Rev. Gordon Shaw / Former Treasurer, Medak Diocese
The Years 1964 – 1975 were an interesting time in India, and a determining time for the CSI Diocese of Medak.
When we first arrived in India in 1962, I learned very quickly that the church in Medak Diocese had already reached what might justifiably be called the adult stage in its development. Gone were the days when decision making was in the hands of one person or one small group of people. Gone were the days when the keepers of the vision were individuals.
This was an Indian Church in which everyone had a voice and decisions were taken with the consent of the members. It was a collegiate community in which ordained and lay, young and old, local and central, were answerable to each other, and it was rare indeed for any programme or policy or development to be xclusively identified with any one individual. By the time any decision was put into effect it would have been fully and widely discussed, and was technically ‘owned’ by the whole community.
Without doubt individuals could be influential, but their method was persuasion, not imposition. There was a wide circle of people to whom I could happily turn for guidance and advice, many of whose names have faded from my diminishing power of recollection, people such as the Revs E L Anantha Rao, P Y Luke, B Eliezer, T Ashirvardam, B Manikyam, J J Wesley, M P Sanjeeva Rao, Misses Royal, P Peters, P Benjamin, Dr E G Daniel, T Vijaya Rao, and many others.
After being for a short period the Presbyter in Charge of the Medak Cathedral Pastorate and Superintendent of the Medak Boy’s hostel, for neither of which appointments had I been adequately trained or prepared, I was privileged to be elected in 1967 as Diocesan treasurer and also served as Presbyter in Charge of St John the Baptist Internationally this was a time of heightened tension which in turn raised concern in the Government of India about the security of India’s borders and the reliability of India’s internal security.
The last thing the Government wanted was any increase in extremism or communalism, or the kind of regionalisation based on language that might threaten the stability of the Union. The perceived risk was that people from outside India might arrive under some plausible guise but then go on to foment instability and inter-communal conflict. Associated with this assessment was the risk that substantial sums of money from outside India might reach small unrepresentative, provocative and disaffected groups in India, with the express intention that this money would be used to stir up trouble.
Along with all other groups in India that were maintaining international contacts, the Church also came under scrutiny. The Government of India set out to set up a series of measures that would give it much more control over who and what might come into India and under what terms. Some tried to portray this as an anti-christian measure, but that was both misleading and misguided.
The Government of India was not going to fall into the trap of appearing to discriminate between the different organizations and religions, and indeed as Government policy became clearer, time was given to organizations that might be affected by changes, to make such adjustments as were within their capacity. Of course there were a lot of rumors doing the rounds – that a decision was imminent to put a total ban on all foreign personnel – that a total ban on all and any funding from outside India was imminent – but most of these proved to be very wide of the mark.
“The years 1964 – 1975 were an interesting time in India, and a determining time for the CSI Diocese of Medak. When we first arrived in India in 1962, I learned very quickly that the church in Medak Diocese had already reached what might justifiably be called the adult stage in its development.”
Nevertheless, the warning signals were clear enough, and the Diocese of Medak realized that it would be foolish to simply stick its head in the sand. Two objectives appeared to be critical:
Training and equipping a local leadership that could take full charge of, and responsibility for, the life and mission of the Church within a relatively short period of time.
In the less than 20 years since the formation of the CSI, and despite the barely concealed foreboding in the ‘mother’ churches, already much progress had been achieved, and the day by day experience of the union, on the whole, confirmed the rightness of what had been launched in 1947.
Finding some way of ending the Diocesan dependence on overseas funding, and building up of service and mission activities of the Church. Until these objectives were achieved the church would continue to be perceived as an imported exotic plant foreign to Indian ways and culture, an outpost of western imperialism.
A fresh start was made with the appointment of the Rt Rev Luther Abraham as Bishop in Medak, under whose benign but firm leadership solid foundations were laid for a new era in the history of the Diocese of Medak.
As far as the basic structure of the daily life of the Church was concerned, a date was set by which the diocese would take full responsibility for the maintenance of its presbyters, deacons and evangelists. The leaders of the diocese, ordained and lay, committed themselves to promoting this vision throughout the diocese, and to joining in the search for the means of turning the vision into reality. The strategic role of the Town DCC in this matter was acknowledged, there was a readiness to experiment with alternative methods of ministerial formation, there was a willingness to look at alternative ways of pastoral oversight and different patterns of ministerial vocation. It was never going to be easy. The vast majority of CSI members lived on meager incomes within a subsistence economy and carried the heavy burden of caste discrimination, with all that that entailed.
The strategic role of education was recognized and affirmed, and in this matter the role of the newly emerged German church based organization Kindernothilfe was crucial. Their assistance enabled several generations of children and young people to enjoy an undisrupted education in circumstances that provided well above the minimal requirements. That there were flaws in the whole concept is undeniable, but through KNH’s assistance needs were met and opportunities were provided at a time when no other viable alternative was functioning.
At the same time as this was happening the Church was also demonstrating that through its international contacts it could make a significant contribution to the emerging new India. The research that was being carried out in Dichpalli on the transmission and management of leprosy received worldwide acclaim. It was the excellence of the work done there that earned the recognition it was given. As always will be the case, it was the quality of the work and the dedication to high standards that earned respect and trust. So was it also with the Agricultural work based in Medak. These were models of relevant Service programs undertaken in the name of the Church for the benefit of the whole community, carried out with enthusiasm and integrity, and rightly appreciated for their contribution to the life of the nation.
Securing the finances of the Church was a different matter. Medak Diocese had only two assets - its members and it properties. There was a desire to fund the basic ministry of the church from the giving of its members, and responsibility for giving effect to this vision was handed over in large measure to the presbyters of the diocese. Nothing was easy, and on one occasion when income from the pastorates was insufficient to meet the salaries bill, that month’s salaries were not paid in full for every diocesan employee. How successful the program would be was extremely uncertain during the years under review, and it was only in later years that the true impact of the work done became apparent.
Using the inherited properties of the diocese for income generating projects was entirely new to the diocese, with very few people having any experience at all in this field of activity. That the potential was there was shown by the many attempts made by various individuals to secure possession of the properties. We had to rely on the trustworthy advice of trustworthy people who did have the necessary experience in both the construction of commercial buildings and the leasing and management of them as landlords. The diocese was fortunate that the Methodist Church in the UK was willing to consolidate the grants it anticipated to be making in the next few years, and these were invested in several building projects in the twin cities. We were fortunate to find some very reliable tenants for these buildings, tenants who shared in the risk nearly as much as we did, because to them the diocese was very much an unknown quantity. By 1975 financial support for the service and outreach ministries of the diocese seemed secure.
There was, however, a flaw in the whole concept, which was not adequately appreciated at the time. What had been created was a relatively wealthy church populated on the whole by very (financially) poor people. Officers of the diocese had to administer the corporate funds of the diocese which were far beyond anything they would ever own themselves, or have to manage for themselves. The machinery put in place to help and guide them was itself new, with no experience, no track record and no reliable independent review mechanism. In some ways, therefore, it could be said legitimately that this decade created opportunities, but it also left an unfair burden on the shoulders of those who would come after, and many unanswered questions.
“Finding some way of ending the Diocesan dependence on overseas funding, and building up of service and mission activities of the Church.”
In 1975 I was appointed to the staff of the Methodist Church oversees Division (the former Methodist Missionary Society), and later to the Conference for World Mission of the British Council of Churches, both of which appointments kept me in frequent contact with the Churches of North and South India for the next 20 years, years which were to see fundamental and wide ranging changes on both sides of the partnership, but that is another story.