A C.S.I. Bishop at Work
A C.S-I, BISHOP AT WORK
masons and carpenters for the skilled labour which was necessary to finish the building.
For some months I had been hearing about the great effort which the people of the village were making to build a church for themelves.
The dedication of the church was, therefore, a matter of great rejoicing for all of us, diocesan workers as well as the. people of the village.
The little church was full, with about one hundred and thirty people.
Even some of the Hindus in the village attended the Service and shared in the general rejoicing.
I was glad to note one important fact.
The people who had taken an active part in building the church and who were active also at the time of the Dedication Service were all young men.
The older men were in the background and the work was being done by the young folk.
A C.S.I. BISHOP AT WORK
'Why are Bishops needed in the Church of South India? What is to be the status of the ministers now serving in the Churches who are not ordained by Bishops?'
The Joint Committee on Church Union spent more time discussing these questions than any other.
In that Committee I learnt much about the traditions of the three Churches which proposed to unite. In the Coimbatore
Diocese we had 23,000 Congregationalists, 5,000 Methodists and 4,000 Anglicans.
I fully believe that God gave me a training for many years in the Joint Committee before calling me to the diffcult task of being the Bishop of a Diocese in which three such different traditions were represented.
For important tasks God always does give special training.
The Anglicans made it quite clear that there could be no Church Union unless the United Church agreed to accept the Historic Episcopate.
Most of the members of the Joint Committee did not believe in Apostolic Succession.
But some of the Anglican leaders held firmly to that belief and insisted that there should be room in the new United Church for those who held it.
The other members of the Joint Committee were ready to accept Bishops for the sake of the pastoral and administrative work they could do but were not prepared to accept any theory of
A. J. APPASAMY
Apostolic Succession.
Finally it was decided that the new United Church would have Bishops in the historic succession but that no interpretation of Episcopacy would be demanded of its members.
All my time in Coimbatore I was conscious of the fact that I was working in a Diocese in which some of the Free Church folk did not see any special need for Bishops.
In an early stage of Church Union negotiations a missionary lady from Erode exclaimed in a conference, 'We do not want Bishops in the Indian Church!
We had trouble enough from prelates in England.'
When I left the Diocese numerous meetings were arranged and many farewell addresses, warm with love, were read to me.
One of them began with the words, 'Dear Father-in-God', a term of affection which particularly appealed to me. A Missionary lady of the Free Church tradition who saw this address queried sharply, 'Who is Father-inGod?' I knew this attitude of people and I proceeded slowly and cautiously.
I constantly remembered the great service of Consecration in which eight Bishops and three Presbyters had prayed with the laying-on of hands that I might receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit.
Surely God answered that prayer.
In every Communion Service the congregations in the Diocese prayed for me by name; surely God responded to them.
Several prayer groups in the Diocese reported that they were praying regularly for me as well as for the Diocese.
Certainly God listened to those prayers.
In the light of my experience in the United Church for several years as one of its Bishops I would like to ask here: What is the type of Episcopacy which is developing in the Church of South
India?
The only answer I can give is to describe in some detail the work I did from day to day.
Office Work.
A Bishop gets many letters every day.
There is no difficulty in answering them if he is in his office where he has the necessary clerical help.
But when he is on tour for fifteen or twenty days in the month, as he often is, the letters begin to sort themselves out into Category I: Most urgent letters, Category II:
Letters not so urgent and Category HI: Letters not urgent at all.
There is also another category, Category IV: Letters which should go at once into the waste paper basket—anonymous letters, begging letters, insulting letters, threatening letters and notices of public meetings and social functions which one can never attend on account of the pressure of work.
Many of the letters require
A C.S.1, BISHOP AT WORK
careful answers.
It is a real struggle to catch up with arrears in correspondence.
I was staying with one of our Bishops in his home.
He said to me, 'Will you excuse me?
I have to read and deal with sixty letters which are now lying on my office table', and left the room.
A Bishop serves on many committees, presiding over most of them. Once the then Bishop of London (Dr Wand) complained that he was a member of two hundred committees and organisa tions!
No C.S.I. Bishop is burdened with that many committees.
But he has his share of committee work and it consumes a) great deal of his time.
The relevant papers have to be studied, enquiries have to be made and important decisions reached, giving due weight to the conflicting opinions of persons who travel long distances to: express them.
Interviews with officials of the Diocese, and representatives of congregations who are apt to think that their local problems ought to occupy the main attention of the Bishop, take up a good deal of his time. After an hour or two he has to bring these interviews, friendly or otherwise, to an end as tactfully as he can.
Along with these responsibilities he has to prepare the twenty or twenty-five addresses he has to give every month in the course of his pastoral work.
Some of these addresses require a great deal of careful thought.
A Bishop has the good fortune to meet large and devout congregations wherever he goes, particularly during Services of Ordination and Confirmation.
But this means that along with his administrative work he must find some time every day for preparing his many addresses.
Our Church people who attend these important services and for which they prepare for weeks ahead rarely realize that they are being taken by men who are doing considerable administrative work at the same time.
I spent much time preparing numerous Bible studies for the Summer Schools and Fellowship Meetings.
There were also requests for lectures or sermons outside the Diocese, besides requests. for books and articles.
Ordinations.
The London Missionary Society had sent regularly every quarter a grant for the training of Presbyters.
The local missionaries and the Indian leaders had decided from time to time that there were no suitable candidates and had put the money into a Ministerial Training Fund.
There was a considerable sum
A. J, APPASAMY
when I took charge of the Diocese.
In the United Church there were many opportunities for opening new pastorates and many more men were offering for the ministry.
I urged the relevant committees to send for training the best men available.
We found that if men were ordained and did good work, their support could easily be found by their congregations. Several new pastorates were formed, particularly in growing industrial areas, though some of the poorer rural pastorates had to be closed.
During my term of service I ordained twenty-eight men.
In former years men without much education had often been ordained.
The Church of South India insisted that every Presbyter should have completed at least his High School education.
The C.S.I.
Theological Colleges recommended that their students should undergo training for a period of four years.
In the case of elderly men with a good knowledge of the Bible and considerable experience in Christian work as laymen, we ordained them and put them into churches after they had been in a Theological College for a year or two.
I was disappointed that of the men I ordained, only three had had university education.
Our town congregations had many educated people and the need for well-qualified Pastors was steadily growing.
The Ordination Services always needed considerable preparation and were attended by large congregations.
It was a joy to me to pray for these men with the laying-on of hands and to send them out into various churches in the Diocese.
The Church of South India fully recognized the validity of non-episcopal ordination and gave the ministers so ordained the same status as episcopally ordained ministers.
But all the new Presbyters were ordained by Bishops, without any exception. Both
Presbyters and people accepted this gladly.
Confirmations.
Should only Bishops take Confirmations or should Presbyters also take them?
We discussed this question again and again in the Joint Committee on Church Union.
The Anglican representatives urged that only the Bishops should take them.
The Free Church representatives asked that Presbyters also might be allowed to take them.
In the end we decided that either the Bishops or the Presbyters could take the Confirmation
Services.
But the hope was expressed that in course of time only the Bishops might be allowed to take Confirmations.
A C.S.I. BISHOP AT WORK
My experience in this matter was quite interesting, One missionary lady of the Free Church tradition insisted that the girls in her boarding home should be admitted to full membership by the Pastor.
Their parents supported this move.
This was the only congregation in which the Presbyter took the Confirmation Service regularly and not the Bishop.
All the other congregations invited me to take their Confirmation Services.
Rarely, when it. was not possible for me to go, the local Presbyter would take this
Service with my permission.
Presbyters of different traditions would present their candidates at the same time.
In one congregation a former English S.P.G.
Missionary and a former Tamil London Mission Minister presented their candidates together.
On the Nilgiris, quite often, candidates of former Anglican and Methodist Churches were confirmed at the same Service.
The new Service of Confirmation drawn up by the Church of South India is rich and significant.
This Service consists of three 'parts.
In the first part the candidates accept the Lord Jesus as their personal Saviour.
In the second part the Bishop or the Presbyter prays with the laying-on of hands that the candidates may receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Before the laying-on of hands the whole congregation also prays for the candidates.
In the third part the newly admitted members are welcomed into the fellowship of the Church.
This C.S.I. Confirmation Service is deeply impressive and most of the congregations ask for it.
Evangelistic and Teaching Missions. Generally, organizations like the Evangelical Fellowship of India, Youth for Christ, Camps
Farthest Out and the National Missionary Society of India offered the services of Evangelists.
Occasionally our Presbyters wrote to me about some Evangelists and suggested that I might invite them.
Sometimes the Evangelists themselves wrote to me direct.
If the Evangelists were not known'to me I made enquiries about them.
Often they sent to me their books or some literature about their work.
I studied them carefully to know something about the men and their teaching.
Then I would suggest the parishes to which they could go.
I attended at least one meeting in each Mission held in Coimbatore.
Sometimes it was possible to attend more than one.
I always made it a point to have one or more personal talks with
A. J. APPASAMY
the Evangelists over a cup of tea. They were men whom God had blessed wonderfully in their ministry.
Many of them had worldwide contacts and it was stimulating to hear their first-hand accounts of the work of the Holy Spirit in different lands. ot After the Missions I sought to stir the local leaders to do the follow-up work as faithfully as they could.
I am afraid this was not often done effectively.
I tried to keep in close touch with the outstanding converts.
Days of Prayer and Testimony. Our congregations were widely scattered and there were hundreds of them.
It was not possible for me to visit all of them to find out how people had responded to the Evangelistic Missions, who had been converted and who had grown in their spiritual life.
The Diocese was organised as four areas.
I formed the habit of visiting the headquarters of each area from time to time and of inviting the Presbyters and the Lay
Preachers to come for a Day of Prayer and Testimony.
'The response was always good.
There were forty or fifty of them in each Fellowship Meeting.
Some of them had to travel fifteen or ~ twenty miles by bus or cycle. The laymen had to take leave from their school or office.
Even those who did not fully believe in the value of such meetings came regularly.
There was much rejoicing that God had helped them in their difficulties and blessed them in their family life as well as in their work in the school or in the office.
Many of them were anxious to share this joy with others.
If they had been defeated, they told us about their failures too.
We assembled at nine in the morning and went on until four in the afternoon with an interval for lunch.
We began with an hour's Bible Study, which I always took.
'Then the meeting was thrown open for testimony and prayer.
I suggested that no one should take more than five minutes.
So there were always plenty of people who took part.
Every now and then we spent time in praise for the blessings which God had given or in prayer for the outstanding needs which had been mentioned.
During the mid-day recess there was much informal conversation.
These days of prayer and testimony were helpful to all of us.
Pastoral Letters and Sermons.
Many - prayer groups were started in the Diocese and it was necessary to provide them with
A C.S.I, BISHOP AT WORK
13k subjects for praise and prayer.
It is no use saying to people 'Pray, pray, pray'. We must give them constant guidance about the things. for which they should pray and the spirit in which they should pray.
If fires are to be kept burning, they must be continually replenished. with fuel.
I began to write in English a series of pastoral letters. and sermons and to distribute them among all the Presbyters and Lay Preachers. They were also printed in Tamil in the Coimbatore
Diocesan Magazine and reached several hundred people, In my sermons I frequently told the people about what was happening in different parts of the Diocese under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the marvellous things we saw with our own eyes and heard with our own ears.
Once I was taken to task for not preaching theological sermons.
The greater part of the Bible, we need to remember, is not abstract theology but narratives of God's dealings with men and nations.
All my life I had been writing books.
I had written them with infinite toil, correcting and rewriting again and agais.
J now longed as a Bishop to offer up to Christ any special skill in literary work I may have acquired through all those years of hard work.
The human voice from our pulpits reaches only a few hundred people and what is said cannot be studied with care and at leisure in the home.
So I was led to spend much time writing pastoral letters and sermons.
However busy I was, I felt I had to find the time to write them, even though they demanded much minute and painstaking effort and cost me many precious hours.
I often wondered who read this literature which I was putting forth.
The leaders of the prayer groups told me that they prayed for the topics mentioned in my letters; that made all my trouble worthwhile.
I also received some requests from outside the Diocese asking for this literature.
This was an essential part of my ministry.
Pastorate Committees.
A good deal of my time was spent in dealing with Pastorate Committees.
We decided in the Joint Committee that there would be room in the Church of South
India for the episcopal, the presbyterian and the congregational elements.
I should like to explain here how the presbyterian and the congregational elements made themselves felt in the Church.
This was particularly evident in the procedure we followed in the posting of Presbyters to the various churches.
In former days
-A. J. APPASAMY
Bishops in the Anglican Church in India transferred their clergy using their best judgment. They did not have to consult any committees.
But in the Church of South India when a Presbyter is sent to a church, its: Pastorate Committee must be consulted and it must be allowed to express its judgment about the proposed stationing.
We could not consult the congregations as they were large and unwieldy.
So we dealt with the Pastorate Committees which were elected once in two years by the congregations.
Every year a few Presbyters retired, died or left the Diocese.
Some Presbyters went for further study.
Some Presbyters asked for transfer for the sake of their children's education.
Some Presbyters quarrelled with their congregations or their congregations quarrelled with them and they had to be sent to other churches.
In the month of February the Bishop and the officials of the Diocese met and drew up a tentative list of transfers which was sent to all the Presbyters and churches concerned.
'This gave rise to a flood of letters, telegrams, petitions and interviews.
Often two or three churches would ask for the same man; he could not go to all of them!
Ifa man was known to be slack or quarrelsome, no church would have him...
The Presbyter himself had his own wishes and sometimes he sought to influence the concerned committees.
The Bishop had the difficult task of helping his Presbyters to the best of his ability.
He had also to satisfy the Pastorate Committees.
These were not easy things to do.
Much precious time was spent in persuading Presbyters and Pastorate Committees to. accept the proposed arrangements.
The Bishop needed considerable tact, patience and love to deal with the awkward situations which often arose.
The Ministerial Committee of the Diocese then met, considered all the proposed transfers and the comments of the churches and made its final recommendations to me. I then passed the orders of transfer, which took effect in May.
The months from February to. May were a particularly difficult time for the Bishop.
They gave him many headaches.
Missionaries.
'Why do we want Missionaries in this Diocese?
We can certainly get along without them.'
Extremist nationals said this to me every now and then.
Responsible Government officials also said the same to me: 'Can you not get Indians to do
A C.S-I, BISHOP AT WORK
this work?
Why do you want men from:Europe?
You should train your own people and give them positions of responsibility.'
On this ground the Government refused to permit a Swiss Missionary who was working in the Diocese to return to his station after furlough.
There were twenty Europeans on the staff of the Diocese, including the chaplains of the English-speaking churches.
They had their failings, like all of us.
At one time they: had held positions of responsibility:
There were five District Missionaries at Ootacamund, Ketti, Coimbatore, Erode and Salem.
One of them was a C.M.S.
Missionary.
Another was a Methodist Missionary.
The others were Missionaries of the London Mission.
Each District Missionary was in control of the work in his area.
He worked in consultation with local committees.
He was on the spot. He was in close contact with all the workers in the area— ministers, evangelists and teachers.
He paid them their salaries, met them often, visited their churches and schools and checked their work.
The appointment of an Indian Bishop meant that the major responsibilities of the five District Missionaries were transferred to him and the Diocesan Committees. The powers ot the District Missionaries were greatly curtailed.
They were now called District Workers.
One of them said to me frankly: 'I find it difficult to take a second place.
But I shall learn in time!'
There were sometimes quarrels among the Missionaries or between the Missionaries and the Indian workers.
In spite of such problems the Missionaries did excellent work.
They were as a rule faithful, conscientious and hard-working.
They were loyal to the Diocese and sought to abide by its rules.
Most of them were filled with evangelistic zeal.
They were better educated than the Indian workers.
They kept careful accounts of the large sums of money which were entrusted to them, while some of our
Indian leaders were lacking in integrity.
They brought to us the lessons which they had learnt in the Older Churches of the West.
Their presence in our midst was a continual reminder of the fact that we were all members of a World Church.
I was convinced that there would be a great loss to the Diocese if for any reason their services were withdrawn.
There would be an immense gap which it would be most difficult to fill.
J pointed this out again and again to our extreme nationalists as well as to government authorities.
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Problems of Co-operation.
'The criticism was sometimes made that many of our guest preachers belonged to other Churches.
Was it wise to invite them?
The doctrinal position of the Church of South India is very clearly set out in our Constitution.
The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed are fully accepted in the Church of South India and are regularly used in our Services of worship.
We always made it clear that the friends who came to help us from distant lands, often from unexpected quarters, should respect the teaching of the Church of South India.
There are some points on which they may believe and teach in their own churches differently: from us.
But when speaking to our people they should not refer to these controversial doctrines.
Two guest preachers failed to abide by this rule.
They taught that believer's baptism of adults by immersion alone is scriptural and valid and not infant baptism.
They gave about a dozen of our people believer's baptism by immersion even though they had been baptised as infants.
This roused considerable disturbance in the Diocese and we had to withdraw our permission to these men to work in the Diocese.
In due course they left the Diocese.
We had also to forbid those who had been baptised again to hold responsible positions in the Diocese or to impart any such teaching to our people.
One problem which gave us some anxiety was as to whether the people who were converted would leave the Church and set up as independent groups.
In the first flush of their new enthusiasm, they saw a great deal in the Church which seemed entirely un-Christian.
Some of the Evangelists who preached were also quite critical of the Church and its ministers.
The converts tended to look up to the Evangelists as their spiritual guides rather than to their own Presbyters.
No permanent groups were, however, set up in the Coimbatore Diocese, partly because a stream of Evangelists came to us and not just one or two to whom the people could have easily given their allegiance.
Also our Missionaries and Pastors did everything they could to keep the converted people within the Church. When the Pastors and Christian workers throw themselves heart and soul into an evangelistic movement, there is little or no fear of schismatic groups being set up.
We tended to depend entirely on visiting Evangelists for appeals for commitment to Christ.
It is true that effective appeals for
A C.S.I, BISHOP AT WORK
Christian commitment cannot be made by everyone.
In our day and generation God is using Billy Graham mightily for such work, Certainly some at least of our Presbyters ought to develop any talents they may have for successful evangelism among nominal
Christians and their ministry should be made continually available for that type of work.
Father-n-God.
My contacts with the bulk of church people in the Diocese were quite slight.
There were many thousands of them and I could not get to know them or help them.
But I tried to keep in close touch with all the workers in the Diocese— Missionaries, Presbyters, Lay Preachers, candidates for the Ministry, the staff of the hospitals and the teachers in our elementary and high schools.
I longed to be their Father-in-God.
I endeavoured to understand their individual capacities and urged the relevant committees to give them spheres of work in which their special gifts would be most useful. When they wanted to see me I was always available.
However busy I was, I laid aside my work to talk with the people who called on me, though occasionally they came at inconvenient times.
I listened to whatever they had to say.
It was not always possible to do what they wanted.
But at least they felt that they had been given an opportunity to explain their views.
A Bishop in an Indian Diocese today has to spend much time seeking to establish peace and love between Presbyters and congregations, between heads of institutions and their staff, and among teachers.
'Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God.'
I had to remind myself of this beatitude more often than of any other saying of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is amazing to see how much friction there is in the Church, which seeks to spread love and peace in the world.
We have to forgive not once, not twice, not even seven times, but seventy times seven.
Difficult cases of discipline, particularly against our Presbyters, came up now and then.
I was sometimes blamed for not being firm enough.
On the recommendation of the concerned committees I took action against three Presbyters and two church workers and asked them to leave the Diocese.
I also wrote to a Missionary Society to withdraw from the Diocese one of its Missionaries.
All this was very painful to me.