{ "book_metadata": { "book_name": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials", "book_author": "M. K. Kuriakose", "publisher": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge", "published_on": "2011" }, "chunks": [ { "chunk_index": 1, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 277 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00301-e87393cd392a419358b7.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Appeal to Indian Churches", "chunk_data": "140. NATIONAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY: CALL TO THE INDIAN CHURCHES (c. 1900 A.D.)\nThis appeal to Indian Christians to form an indigenous missionary society for the purpose of evangelizing India was sent out over the names of K.C. Banerji, S. Satthianadhan and Raja Sir Maharaj Singh.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "K.C. Banerji", "S. Satthianadhan", "Raja Sir Maharaj Singh" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Indian Christian leaders issued an appeal to establish an indigenous missionary society for evangelizing India.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missions", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 2, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 277 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00301-e87393cd392a419358b7.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Source and Date of Appeal", "chunk_data": "The precise date is not known. Cited in Donald Fosset Ebright, The National Missionary Society of India, 1905-1942, pp. 79-81.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Donald Fosset Ebright" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "The appeal was cited in Donald Fosset Ebright's history of the National Missionary Society of India.", "tags": [ "Missions", "History" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 3, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 277 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00301-e87393cd392a419358b7.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Unoccupied Fields of India", "chunk_data": "Our hearts have been stirred by the appalling need of the unoccupied fields of India. According to the Census Report there are, in the Bombay Presidency, over thirty Taluks with a population of over 50,000 each without a single Christian or Christian worker.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "India", "Bombay Presidency" ], "event": "The appeal described the large unoccupied mission fields and the absence of Christian workers in more than thirty Bombay Presidency taluks.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 4, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 277 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00301-e87393cd392a419358b7.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Un evangelized Indian States", "chunk_data": "Several of the small Native States in Rajputana, Chota Nagpur, Central India, the Central Provinces and elsewhere have yet to be evangelized.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "Rajputana", "Chota Nagpur", "Central India", "Central Provinces" ], "event": "The appeal identified several Native States and regions that had not yet been evangelized.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 5, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 277 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00301-e87393cd392a419358b7.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Projected Evangelization Deficit", "chunk_data": "It is estimated that, with the utmost increase of existing missionary agencies, there will be fully 100 millions of the people of India who cannot hear the Gospel message in this generation.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "The appeal estimated that up to 100 million Indians would remain unable to hear the Gospel during that generation.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 6, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 277 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00301-e87393cd392a419358b7.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Limited Christian Growth", "chunk_data": "In spite of the earnest work of the Missionary Societies of Europe and America, for over one hundred years, to evangelize this country, only one in a hundred is now nominally a Christian.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "Europe", "America", "India" ], "event": "After more than a century of missionary work from Europe and America, only about one percent of India's population was nominally Christian.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 7, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 277 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00301-e87393cd392a419358b7.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Missionary Resources Exhausted", "chunk_data": "The resources of Europe and America in men and money are taxed to the utmost; and now for some years we hear the oft-repeated cry from various Missionary Boards that there is a deficit in men and money.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "Europe", "America" ], "event": "Missionary Boards reported shortages of personnel and funds despite the heavy use of European and American resources.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "Finance" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 8, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 277 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00301-e87393cd392a419358b7.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Indian Church Responsibility", "chunk_data": "This being the case, we are sure you will feel with us that the time has come when the Indian Christian Church should rise to her responsibility for the evangelization of this land. India is ours, and we whom God has called out of this land to be His own are, in a peculiar way, responsible to God for the souls of our countrymen.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Indian Christians" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "The appeal called on the Indian Christian Church to accept responsibility for evangelizing India and its fellow countrymen.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missions", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 9, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 277 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00301-e87393cd392a419358b7.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Gospel Command", "chunk_data": "The command to go and preach the Gospel to every creature is as binding on Indians as on Europeans. Indifference to this same command has brought with it in every land stagnation and decay in the Church. If we do not, as a body, rise to this opportunity and fulfil our responsibility in this matter, we cannot long enjoy the blessing of God.\nsupreme", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Indians", "Europeans" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "The appeal declared that Indians shared the obligation to preach the Gospel and warned that neglecting this duty would bring stagnation and decay.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missions", "Church" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 10, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 277, 278 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00301-e87393cd392a419358b7.webp", "raw\\pages\\00302-64e1aa0c591d65c9a09a.webp" ], "chunk_title": "National Missionary Society Proposed", "chunk_data": "To awaken in our people a national consciousness, to create in them a sense of true patriotism, and to unite in the cause of the evangelization of our country the Indian Christians of all denominations and provinces, it has been placed in the hearts of many of our brethren to organize a National Missionary Society of India which will be conducted by Indian men, supported by Indian money, and controlled by Indian management.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Indian Christians" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Indian Christians proposed a National Missionary Society to unite Christians across denominations and provinces under Indian leadership and funding.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "Nationalism" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 11, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 278 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00302-64e1aa0c591d65c9a09a.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Missionary Support for Society", "chunk_data": "Prominent Indian Christians and many representative Missionaries from all parts of India, to whom the plan has been suggested, have already signified their cordial approval of this scheme and their readiness to co-operate in furthering the cause when such a Society is organized.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Indian Christians", "Missionaries" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Indian Christians and missionaries from across India approved the proposed society and offered to cooperate in its work.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 12, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 278 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00302-64e1aa0c591d65c9a09a.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Society's Evangelistic Objective", "chunk_data": "The object of the Society will be to evangelize the unoccupied fields in India and to lay upon our fellow-countrymen the burden of responsibility for the evangelization of this land.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Indian Christians" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "The proposed society would evangelize unoccupied areas and place responsibility for the work on India's fellow countrymen.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 13, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 278 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00302-64e1aa0c591d65c9a09a.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Council and Executive Committee", "chunk_data": "The general direction of affairs will be placed in the hands of a Council, composed of representative Indians elected by the members from each province together with members representing the larger missions, and one or two missionaries who have deeply at heart the interests of the Indian Church. An Executive Committee appointed by the Council will be situated at one of the presidency cities, and will have the immediate direction of the work of the Society.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Representative Indians", "Missionaries" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "The proposed society would be governed by a representative Council and an Executive Committee based in a presidency city.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Church", "Administration" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 14, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 278 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00302-64e1aa0c591d65c9a09a.webp" ], "chunk_title": "No New Denomination", "chunk_data": "It must be understood that this will not mean the forming of a new Church or denomination. We shall preserve denominational loyalty. As in the China Inland Mission, men of the same denomination will work together, and their converts will be members of their own Church.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "China" ], "event": "The proposed society would unite missionaries without creating a new church or denomination, following the example of the China Inland Mission.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missions", "Church" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 15, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 278 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00302-64e1aa0c591d65c9a09a.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Hope for Indian Resources", "chunk_data": "One might naturally ask whether we shall get for this enterprise the required men and money. With more than a million Protestant Indian Christians, with large communities in some parts growing in wealth, influence and education, with the experience in self-support and self-government our community has gained in many places, we have every reason to hope that the plan will succeed.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Protestant Indian Christians" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "The appeal argued that India's Protestant Christian population had sufficient wealth, education, and experience to support the missionary plan.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "Finance" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 16, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 278 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00302-64e1aa0c591d65c9a09a.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Offers to Support Missionaries", "chunk_data": "There are certain communities, churches and even individuals who might easily support a Missionary of their own. Some individual members of our community have already offered, if such a Society be formed, to support singly a worker as their representative; while others have said they will themselves go as workers if the way opens.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Indian Christians", "Missionaries" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Indian communities and individuals offered to support missionaries or serve as workers if the society were formed.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "Finance" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 17, "chapter_name": "c.1900. National Missionary Society: Call to the Indian Churches", "page_numbers": [ 278 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00302-64e1aa0c591d65c9a09a.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Call for Men and Money", "chunk_data": "May we not believe that when the responsibility is placed upon them, our people will respond to this call for men and money to carry the Gospel to our countrymen?", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1900, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1900 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Indian Christians" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "The appeal expressed confidence that Indian Christians would provide workers and funds to spread the Gospel among their countrymen.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Religion", "India" ] } } ] }