CHRISTIAN UNION IN INDIA

By the RIGHT REV. F. J. WESTERN (late Bishop of Tinnevelly) For many years past, therefore, there has been joint consultation and practical co-operation between different missions and•Churches in India such as is only now beginning to be seen in England. It was with this background that in 1919 a group of thirty-one Indian ministers and two foreigners, the former including that great Indian Christian leader, Bishop Azariah of Dornakal, initiated proposals which in the course of a few years developed into regular negotia- tions for organic union between three large Christian bodies in South India. These are—(t) the South India United Church, a body formed in 1908 by the amalgamation of United Presbyterian and Congregational Churches in South India, which had been formed a few years earlier ; (2) the four South Indian dioceses of the Anglican Church in India : since its disestablishment in 193o this has had the name -of The Church of India, Burma and Ceylon ; and (3) the South India Province of the Methodist Church. The com- bined membership of these three bodies is about 9oo,000, this being somewhat less than .one-half of the total number of non-Roman Christians in the area. Of the remaining non-Roman Christians, about one-half belong to the old " Syrian " Churches in Travancore and Cochin and the other half are nearly all either Baptists or Lutherans.

It is not strange that it should have taken a good many y to work out a plan of union which would be acceptable to th three bodies. Serious difficulties of principle as regards sacram and ministries had fully to be faced, "and a continued effort to find, not some politic compromise, but a true synthesis. posals had to be remitted to and fro between the joint commit of the representatives, Indian and foreign, of the three Chur and the governing bodies of those Churches, these last meeting o once every two or three years. There was also the practical difli of distance ; I never had less than three hundred miles to tra from my diocese of Tinnevelly near Cape Comorin to the place meeting of the joint committee, and others had to make considera longer journeys.

A scheme of union was prepared by 1929, and was further work on during the succeeding twelve years. Its essential features can briefly summarised. Statements are made of agreement on fun mental Christian beliefs, particularly those which are summari in the ancient Creeds, and on basic principles of the Church, i sacraments and its ministry. Subject to these Governing .grincipl as they are called in the draft constitution of the proposed unit Church, the largest freedom of opinion is to be allowed. united Church is to be episcopal, with bishops who maintain co. tinuity with the historic episcopate, and whose functions, stated the constitution, are essentially those which bishops have alwas fulfilled. But—a cardinal point—this acceptance of episcopacy not to be taken as committing the united Church to the acceptan of any particular interpretation of episcopacy, and no such particul interpretation shall be demanded from any minister of the uni Church." The united Church is to be governed by a central Syn and diocesan councils, with strong lay representation. There is to a general rule of freedom of worship. Within the united Chu all ordinations of ministers will be by bishops ; initially, all exis ministers of the uniting Churches are to be acknowledged ministers of the Word and Sacraments, but by a mutual pled between the uniting Churches they are not to exercise their minis in any way that would offend conscientious convictions—as, e.g., a ritualistic Anglican being posted to an ex-Methodist congregati or one who had not received episcopal ordination to an ex-Angli

congregation. .

It cannot be expected that any scheme of union could be work out which would be acceptable to everyone. Many Anglo-Catho hold that a fundamental of the Catholic system is negated if episco ordination is not accepted as an essential condition of the validi of the sacraments of the Church, or if any exceptions are allow to the rules which express this principle. On the other -side, man Congregationalists feel that the union would in fact mean absorpt into an Anglican system, and that the principle of the equality Christian believers is gravely infringed by rules which (exc perhaps for a few initial exceptions) will forbid that the Hol Communion should ever be celebrated by laymen. But it can said be said that a large central body of opinion in all the Church concerned regards the scheme as a sound and hopeful one. the Anglican side it is notable that the Lambeth Conference of mo than three hundred bishops gave its general approval to the sch in 1930. Of equal significance is the fact that in 1936 an Outlin of a Reunion Scheme for the Church of England and the Evangeli Free Churches of England " was framed and generally approved b a number of the leaders of all those Churches which follows di South Indian scheme with remarkable closeness.

In 1941 the joint committee urged that the time had come definite decisions to be made by the negotiating Churches, and th process is now taking place. The Methodist Church in Sou India, with the approval of the Methodist Conference in Gr Britain, has declared that it unreservedly approves of the sche In the South India United Church strong opposition has sho itself, and it is impossible to say what the final decision will The Church of India, Burma and Ceylon, voting in the first instan in its fourteen diocesan councils, is so far showing itself in favo of the scheme ; but before the final decision is taken by its Gene Council reference is being made to the Metropolitans of the oth Provinces of the Anglican Communion asking what their attitud

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en will be to the Church in India if it accepts the scheme and allows the dioceses that are directly concerned to leave it in order to enter into the union.

It is therefore too soon to say whether the union will go through s now proposed, or whether negotiations will have to continue for some years more. But I have no doubt that sooner or later, and probably sooner, the scheme will be accepted essentially in its present form. This should greatly strengthen the Christian life and witness of the Churches in South India and, one may hope, will be found to be the first step towards wider unions. In England, Christians must probably acknowledge with regret and shame that the time is not yet ripe for a similar plan of union to win general acceptance. The different Churches must first come to know each other better by joint consultation and practical co-operation, both in the larger spheres and, even more important, in the ordinary town and village. But South India, I believe, points a way which they will one day follow.