ICC Note:

Tens of thousands of Christians have celebrated the 200th anniversary of a church in southern India. The anniversary marks one of Christianity’s traditional beginnings in India in which missionaries landed in southern India in 1816. Today, over 25 million Indians identify themselves officially as Christians. This huge growth is despite the fact that Christianity in India have faces near constant persecution. Today, radical Hindu nationalists view Christianity as a foreign religion that must be driven out of India. Still, in the face of this persecution, the Church in India continues to grow. 

11/16/2016 India (Anglican News) – Tens of thousands of Christians from across southern India joined moderators, bishops and other dignitaries from around the world at a huge celebration to mark the bicentenary of Madhya Kerala diocese on Saturday (12 November). The gathering, at the Nehru Stadium in Kottayam, was the culmination of four years of events and projects to commemorate the arrival in the southern state of Kerala of the first CMS missionary, Thomas Norton, in 1816.

“It is a great day of blessing as we gather here, an ocean of faithful witnesses thanking God for the mercies he has showered on us in Kerala through these past 200 years,” the Bishop of Madhya Kerala, the Rt Revd Thomas Oommen, said as he paid tribute to the work of the first missionaries.

“Ever since the arrival of the CMS missionaries, our land has been witnessing a great transformation. During the past four years of our bicentenary celebration, we have been thanking and praising God, and also honoring those missionaries who were agents of that transformation.

“We are now recommitting ourselves to the cause of mission,” he said. “Our mission now is to initiate a ‘New Exodus’ – to liberate our land from the clutches of slavery which is expressed in new forms.

“This is not an easy task but it is not an impossible one, provided that God is with us. Therefore, let us humble ourselves and recommit ourselves to engage in this New Exodus.”

The diocese of Madhya Kerala is part of the united Church of South India (CSI). The CSI moderator, the Most Revd G Dyvasirvadam, praised the way the church in the diocese has followed the example of the first missionaries who provided educational opportunities to the local community.

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