{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 183,
  "chapterName": "1947. The Constitution of the Church of South India",
  "pageFrom": 378,
  "pageTo": 380,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 378,
      "ocrText": "378\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nThe United Churches declare that in making this provision,\nit is their intention and determination in this manner to\nsecure the unification of ministry, but that the acceptance\nof this provision does not involve any judgement upon the\nvalidity or regularity of any other form of the ministry,\nand the fact that other Churches do not follow the rule of\nepiscopal ordination shall not in itself preclude the united\nChurch from holding relations of communion and fellow-\nship with them.\n(V)\nThe Bishops of the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon in\nthe area of union, and the Bishops of the Methodist Church\nin Southern Asia, together with the new Bishops to be con-\nsecrated at the time of union, shall be the first Bishops of the\nunited Church, provided that they accept the Constitution\nof the united Church. It is, however, recognised that in\nour divided state the Bishops of the Episcopal Churches\nwhich are seeking union through the Round Table Confe-\nrence do not now possess authority outside their own\nChurches. In order that the Episcopate of the United\nChurch may be both constitutional and historic, and that\nthe authority of these Bishops may be recognised and\nthecised throughout the united Church, it is necessary\nshould receive authority from those Uniting\nChurches in which they do not now possess it. Therefore\nat the time of the inauguration of union there shall be a\nservice at which this wider authority will be conferred upon\nthem, and the new Bishops be consecrated. Bishops and\npresbyters of all Uniting Churches shall participate in this\nservice...\n183. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH OF\nSOUTH INDIA (1947 A.D.)\nAfter lengthy negotiations that began in the 1920s, the Church of\nSouth India was formed in 1947. It brought together churches of the\nAnglican, English Methodist, American Reformed (Presbyterian),\nBritish and American Congregational, and Basel (Lutheran/Reformed)\ntraditions. The decision to unite was made by the autonomous\nIndian churches that had been historically related to these traditions\nthrough mission societies. The portions of the C.S.I. Constitution\nthat are reproduced here incorporate later amendments, as found in\nthe 1972 edition, The Constitution of the Church of South India.\nChapter I\nThe Name of the Church and the Bodies which have constituted\nit:\n1. The name of the Church is 'The Church of South India'.",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 379,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n379\n2. The Church of South India is the Church constituted\nby union in 1947 of the Madras, Madura, Malabar, Jaffna, Kannada,\nTelugu and Travancore Church Councils of the South India United\nChurch; the South India Province of the Methodist Church,\ncomprising the Madras, Trichinopoly, Hyderabad and Mysore\nDistricts; and the dioceses of Madras, Dornakal, Tinnevelly, and\nTravancore and Cochin in the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon\nto which in 1950 was added the North Tamil Church Council of\nthe South India United Church.\nChapter II\n2. The Purpose and Nature of the Union. The Church of\nSouth India affirms that the purpose of the union by which it has\nbeen formed is the carrying out of God's will, as this is expressed in\nour Lord's prayer-That they may all be one that the wor\nmay believe that Thou didst send me'. It believes that by this union\nthe Church in South India will become a more effective instrument\nfor God's work, and that there will be greater peace, closer fellow-\nship and fuller life within the Church, and also renewed eagerness\nand power for the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ. It hopes\nthat it may be a true leaven of unity in the life of India, and that\nthrough it there may be a greater release of divine power for the\nfulfilment of God's purpose for His world.\nThe Church of South India believes that the unity of His Church\nfor which Christ prayed is a unity in Him and in the Father through\nthe Holy Spirit, and is therefore fundamentally a reality of the\nspiritual realm. It seeks the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of\npeace. But this unity of the Spirit must find expression in the faith\nand order of the Church, in its worship, in its organization and in\nits whole life, so that, as the Body of Christ, it may be be a fit instrument\nfor carrying out His gracious purposes in the world.\nAgain, for the perfecting of the life of the whole body, the\nChurch of South India needs the heritage of each of the uniting\nChurches, and each of those Churches will, it is hoped, not lose the\ncontinuity of its own life, but preserve that life enriched by the\nunion with itself of the other two Churches. The Church of South\nIndia is thus formed by a combination of different elements each\nbringing its contribution to the whole, and not by the absorption\nof any one by any other. It is, therefore, also a comprehensive\nChurch; and its members, firmly holding the fundamentals of the\nfaith and order of the Church Universal, are allowed wide freedom\nof opinion in all other matters, and wide freedom of action in such\ndifferences of practice as are consistent with the general framework\nof the Church as one organized body.",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 380,
      "ocrText": "380\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nThe Church of South India acknowledges that, in every effort to\nbring together divided members of Christ's Body into one organi-\nzation, the final aim must be the union in the Universal Church of\nall who acknowledge the name of Christ, and that the test of all\nlocal schemes of union is that they should express locally the\nprinciple of the great catholic unity of the Body of Christ. The\nChurch of South India desires, therefore, conserving all that is of\nspiritual value in its Indian heritage, to express under Indian\nconditions and in Indian forms the spirit, the thought and the life\nof the Church Universal.\nThe Church of South India desires to regulate all its actions by\nthe principle that it should maintain fellowship with all those branches\nof the Church of Christ with which the Churches from which it has\nbeen formed have severally enjoyed such fellowship, and that it\nshould continually seek to widen and strengthen this fellowship\nand to work towards the goal of the full union in one body of all\nparts of the Church of Christ.\nIt prays that it may never so use the provisions of this Consti-\ntution under which it begins its life that they will become barriers\nagainst the fuller truth and richer life to be attained in a wider\nfellowship, but that it may always be ready to correct and amend\nthem as God's will becomes more clearly known through the growing\ntogether of the several parts of the now divided Church into a\ncommon mind and spirit under the guidance of the one Holy\nSpirit...\n5. The Faith of the Church. The Church of South India accepts\nThe Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as containing\nall things necessary to salvation and as the supreme and decisive\nstandard of faith; and acknowledges that the Church must always\nbe ready to correct and reform itself in accordance with the teaching\nof those Scriptures as the Holy Spirit shall reveal it.\nIt also accepts the Apostle's Creed and the Creed commonly\ncalled the Nicene, as witnessing to and safeguarding that faith;\nand it thankfully acknowledges that same faith to be continuously\nconfirmed by the Holy Spirit in the experience of the Church of\nChrist.\nThus it believes in God, the Father, the Creator of all things,\nby whose love we are preserved ;\nIt believes in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God and Redeem-\ner of the world, in whom alone we are saved by grace, being\njustified from our sins by faith in Him;",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}