{ "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": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [293], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00317-9b716d924e18029e202e.webp"], "chunk_title": "First General Assembly", "chunk_data": "145. DOCUMENTS OF THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SOUTH INDIA UNITED CHURCH (1908 A.D.)\nThe first General Assembly of the South India United Church was held at Madras from the 25th to the 27th of December, 1908. The formation of this church was an important step in the developing church union movement in India. Among the documents approved by the Assembly were a Declaration of Union, a Plan of Union and Constitution, and a Short History. The first and the last are reproduced here. From The Report of the Assembly Held in Madras, pp. 3-4, 16 ff.", "time": { "start_year": 1908, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 25, "end_year": 1908, "end_month": 12, "end_date": 27, "time_display": "December 25–27, 1908" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": ["Madras", "India"], "event": "The first General Assembly of the South India United Church met in Madras and approved foundational union documents.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Religion", "India"] } }, { "chunk_index": 2, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [293], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00317-9b716d924e18029e202e.webp"], "chunk_title": "Declaration of Union", "chunk_data": "Declaration of Union\nWhereas the Churches of the Madura and Jaffna Missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and those of the South India District Committee and the Travancore Mission of the London Missionary Society, in their organized capacity as 'The United Churches of South India and Ceylon', on the one part; and the Churches of the Arcot Mission of the Dutch Reformed Church and those of the United Free Church Mission of Madras in their organized capacity as \"The South India Synod of the Presbyterian Church' on the other part; have determined for the glory of God to unite organically into one body\nAnd whereas, in pursuance of this determination, the above two bodies have agreed upon a common basis of union which has been accepted by the churches which they represent:", "time": { "start_year": 1908, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 25, "end_year": 1908, "end_month": 12, "end_date": 27, "time_display": "December 1908" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": ["South India", "Ceylon", "Madura", "Jaffna", "Travancore", "Madras"], "event": "The represented churches declared their determination to unite organically into one body.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Religion", "Organization"] } }, { "chunk_index": 3, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [294], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00318-aa66204f7cd020acf66e.webp"], "chunk_title": "Provisional Assembly Constituted", "chunk_data": "And whereas the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in India did at its meeting in Calcutta, December 28, 1907, resolve to release its Synod of South India in order to become a part of this Union:\nTherefore, resolved that we, the duly appointed Representatives of the two above mentioned Bodies, under the authority vested in us by our respective ecclesiastical organizations, being assembled for the purpose of consummating the proposed Union, greatly acknowledging God's guidance in the past, and invoking His blessing upon us at the present, do hereby constitute ourselves Provisional General Assembly of the South India United Church; and that as such we adopt as our own the following Plan of Union and Confession of Faith.", "time": { "start_year": 1907, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 28, "end_year": 1908, "end_month": 12, "end_date": 27, "time_display": "December 28, 1907–December 1908" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": ["Calcutta", "South India"], "event": "The representatives constituted themselves as the Provisional General Assembly of the South India United Church.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Presbyterianism", "Religion"] } }, { "chunk_index": 4, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [294], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00318-aa66204f7cd020acf66e.webp"], "chunk_title": "A New Road for Churches", "chunk_data": "A Short History of Union\nWe have entered to-day on a road by which no Church, so far as we know, has as yet travelled for though unions have been effected in India and elsewhere, this is the first time that the different church polities which we represent have been actually fused into one. If any one ten years ago had predicted this union he would have been met with query. Can this thing be?' Now that the union is accomplished we bow in thankfulness and say, 'What hath God wrought!' From our new starting point it is well that we should look back on the converging roads by which we have been led.", "time": { "start_year": 1908, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 25, "end_year": 1908, "end_month": 12, "end_date": 27, "time_display": "1908" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": ["India"], "event": "The history describes the 1908 union as the first fusion of the represented church polities into one body.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Religion", "History"] } }, { "chunk_index": 5, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [294], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00318-aa66204f7cd020acf66e.webp"], "chunk_title": "Preparatory Work for Union", "chunk_data": "Although the negotiations for union were begun less than ten years ago, a preparatory work had been going on without which the subsequent rapid progress of the movement would have been impossible. This preparatory work was of two kinds.\nIn the first place the idea of a United Church was in the minds of many. When missionaries came from distant lands it was natural that they should in the first instance organise churches after the pattern to which they had been accustomed. But as time went on the idea gained strength that however valuable such organisation might be as a temporary structure in which the young Church might live in the days of its immaturity, a time must come when the Church would be able to choose an abode for itself, and that when this time came it might no longer be necessary to keep to the denominational lines of the West.", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "end_year": 1908, "time_display": "Late 19th–early 20th century" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": ["India", "West"], "event": "The idea developed that the young Indian Church should eventually choose its own united organization rather than retain Western denominational divisions.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Missionaries", "India"] } }, { "chunk_index": 6, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [294], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00318-aa66204f7cd020acf66e.webp"], "chunk_title": "Indian Desire for Unity", "chunk_data": "Similar ideas were at work in the minds of many Indian Christians. Although they were naturally attached to the Mission through which they had received the truth, and were ready to adopt the method of organisation to which the missionaries had introduced them, they could not help asking why it was necessary that Christians of different Missions should worship apart, although they might live in the same town. Thus the way for a union was being slowly prepared.", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "end_year": 1908, "time_display": "Late 19th–early 20th century" }, "meta": { "people": ["Indian Christians"], "places": ["India"], "event": "Indian Christians questioned the separation of Christians from different missions and helped prepare the way for union.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Indian Christianity", "Religion"] } }, { "chunk_index": 7, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [295], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00319-3b9eaef79b707b31026b.webp"], "chunk_title": "Missionary and Indian Cooperation", "chunk_data": "It may be noted in passing that without the interest in the movement on the part of missionaries on the one hand, and of the pastors and members of the Indian Church on the other, nothing of any value could have been accomplished. It was natural that a considerable share in the task of bringing about the union should fall to missionaries. The opportunities they had of fellowship and conference, and their knowledge of movements in other lands, made it natural that they should take the lead. But they could have done nothing had there not been in the Church itself a strong feeling that the course proposed was the right one, and on the part of some of these there was not only acquiescence but hearty co-operation.", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "end_year": 1908, "time_display": "Late 19th–early 20th century" }, "meta": { "people": ["Missionaries", "Indian pastors", "Members of the Indian Church"], "places": ["India"], "event": "Missionaries and Indian church members cooperated in advancing the union movement.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Missionaries", "Indian Christianity"] } }, { "chunk_index": 8, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [295], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00319-3b9eaef79b707b31026b.webp"], "chunk_title": "Missionary Service and Independence", "chunk_data": "It must be remembered too that if missionaries have taken a prominent part in the effort, they have done so with no selfish motive. In the new Church they will have far less authority than many of them had under the old system. What they have done has been for the advancement of the Church to a condition of independence, in which it will increase, and the missionary decrease.", "time": { "start_year": 1908, "end_year": 1908, "time_display": "1908" }, "meta": { "people": ["Missionaries"], "places": ["India"], "event": "Missionaries promoted church independence even though union would reduce their authority.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Independence", "Missionaries"] } }, { "chunk_index": 9, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [295], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00319-3b9eaef79b707b31026b.webp"], "chunk_title": "Early Presbyterian Union Attempts", "chunk_data": "In the second place, sundry attempts to effect a union had actually been made. As far back as 1883 a retired Bengal civilian proposed that the Presbyterian Churches in India should unite. Two years later the matter was definitely brought before the Northern India Synod of the American Presbyterian Church by the Rev. Dr. Morrison; and a committee was appointed to correspond with the different Presbyterian Churches in India. As a result of this correspondence a conference took place at Allahabad in 1887; and six years later the Indian Presbyterian Alliance came into being. At first it aimed at bringing the Missions into closer fellowship rather than at effecting an organic union of the Churches.", "time": { "start_year": 1883, "end_year": 1893, "time_display": "1883–1893" }, "meta": { "people": ["Rev. Dr. Morrison"], "places": ["India", "Bengal", "Allahabad", "Northern India"], "event": "Presbyterian leaders initiated correspondence, held an Allahabad conference, and formed the Indian Presbyterian Alliance.", "tags": ["Presbyterianism", "Church Union", "India"] } }, { "chunk_index": 10, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [295], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00319-3b9eaef79b707b31026b.webp"], "chunk_title": "Alliance Pursues Organic Union", "chunk_data": "When the Alliance, however, met for the fifth time in 1899, it took definite steps with this latter end in view. It was probably induced to do so by pressure from the west. In the year 1888 the subject of union was brought before the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America by one to whom the union cause owes much—Dr. Jacob Chamberlain—and the Synod called upon its representative in South India—the Classis of Arcot—to initiate such measures 'as shall tend to bring together the Churches of the Presbyterian polity in India. Later in the same year a conference of representatives of the Mission Boards of the Presbyterian Churches of the United Kingdom was held in Edinburgh. As the resolutions passed by this body give expression to a policy of which the union now effected is the latest outcome it may be well to quote them in full. They are as follows :-", "time": { "start_year": 1888, "end_year": 1899, "time_display": "1888–1899" }, "meta": { "people": ["Dr. Jacob Chamberlain"], "places": ["South India", "Arcot", "Edinburgh", "United Kingdom", "America"], "event": "The Presbyterian Alliance moved toward organic union under influence from overseas Presbyterian bodies.", "tags": ["Presbyterianism", "Church Union", "International Relations"] } }, { "chunk_index": 11, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [295], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00319-3b9eaef79b707b31026b.webp"], "chunk_title": "Mission Church Independence", "chunk_data": "1. It is in the highest degree desirable that Mission Churches should be encouraged to become independent of the Home Churches, i.e., self-supporting and self-governing, self-government naturally following upon self-support.", "time": { "start_year": 1888, "end_year": 1888, "time_display": "1888" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": ["United Kingdom"], "event": "The Presbyterian mission boards advocated self-supporting and self-governing Mission Churches.", "tags": ["Church Independence", "Presbyterianism", "Missions"] } }, { "chunk_index": 12, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [296], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00320-f33fb3b737f96bb643c7.webp"], "chunk_title": "Territorial Presbyterian Organization", "chunk_data": "2. It is desirable that Churches organised under the Presbyterian order, and holding the Reformed faith, should be placed under a Presbytery within territorial boundaries suitable for effective government, and that such Presbytery wherever constituted should as far as practicable include all the Presbyterian Churches within its bounds, by whatever branches of the European or American Churches originated.", "time": { "start_year": 1888, "end_year": 1888, "time_display": "1888" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": ["Europe", "America"], "event": "The Presbyterian mission boards recommended territorial presbyteries incorporating all Presbyterian churches within their bounds.", "tags": ["Presbyterianism", "Church Organization", "Missions"] } }, { "chunk_index": 13, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [296], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00320-f33fb3b737f96bb643c7.webp"], "chunk_title": "Missionaries in Native Presbyteries", "chunk_data": "3. In the incipient stages of the Native Church, it is most desirable that the foreign missionaries should be associated with the Presbytery, either as advisers only, or as assessory members with votes.", "time": { "start_year": 1888, "end_year": 1888, "time_display": "1888" }, "meta": { "people": ["Foreign missionaries"], "places": [], "event": "The proposed policy allowed foreign missionaries to serve as advisers or voting members of developing Native Church presbyteries.", "tags": ["Presbyterianism", "Missionaries", "Church Organization"] } }, { "chunk_index": 14, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [296], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00320-f33fb3b737f96bb643c7.webp"], "chunk_title": "Independent Native Churches", "chunk_data": "4. It is undesirable that Presbyteries of Native Churches should be represented in supreme courts at home, the development and full organisation of independent Native Churches being what is to be aimed at, whether these are founded by a single foreign Church, or by two or more such Churches.", "time": { "start_year": 1888, "end_year": 1888, "time_display": "1888" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [], "event": "The proposed policy prioritized the development of fully independent Native Churches rather than representation in foreign supreme courts.", "tags": ["Church Independence", "Presbyterianism", "Missions"] } }, { "chunk_index": 15, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [296], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00320-f33fb3b737f96bb643c7.webp"], "chunk_title": "Negotiations Delayed", "chunk_data": "It was soon evident, however, that the time for giving effect to these resolutions for India as a whole had not come. The difficulties raised by distance and language seemed insuperable; and in some cases it was evident that the Indian Church was not ready for the measure of self-reliance which the plan involved. The negotiations accordingly were dropped for the time, but they were not fruitless. They formed another element in the preparation for what was afterwards achieved.", "time": { "start_year": 1888, "end_year": 1899, "time_display": "Late 19th century" }, "meta": { "people": ["Indian Church leaders"], "places": ["India"], "event": "Plans for an India-wide Presbyterian union were temporarily abandoned because of distance, language, and limited institutional readiness.", "tags": ["Church Union", "India", "Missions"] } }, { "chunk_index": 16, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [296], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00320-f33fb3b737f96bb643c7.webp"], "chunk_title": "National Church of India", "chunk_data": "Meanwhile an attempt was made in South India on different lines. In 1886 some Madras Christians, leaving the Churches with which they had been connected, combined under the title of the 'National Church of India'. The number that followed their example was small. The great majority preferred to remain in their former connection, and even those who were eager for union doubted if the end could be reached in this way. They felt that since all were not ready for such a step, the attempt to reach unity by a single leap must fail, and the new Church would simply become one of the sects.", "time": { "start_year": 1886, "end_year": 1886, "time_display": "1886" }, "meta": { "people": ["Madras Christians"], "places": ["South India", "Madras"], "event": "A small group of Madras Christians formed the National Church of India, but most Christians did not leave their existing churches.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Indian Christianity", "Madras"] } }, { "chunk_index": 17, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [296], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00320-f33fb3b737f96bb643c7.webp"], "chunk_title": "Gradual Path to Unity", "chunk_data": "Subsequent experience has shown that progress is made by taking one step at a time, uniting those Churches whose doctrine and practice were most similar, and so proceeding gradually to larger unions.", "time": { "start_year": 1886, "end_year": 1908, "time_display": "1886–1908" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": ["South India"], "event": "Experience demonstrated that church unity advanced through successive unions among churches with similar doctrine and practice.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Religion", "Strategy"] } }, { "chunk_index": 18, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [296, 297], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00320-f33fb3b737f96bb643c7.webp", "raw\\pages\\00321-a549ba0fde8571ea86c1.webp"], "chunk_title": "South China Inspires Union", "chunk_data": "So much for the preparatory period. It was in the year 1899 that the threads that had been dropped were once more taken in hand. In the annual report published in that year the Foreign Mission Committee of the Free Church of Scotland included as an appendix an account of an organic union which a few years before had been effected between the Churches of two Missions in South China—the Dutch Reformed and the English Presbyterian. The situation in South India was so similar that the idea of following their example arose naturally. While the matter was still in the stage of informal conference, a further impetus was received from the South Indian Missionary Conference, which met in Madras in the beginning of 1900. Of this Conference co-operation was one of the keynotes; and the result was a deepening of the impression already made as to the desirability of taking immediate steps.", "time": { "start_year": 1899, "end_year": 1900, "time_display": "1899–1900" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": ["South China", "South India", "Madras", "Scotland"], "event": "A union in South China and the 1900 South Indian Missionary Conference encouraged renewed efforts toward church union in South India.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Missionary Conferences", "South India"] } }, { "chunk_index": 19, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [297], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00321-a549ba0fde8571ea86c1.webp"], "chunk_title": "Union Committee Formed", "chunk_data": "The first to take formal action was our esteemed President; and the response was so ready that within two months of the close of the Conference a committee representing the American Arcot, Church of Scotland, and Free Church of Scotland Missions had met and applied itself to the two-fold task of leading the Missions into co-operation, and the Churches into organic union. As an aid to its work it had before it the constitution of the Church of Christ in Japan, a body formed a few years earlier by the union of the Presbyterians in that country.", "time": { "start_year": 1900, "end_year": 1900, "time_display": "Early 1900" }, "meta": { "people": ["South Indian United Church President"], "places": ["South India", "Japan"], "event": "A committee representing the American Arcot, Church of Scotland, and Free Church of Scotland Missions began work on missionary cooperation and organic church union.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Missions", "Organization"] } }, { "chunk_index": 20, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [297], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00321-a549ba0fde8571ea86c1.webp"], "chunk_title": "First South Indian Synod", "chunk_data": "In less than two years a basis of union was agreed upon by the Missions and Presbyteries of the Arcot and Free Church Mission and secured the approval of their home authorities. In the case of the Church of Scotland the scheme was approved locally; but the home committee did not at the time see its way to sanction more than the co-operative part of the plan. The other two Churches resolved to proceed, and the first Synod of the South Indian United Church was held in September 1901, under the moderatorship of Dr. Chamberlain. During the period of nearly seven years that have elapsed since the union there has been abundant evidence that it was God Himself who led us into it.", "time": { "start_year": 1901, "start_month": 9, "end_year": 1908, "time_display": "September 1901–1908" }, "meta": { "people": ["Dr. Chamberlain"], "places": ["South India", "Arcot"], "event": "The Arcot and Free Church bodies proceeded with union, holding the first Synod of the South Indian United Church in September 1901.", "tags": ["Church Union", "Presbyterianism", "South India"] } }, { "chunk_index": 21, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [297], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00321-a549ba0fde8571ea86c1.webp"], "chunk_title": "Presbyterian Church in India", "chunk_data": "The news of the resumption of negotiations in the South had the effect of stirring up some in the North who had been interested in the earlier movement. In the belief that the churches might now be ready for what had formerly been considered premature, the Presbyterian Alliance resumed its meetings; and in 1904 the greater number of the Presbyterian Churches in the land united under the title of the 'Presbyterian Church in India'. Into this union the South India Synod resolved to enter, but on the definite understanding that if the way to a still wider union should open up in the South, while it was still closed in the North, the Synod should be free to enter the open door.", "time": { "start_year": 1904, "end_year": 1904, "time_display": "1904" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": ["North India", "South India", "India"], "event": "Most Presbyterian Churches in India united as the Presbyterian Church in India, while the South India Synod retained freedom to pursue wider union in the South.", "tags": ["Presbyterianism", "Church Union", "India"] } }, { "chunk_index": 22, "chapter_name": "1908. Documents of the First General Assembly of the South India United Church", "page_numbers": [297], "image_paths": ["raw\\pages\\00321-a549ba0fde8571ea86c1.webp"], "chunk_title": "Congregational Union Preparations", "chunk_data": "Having traced the history of the union movement among the Presbyterians, we must now see what had been done among those whose ancestry, for the most part, was Congregational. The steps leading to the formation of the South Indian United Church were eagerly watched by members of the London and American Madras Missions. The idea of a wider union, such as has been now effected, was suggested; but it was thought best to let each of these ecclesiastical families complete its own union first. Accordingly,", "time": { "start_year": 1901, "end_year": 1908, "time_display": "Early 20th century" }, "meta": { "people": ["Members of the London Madras Mission", "Members of the American Madras Mission"], "places": ["Madras", "South India"], "event": "Congregational members of the London and American Madras Missions observed the Presbyterian union while completing their own ecclesiastical unions.", "tags": ["Congregationalism", "Church Union", "Madras"] } } ] }