Church Organisation

XI

CHURCH ORGANISATION

The most important unit of organisation in our Mission By this is understood an area of country is the district. under one missionary it will, therefore, be ; which may be conveniently supervised by him. districts at present have from forty to fifty congregations The reasons why the district each. of missionary work are that the missionary has, by : itineration, close and constant relations with every part the agents are that of it ; all parts of one district, but not outside it that the greatest portion of the funds spent in a district are administered by a single committee representing the whole district. The committee which governs the Mission within a the called District district is presided over by the superintending missionary. sists of about eight members, most of whom are elected by the smaller committees called Pastorate Committees, to be spoken of later, which themselves contain a large The rules require that a certain pro- elective element. portion of the District Council, as a minimum, shoulfl be 171

Mission districts^ of a size The is a compact unit easily interchangeable in and, lastly, ; Council, and Church is It con-

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

172 laymen not holding any paid office in the Mission without the presence of two such laymen no business can take place. Broadly speaking, all the Indian agents and locates most of them at Those, however, who are on the permanent discretion. register of the Mission, and who have thereby a secure tenure of office, must be paid according to certain rules. Another important part of the work the management of the village schools general direction of the evangehstic work in the district. As regards finance, it receives the grants from the S.P.G. for missionary operations, the village schools, and the Church levy raised through- district, and expends them out the directions. The no doubt question readers will be how far this system goes in the direction To that no decided answer can be of self-government. It must be remembered given. hke the Mission ours, commonly the only European on theoretically the Indian members might vote down his views on every question. vided by the rules, if the chairman disagrees with the decision of the D.C.C, to the whole Mission, but this is rarely used.

D.C.C.

fact, the value of the depends on what the presiding missionary makes of of committees of Indians to follow too is the fault It the lead given by the chairman. readily has sometimes found it

; and the D.C.C. controls its the

D.C.C.

of is it has, also, the ; the Government grants for in the prescribed most our interest of to a scattered that, in missionary superintending is the committee, and An appeal pro- indeed, is, the council of superior As a matter of body controlhng a as it. The writer order a get necessary, to in

CHURCH ORGANISATION

carefully to conceal his own view of verdict of value, When the members of the committee are the question. made to feel that their opinions are really wanted, and above the decision that all votes will be acted upon, they are able to express decided views of their own—views which, especially in questions spending that the involve shrewd and based on solid facts. On the whole, however, as things are at present, the influence of the European missionary is predominant in affairs of the Church, and only when an Indian the appointed to the sole charge of a district will there be true self-government. Each missionary's district ates, generally two or three in number. group of congregations supposed to be ministered toby one Owing, however, to the lamentable dearth Indian pastor. of clergy, a pastorate is often put under a lay catechist. Each pastorate has its own committee, which, except that the missionary has the right (which to sit on it, is purely Indian in constitution. is chairman, and the other members, ten in number, are elected—five, who must be paid agents, by the whole body of the agents, and five, who must not be paid agents, by the elders of all the congregations in the pastorate. Committee's Pastorate This worship tenance public of the building and upkeep of churches and schools. funds at their disposal are small, and the scope of their energies limited, but they bring the congregations into actual contact with the management

173 through arrived their at money, are generally of is is divided up into pastor- Pastor- A pastorate is a ates. is rarely exercised) The pastor main- the duties are congregations and the in The of Church affairs

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

174 and enable them to representative government. the above In Church addition to which Indians ference to ence^' members consist of clergy, lay agents, and Ia5mien who are not agents, nearly all the laymen being elected by the several District Church Councils. for several days at a time to discuss important questions of Church policy. It especially upon the its decisions, Indian customs that from time to time comed and regarded as weighty pronouncements by the authorities of the Mission. There Central besides, is, general control over the whole Mission. mittee. Telugu the Mission entirely of European missionaries. it deUberates on questions exclusively are the following : affecting the missionaries, and tween the home society and every part of the Mission on matters finance. of all way the larger institutions of the Mission, such as the boarding-schools, and strict sense the employer of the permanent register the details of their work they are subject to their own District Church Council. on the larger requires, discipline, and the like. The formation of event in the history

exercise elementary functions of is a Church Con- there only admitted. are Its It meets once a year is a purely advisory council, but difficult questions of arise, are wel- which committee a exercises This is called and Committee, Central consists Among its functions is an intermediary be- a general controls in It is this committee which is in a it all the agents who are on Mission, though the of in all It also deliberates, as occasion questions mission of policy, committee was notable a this of the Mission, and has rendered

CHURCH ORGANISATION

possible a united policy and a fairly uniform organisa- came Before into tion. it was a separate entity, and each missionary developed his work on his own lines. This state of things might full play to individuality, but give the help which mutual experience was able to provide Under the missionaries. for without loss of the best kind of freedom, all the districts abide by mutually certain rules applies particularly to the system under which the agents, trained in the central institution at Nandyal, are selected to work in the several districts. unfair advantage of another in securing men for and the same policy applies to questions of discipline and to the whole method of procedure in the receiving of converts and the building up of the Church. friction, mutual support, and increased is absence of strength. It may interest our readers to give some account of the means provided in the S.P.G. Mission for the settle- Christians and ment of disputes between brought by one Christian charges which, it need hardly be said, are as far as possible kept of the ordinary courts. out kinds of tribunals. The lower court is called a panchayat, a word which (as before explained), a body of means, properly In our Mission the panchayat is not a permanent body, is appointed for each but case. court is the pastor or catechist. is appointed by the missionary, one by members, one

175 each existence district it involved loss of scheme, the present agreed upon. This No district takes an itself, The result Settle- ^^'i* °* the of trial another against The Mission provides two five. The president of the Of the remaining four

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

176 two and complainant, the rule, at the village where the alleged court meets, as a A complete and clear set of rules of ofiEence took place. procedure is in existence. inflict fines up to the limit of three rupees. require more severe punishment must be Church Either party has the higher court. appeal to the higher court. This higher court is called the Bishop's Local Council, and directly represents the Bishop is the missionary in charge of the sident of the court district, and the members are selected by him out of the catechists, and members the clergy, The court must consist of five persons at committees. least, but may have more, provided that, whatever its size, two-fifths of its members must be la3mien who are not paid agents of the Mission. ing appeals, tries those more serious cases that involve such excommunication, heathen person, persistent sin, and the like. against agents on the permanent charges only be heard by the higher court. in passing, that the Indian pastors can be tried only by appointed a commission the verdict of the Bishop's Local Council be that the deserves excommunication, guilty person the Bishop, and the sentence pronounced by to sent is read on a Sunday in every congregation in the him Mission—that is, in about two hundred places of wor- like manner, a petition In ship. the Church must be tried by the Bishop's Local Council,

by The the defendant. The panchayat has power to Cases that sent the to right of The pre- himself. of the pastorate This court, besides hear- marriage with a as idolatry, Moreover, register can It may be mentioned, specially by the Bishop. If his name is to be readmitted to

GROUP COMMUNICANTS THAT HAVE INTO COME NANDYAL FOR THE CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION,

CHURCH ORGANISATION

and the order for readmission, when pronounced by the Bishop, is also read in all the churches and chapels of the Mission. The Church courts have no means, other than moral means, of enforcing their decisions. paid, and are the lesser pubUc penance by sitting outside the congregation, are If a condemned person refuses to submit submitted to. to his punishment, he can, in the last resort, be excom- A sentence municated. unpkcisant consequences, for the guilty person is cut off, not only from Church services, but from social intercourse with Christians. According to the custom of the country, this means that he is unable to draw water from the common well of the Christians. that he was unable to share in the common fire of the village, for a fire had to be kept perpetually aUght in one house kindle the to fires mission agent has described to the writer in an amusing way, how proximity to a river, coupled with the easy purchase the of in fire weakens the Bishop's excommunication. the force of But still it is true that in India, less than elsewhere, can He must be a member of a com- a man stand alone. heathen munity. relations If with him, the excommunicated person can fairly easily slip back into their society, but then he finds out that he has sunk to a lower commonly desires to return to the Church.

l^j As a rule the fines punishments, such as doing of excommunication involves Formerly it also meant

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in aU the daily others. a box shape matches, of of near and intimate are level, and later he sooner or