{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 169,
  "chapterName": "1930. English Methodists on the South India Union Scheme",
  "pageFrom": 346,
  "pageTo": 346,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 346,
      "ocrText": "346\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nof the spirit of Tertullian, who could see in paganism nothing\nbut the work of the devil, the second has the support of St. Paul\nand Origen, who recognized on every side signs of the preparation\nfor the Gospel. St. Paul regarded the pagans as 'seeking after\nGod if haply they might find Him.' His policy of being all things\nto all men is not the result of an ignorant opportunism. The same\nattitude is present in the Fourth Gospel, many of the Greek\nFathers, the schoolmen of the Middle Ages and the Christian\nPlatonits. It is argued that everything of value in the old religion\nis conserved in the new, for Jesus came to fulfil and not destroy.\nThe series of volumes in The Religious Quest of India illustrates\nthe second stage. But there is, right through, the imperialistic\nnote that Christianity is the highest manifestation of the religious\nspirit; that it is the moral standard for the human race while\nevery other religion is to be judged by it.\nIn 1917, in the middle of the War-a war was necessary; cold\nmetal never mixes; only when thrown into the fire its hardness\nmelts-a new conception of the relations between Great Britain\nand India was announced, and India was told that she would be a\nmember of the British Commonwealth of Free-governing Nations,\nan equal partner for imperial and international purposes. It is\nno more a question of exploitation as in the days of John Company,\nor domination as in those of the Empire, but one of free partnership.\nThis goal is yet in the region of ideals and does not belong to the\nrealm of achievement. The War was a great testing time for the\nChristian religion, which seemed to be identified during its conti-\nnuance with bloodshed on a gigantic scale. A mood of self-\nreproach and self-criticism supervened, and the new atmosphere\ngave greater scope for the understanding of the spirit and value\nof other faiths.\n169. ENGLISH METHODISTS ON THE SOUTH\nINDIA UNION SCHEME (1930 A.D.)\nOf all the church bodies negotiating church union in South India\nthe Wesleyan Methodists had the least difficulties accepting it, both in\nIndia and in England. The following resolution of the Pastoral session\nof the Wesleyan Methodist Conference held at Leeds in 1930 represents\na positive reaction to the First Edition of the Scheme of Union (1929).\nCited in A. J. Arangadan, Church Union in South India, its Progress\nand Consummation, pp. 74-75.\n1. The Conference has received with profound thankfulness\nthe Proposed Scheme of Union' prepared by the Joint Con\nmittee of the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon the South\nIndia United Church and the South India Provincial Synod of the",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}