but also to
his environment. Therefore, we found a wholistic concept of mission in the
ministries of Serampore Trio i.e., mission to the total person in the whole
society. We can easily identify how the missions of the Serampore Baptists
Bengal society reached the nineteenth century in a broader and secular
ecumenical sensibility. Secular ecumenical missions are understood here as the
Christian missions ventured in the total context of people's culture and
community.
2.1
Historical Context of the Serampore Trio:
Though the first
Christian activity in Bengal began from 1576 by the Jesuits, the total life of
Bengalees was not influenced by it. But the mission of Serampore trio had a
tremendous impetus on the life of the Bengal society from 1800. William Carey
started his ministry in Bengal in 1793 and he had been joined by John Marshman,
a school teacher and WilliamWard, a printer. This partnership was generally
called - Serampore Trio who worked unitedly for many years for the upliftment
of Bengal society in educational, social and religious environments.
Politically,
the Danes settled at Serampore from 1755. Col. Ole Bie was the, Chief
Administrator of Serapore' town from 1776-1805. In 1777, the Danish settlements
of India came into the direct administration of the crown of Denmark, Col. Bie
became the crown regime. From the beginning, the mutual trust and right
relation had never achieved totally between English and Danes till the
Serampore town fell into the hands of British in 1845.
Socially,
the life of the Bengal society was divided on the basis of castes and their
traditional occupations. Intercaste marriages or dining were strictly forbidden.
Practice of polygamy was a common factor among Kulins. Religio-Culturally, the Hindu beliefs and traditions were part of
community life. Durga Puja was the national festival of Bengal and each village
had its own deity. Many social evils continued in the society on the basis of
religion and culture. The Hindu and Muslim relation was cordial and harmonious.
2.2
Ecumenical Missions of the Serampore Trio:
The missionaries
had encountered the society, religion and various situations to bring out their
Christian missions with a new vision and spirit. The ecumenical missions of the
Trio are examined in educational, social and religious fields.
2.2.1.
Educational Missions:- All missionaries in India used
Education as a key instrument in their missionary work to propagate the gospel.
Perhaps; the chief aim of the Serampore Trio might be the same in the beginning
of their missions. But later, the concept of education in the minds of Trio
became completely different as per the demands of the then Bengal social
religious and cultural situation. The reality' of the society was largely studied
by them. So a global thought of education emerged in their minds to liberate
the local society. Innovative schemes of education were initiated and
implemented sincerely though they had to struggle in their lives due to various
reasons factors. Contextually, it was the intention of the East India Company
to encourage Bengali, Marathi and other regional languages at Fort William
College to benefit themselves in commercial enterprises with natives. Whereas
the Baptist missionaries, launched the educational institutions for the sake of
the whole society. Here the society or the peoples must be looked upon as
‘Oikoumene’, of the whole inhabited world. No denomination, race, class, sex,
caste or any other criterion of difference was evolved in the ecumenical ministries
of the Baptists.
Carey's effort
in establishing Agri-Horticultural Society in 1825 reflects his vision of
cosmos, which is again becoming concerned with the whole of the earth. He was a
unique missionary of global mission. Over all, the trio recognized and
respected each other's thoughts and deeds. It is a model ecumenical trio!
Vernacular
schools, female schools, Marshman’ Educational Plan, William Carey's Professor
at Fort William College and his interaction with other faiths there and the
association of Serampore trio with so many educational programmes in Bengal
speak for the ecumenical consciousness of the three Baptist missionaries.The
linguistic works of the Trio were so remarkable. The grammars, dictionaries,
translations, journalism, publications and various literary contributions thus
enlightened the whole Bengal. The modern
mission thought of Carey and his men was totally framed on the basis of
cultural mission. Unless the culture, the people and the whole society was
transformed into a new mind, the whole process of modern mission would be in
vain. So the educational missionary efforts of trio made a tremendous impact on
the life of the Bengali society in the nineteenth century.
2.2.2.
Social Missions:- Carey was a social thinker and social
ecumenist. He had undertaken an extensive study of Bengali society and found
the social evils prevailed were against the welfare and progress of the
society. When the sick and dying people were brought by their relatives to the
Ghats of the holy rivers to die, the missionaries helped them with medicines.
They not only supplied medicines but also published in their periodicals from
time to time to let the readers know how to make use of the medicines
available. The trio thought non-Christians would make use of the services of
Indian Christian doctors. Therefore, it was vindicated that the services of the
Baptists influenced William Bentinck, British Governor-General, to launch a
medical college at Calcutta in 1835. The primary aim of the college was to give
medical knowledge to the natives.
Another social
evil was infanticide i.e. throwing the child into the river as an offering.
This was strongly criticized by Carey when he heard the report of William Ward
on it and he submitted a report to the government saying: Memorial on murders
committed under the pretence of religion in the hope that they would all be
decided criminal acts.
Furthermore, the
Serampore Trio fought severely against ‘Sati’ which was an inhuman act in the
name of Hindu religion. With the help of his Pundit Vidyalankar, Carey found no
emphasis in the shastras about Sati. So the missionaries published articles on
Sati for public awareness, and through their letters they appealed their
philanthropic European friends to put pressure on British government. Raja Ram
Mohan Roy, an eminent Indian leader also joined the movement and voiced against
the evil practice of Sati. After long protest by the Serampore Trio and their
supporters, the government abolished Sati in 1829. The significant features
this social mission of the trio was giving a new meaning and praxis for modern
Christian missions.
2.2.3.
Religious Missions:- A greater amount of commitment and unity
among the Serampore missionaries made possible their efforts of evangelism in
and out of Bengal a success. The socio-economic and socio-religious situation
of India during the end of eighteen Century gives the impression that the
country was in dismal condition. Historically, it has been accepted that Raja
Ram Mohan Roy had transformed this century through his dynamic social,
intellectual and religious acts. But a careful study of this period reveals
that even before him the Serampore Trio started their crusade against
illiteracy, ignorance and superstition. Trio established printing presses,
started writing and printing in Indian languages, opened schools and launched
movements against the prevailing social evils; But they differed from other
‘evangelicals’ in their approach towards Indian religion and culture. Though
they appreciated Indian culture, they criticized the evils of Hindu society and
religion.
William Ward
wrote a four volume book on Hindus entitled “An Account of the’ writings,
Religion and Manners of the Hindus, including translations from their Principal
Works” (1811) in which Hindus, their religion, festivals and their gods were
degraded. Situationally, Serampore Trio shifted to exclusivist attitude towards
Hinduism. They recognized the fact of interdependency of religion and society
among Bengal Hindus. Caste is Hinduism and Hinduism is caste and they tried for
casteless society by encouraging inter-caste marriages among the converts and
arranged united communion services. At Serampore College, Pundits refused to
teach the Hindu sacred scriptures to the Sudras. But the Baptists forced them
to teach the sacred laws to Sudras. Furthermore, they considered the
‘Brahminical thread’ as a token of social distinction and so the Brahmins were
baptized with their sacred threads. It is noteworthy here that Carey and his
associates learned Indian languages and published Ramayana and other Indian
ancient works in view of finding facts and social awakening among Hindus. When
Serampore trio were using their journals ‘Samachar Darpan’ and ‘Friend of
India’, to bring out their comments on Hindu society and religion; Ram Mohan
also published (1821) a bi-lingual magazine in Bengali and English entitled
‘The, Brahminical Magazine’ to defend Hinduism. Roy played a significant role
in the process of interaction between Serampore trio and the Hindus through his
free thinking and valuable writings. He decided to draw the attention of his
fellow Hindus to the teachings of Jesus and in 1820; he published the ‘Precepts
of Jesus’. Overall, the trio had done their ultimate efforts on the translation
of the Holy Bible into numerous Indian languages which was the matchless and
permanent gift to the Indian Christians.
The three type
missions of Trio in the Bengal society during nineteenth century reflects their
wider perspective of missions. Their secular ecumenical missionary approach had
created a marvellous influence on the life of Bengal Hindus. The society,
religion and culture were examined and encountered by their educational, social
and religious missions. The outcome of these missions was an emergence of a new
ecumenical awakening in the Bengal society i.e., Renaissance which produced a
lot of openness and secular ecumenism.
3.
Missionary societies
History shows
that the contemporary
Ecumenical Movement has
its roots in
the Protestant missionmovement of
the 19th century
and its inspiration
in the desire
of Evangelical
Protestants to achieve a “unity in fellowship” amongst themselves for
greater success in the mission
field. Willem Saayman, a Protestant
scholar of missiology, begins his study
on mission and
unity with the following
words: “Theecumenical movement
does not derive simply
from a passion
for unity; it
sprang from a passion
for unity that
is completely fused
in mission.” The union of mission and ecumenism, however, was not something arrived at quickly or
painlessly for the Protestant world. It
grew slowly in the soil ofglobal
confessional alliances and comity agreements among the Protestants in the
second halfof the 19th
century, and continued in the
international student movements and
missionaryconferences,
becoming a new paradigm
of ecclesiastical unity for
the John Mott, the spokesman for global missions among the Protestants,
dared to speak
of “the evangelization of
the world in
this generation.” On the otherhand, Mott
pointed to the
growth of the
missionary societies. At
the beginning of
the nineteenth century
there were six
Protestant missionary organizations. By
the end of
the century there
were 537.
3.1
Global vision
This global
vision of mission
was, in two
important ways, to
set the stage
for the “ecumenical
century” to follow.
Firstly, it took Protestantism out
of its isolation
in the West and brought it face to face both with
cultures, peoples and faiths around the world
and with its own divisions reflected in the denominational chaos which
was transplanted to the mission field.
In this respect, it is quite telling that the most outspoken proponents of ecumenism after the turn of the century
were the leaders of the newly‐planted
missions of China and India. Secondly,
the missionary movement
often went hand
in hand with
colonial and economic expansion. In this way, the
worldwide spread of Protestantism is seen to be an important factor in the first stages of the
process of globalization,which has been built
upon the common language and culture of the Protestant West. Thus,
the Protestant missionary
enterprise served as
the spring board
of the ecumenical
movement and prepared
the ground for
the arrival of
the “ecumenical century” and the move from a missionary to an
“ecumenical ecclesiology.”
3.2
Evangelical alliance
London, in
1846, was the
setting for the
coming into being
of a “new
thing” in Church
history - a
definite organization for
the expression of
unity amongst Christian
individuals belonging to
different Churches, namely,
the Evangelical Alliance.
Eight hundred Evangelical
leade rs belonging
to no less
than fifty‐two Protestant denominations were in attendance.
Hailed “as if it were the millennium,” it is claimed that here the reality of
Christian unity had at last found corporate expression. The Evangelical
Alliance was an organization which aimed at making the Invisible Church
visible, that the world may know. In
large part through
the Alliance Evangelicals had learnt to feel themselves
one in Christ, across national and ecclesiastical boundaries, had banded themselves together in
voluntary societies, and had come to look
upon co‐operation
with each other in the service of their Lord as a normal and joyful part of the Christian life. United in the
evangelical experience through the missionary societies, in spite of or in indifference
to dogmatic differences,
the unity of the evangelicals
can rightly said
to be one of the first expressions of the
contemporary ecumenical spirit.
The passion for evangelism gave rise to the passion
for unity, expressed both on the
practical level, toward
greater missionary success,
and on the
theoretical level, in the evangelical conception of the church as being
invisible and of unity as being a matter of
the heart; spiritual
not organic. The
spread and acceptance
of this conception
of the church
throughout and eventually
beyond evangelical circles
was made possible
by the missionary society - an organization at once
non‐ecclesial and super‐ecclesial.
Protestant
historian Ruth Rouse
has this to
say about the
evangelical missionary societies:
“They
were not ecumenical in objective but they were ecumenical in result. .
. they created
a consciousness of
unity, a "sense
of togetherness" amongst
Christians of different
Churches. Though rarely
formulated, the fundamental conception of Christian unity which lay beneath
their common striving was that all true Christians share the life in Christ,
that they are one by virtue of that sharing, and that this oneness is the
essential Christian unity.”
The Evangelicals, whose principle task was to preach
the Gospel to the heathen, the greatest evil of the time was denominational
bigotry. Hence, when in 1795 the London Missionary Society was founded,
which was started
as a union
effort of Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Anglicans, it was hailed as
“the funeral of bigotry.” Out of the
common evangelical experience,
then, an “evangelical
ecclesiology” had appeared founded upon the watchword: “if
theologies can divide, experience can unite.”
Conclusion
When we speak of ecumenism it does not include only
the church unity but ecumenism goes beyond church unity and these are some of
the examples in the history of ecumenical movement. It is better to follow such
type of ecumenical model which our missionaries adopted based on the cultural,
social and religious values to do ministry in a pluralistic country like
India.
Bibliography
Firth,
C.B. An introduction to Indian Church
History. Madras: Christian literature service,1961.
JeyaKumar,
Arthur. History of Christianity in India.
New Delhi: ISPCK, 2002.
Jaya
Kumar A. History of Christianity in India
Major Themes. New Delhi: ISPCK,
Snaitang
O.L. A history of ecumenical movement.
Bangalore: SATHRI, National printing press, 2004.
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