Church Union Movement - Changing Approaches and Types of Union
Church Union Movement - Changing Approaches and Types of Union
Church Union Movement - Changing Approaches and Types of Union
Paominlen Kipgen
INTRODUCTION
Church Union Movement is another expression of the 20th century ecumenical movement. The
High Priestly prayer of Jesus Christ of John’s Gospel 17:21, “...that they all may be one so that
the world may believe” is the most often quoted basis for the church union discussion in
different parts of the world. The Bible has many references of the question of unity and Paul
too gave adequate explanation on the importance of unity. Church Union does not mean
building up one religion, language or a single religious kingdom, nor does it meant espousing
negative, dehumanized or conquering spirit.1 Rather Church Union chose as its goal the
building up of a single administrative structure for the whole Church. It has been so far entirely
within the Churches of the Reformation. There are no negotiations for the Church union that go
beyond the Anglican and Protestant Churches.2 This paper will deal about the different Types
of Church Union Movement among the Protestant churches of the world in general and India in
particular.
There are two types of unity reflected in the Bible. The Babel experience of unity
(Gen. 11:1-9) represented one type of biblical unity, “a kind of unity that may be equated to
dehumanization, oppression and domination,”3 and the Pentecost experience of unity (Acts 2:1-
13) represented another type of biblical unity, “unity of understanding even in the context of
the presence of diverse dialect, ‘unity in diversity.’”4
1
O.L. Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical Movement: An Introduction (Bangalore: BTESSC/SATHRI,
2006), 10.
2
Paulos Mar Gregorios, On Ecumenism (Delhi: ISPCK & MGF, Kottayam, 2006), 17.
3
In the Babel incident, people had gathered together to built a city for themselves and a tower with its top
in the heavens (v.4). The gathering of people ‘each with his own language, by their families, in their nations’
(Gen. 10:5) was an indication of the presence of a certain political authority that had ruled and controlled over
different ethnic group. Probably the majority ruling over the minorities and successfully imposed a single nation
and one language. What was lacking in the Babel event was a unity with an inclusive human face. Any movement
that functions within the framework of an exclusive, oppressive and dominating spirit will not produce any healthy
ecumenical interaction. The Babel unity was not an ecumenical unity with a healthy mentality. Snaitang, A History
of Ecumenical Movement..., 7-8.
4
Experience of unity on the day of Pentecost was different as the gathering together of the disciples in
Jerusalem did not have any intention to enforce a mono culture on the people. As a matter of fact, the disciples
were lonely, poor and powerless. They were people of humble origins. However, the experience of the power of
the Spirit was such that everyone could understand the Apostles even when they spoke in their own language. It
was a mighty work of God. There was no confusion in the meeting either. In spite of that the kind of unity that
Hrangkhuma identified three types of union, namely, complete organic union in which the old
confession names are simply forgotten; loose federations in which old denominational structure
continue intact but work together, and churches retain their identities but function together as a
single entity for certain purpose.5 However, Snaithang came up with four different concepts of
Church union: Spiritual, Federal, Organic and the Conciliar.
Spiritual unity does not have structures as it is a spontaneous response to the faith community
that flows from the depth of one’s love. It is a model that does not come from outside in the
form of a creedal statement, imperial order, constitutional arrangement or through signing of
memoranda of understandings. The New Testament community is a spiritual community of
faith in Jesus Christ that transcends racial barriers (cf. John. 10:14-16, Gal. 3:27f), for in the
apostolic times there was just but one church.6
The federal model of church union believes in the form of unity in diversity. It recognizes the
presence of numerous cultural identities, ecclesiastical differences, allows the continuance of
distinctive characteristics and autonomy in each church group but maintains a general
administrative body for the entire Christian churches. In this form of union, churches come
together in mutual understanding and respect, to exchange ideas and to share resources. They
come to involve in common projects or make representation for the same purpose and co-
operate as interrelated constituent units of a single body but retain their own way of life and
practice. This type of union binds churches together through the conference or Assembly,
Executive Committee meeting and through various representations or sub-committee
components and a working constitution. The United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India
(UELCI), Evangelical Churches in India, World Council of Churches (WCC), the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) or the World Alliance of Reform Churches (WARC) or union in
certain countries like in Thailand are examples of federal union.7
they experience was not a unity of agreement, because some of those who heard the Apostle’s messages began to
deride the incidence as if it was a result of drunkenness. Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical Movement...,8-9.
5
F. Harangkhuma, An Introduction to Church History (Bangalore: Theological Book Trust, 1996), 378.
6
O.L. Snaitang, “Church Union Movement and the Growth of Modern Ecumenism (1910-1948)” History
of Ecumenical Movement Issues, Challenges and Perspectives, edited by Watimongla Jamir (Kolkata: Sceptre,
2014), 122-123.
7
Snaitang, “Church Union Movement..., 123.
2
This model of union may be compared to the body of a living organism.8 In practical reality it
signifies a type of union based on a centralized form of administration like the Episcopacy or
Presbyterianism. Under this form of union, different existing denominations are merged into a
new centralized organizational structure. They do no longer remain autonomous or independent
as they used to exist before. The merger does not imply accepting the organizational structure
of a particular denominational church but a combination of different constituent models.9 The
formation of CSI on 27th September1947 and the Church of North India on 29th November,
1970 was the organic type of unity in India. This was very much proposed by Faith and Order
movement, WCC after 1961.
Concilear Union is a Union based on Council, everything has to be done by the approval of
council. Even though ecumenists had contemplated upon this subject as early as the third WCC
Assembly in New Delhi in 1961, it was the Nairobi WCC Assembly, 1975 that envisioned the
Conciliar model of church unity.10 Conciliar unity is a local reality, because: first, the Conciliar
Unity definition underscores the utmost importance of the local church. It begins to look at the
concept of union from below and the real starting point is none other than the local church
itself. Secondly, it envisions a type of unity that transcends local, national, ethnic and linguistic
boundaries. Local churches need to form that kind of inclusive and all encompassing
fellowship. Thirdly, it calls each local church to have a deep sense of belonging to the entire
family of local churches, to contribute to the common witness of all churches and to maintain
the bond of unity of the whole family. Fourthly, local churches which are brought together
under a conciliar union should have sufficient and well-organized structures in order to keep
members together and to respond to all sorts of challenges. Finally, it requires churches to set
aside all inherited hostility, to do away with all condemnations and anathemas and declare that
8
Paul refers to the church as the body of Christ, “from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by
every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself
in love” (Eph. 4:16).
9
Snaitang, “Church Union Movement...,124.
10
The Nairobi Assembly describes the meaning of unity as follows: “The one church is to be envisioned
as a conciliar fellowship of local churches which are themselves truly united. In this conciliar fellowship each
local church possesses, in communion with the others, the fullness of catholicity, witnesses to the same apostolic
faith and therefore recognises the others as belonging to the same Church of Christ and guided by the same Spirit.
They are bound together because they have received the same baptism, and share in the same eucharist; they
recognise each other’s members and ministries. They are one in their common commitment to confess the gospel
of Christ by proclaiming and service to the world. to this end each church aims at maintaining sustained and
sustaining relationships with her sister churches, expressed in conciliar gatherings whenever required for the
fulfilment of their common calling.” Snaitang, “Church Union Movement..., 124.
3
they are no longer applicable, and to learn how to live together in love, unity, truth, and hope
and to support each other.11
With closer examination Church Union Movement is also done from the perspective of a
variety of different models, e.g., intra-confessional union (union among churches of the same
origins), trans-confessional corporate union (or inter-church Union is a union of churches that
does not belong to the same confessional family), and union of the Episcopal and non-
Episcopal churches.12
Though India led the rest of the world in church union movement both chronologically and in
the nature of union, Church Union does not confined only in India. Some Church Union
Movements outside India are discussed below.
Scotland was a country with an almost 100% Presbyterian population. Before 1900 there were
three major autonomous divisions: The United Presbyterian Church, the Free Church of
Scotland and Church of Scotland. The United Presbyterian Church and the Free Church of
Scotland joined in together and formed the United Free Church. And later on 2nd October, 1929
the United Free Church and the Church of Scotland formed the intra-confessional union ‘The
United Church of Scotland.’13
The United Church of Canada was a Trans-confessional Corporate Union, a larger Union of the
Methodist, the Congregational and the Presbyterian Churches in 1925. Initial union efforts
began there among different churches of the same confessional family as early as 1817. The
success of intra-confessional union bolstered ecumenical vision for an inter-confessional union.
The Methodist Church of Canada initiated the move for union negotiation among the Protestant
churches in 1902. After two decades of serious discussions, the United Church of Canada was
finally inaugurated at Mutual Stree Arena, Toronto on 10th June 1925. 3000 union churches
joined UCC.14
11
Snaitang, “Church Union Movement..., 125.
12
Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical Movement..., 91.
13
O.L. Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical Movement: An Introduction (Bangalore: BTESSC/SATHRI,
2006), 89-90.
14
Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical Movement..., 91; cf. Harangkhuma, An Introduction to Church
History..., 378.
4
2.3 The Church of Christ in China
There were as many as 123 Protestant Mission Societies in China by 1939 representing mainly
the Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the Baptists, the Methodists, the United Church of
Canada, the reformed United Brethren in Christ, the Lutherans, the Anglicans and some others.
The Presbyterian and Congregational churches took the initiative for union negotiations. A
committee was appointed in 1918 to study and make preparatory plans for a larger union of
churches. The attempt was successful as it contributed to the formation of the National
Christian Council of China in 1922. The churches that participated in the union negotiation
agreed to join together and in 1927 formed the Union Church of Christ in China.15
The Church of Christ in Japan was not from Christian conviction but from government action
that passed a laws relating to religious bodies in 1940. One of the conditions was that, any
church with less than 5000 membership would not be recognized or given registration with the
government. The Japanese government forced the Protestant bodies to join together and those
bodies which refused to join were legally dissolved.16 As a result most churches of Protestant
traditions like the Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the Baptists, the Methodists, the
Lutherans, and some of the Anglicans congregations and a number of small Christian churches
joined together and form the federated Nippon Kirisuto Kyodan or the Church of Christ in
Japan in 1941.17
Other Church Union include the United Church of Zambia (1965), the Church of Jesus Christ,
USA (1934), the United Church of Jamaica and Grand Cayman (1965), the Reform Church in
France (1938), the United Churches of Germany (East and West), United Reformed Church,
UK (1972), United Church in Australia (1977), Church of Pakistan (1970), Church of Christ in
Thailand (1934), Church of Bangladesh (1975), United Church of Papua New Guinea and the
Solomon Islands (1962), and the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (1929).18
Church Union Movement in India starts with union among the same denomination, followed by
inter-denominational union and later on a Union of Episcopal and Non-Episcopal Churches. It
15
O.L. Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical Movement..., 92.
16
Harangkhuma, An Introduction to Church History..., 379.
17
Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical Movement..., 93-94.
18
Harangkhuma, An Introduction to Church History..., 380.
5
was in India for the first time in history of church succession of the Episcopate has succeeded
in entering with full corporate union with non-Episcopate church.
The first definite achievement Church Union was local union of Presbyterians in South India in
1901, which brought together the communities of the American Arcot Mission and Free Church
of Scottish Presbyterian Mission in and around Madras. In 1904 this body joined with eight
Presbyterian missions in North India to form Presbyterian Church of India (PCI). In 1905
another local union of people of one denominational family formed a loose federation of the
Congregationalist of the London Mission and the American Madurai Mission formed in
Tamilnadu. In North-East India in 1959, the Council of Baptist Churches in North East India
(CBCNEI)19 brings together some thirty five different language groups, about 1,009,548
members in 5585 Churches.20
The first inter-denominational union South India United Church (SIUC) was formed in 1908
with the union of all the Congregationalists and Presbyterian in South India. Later on the Jaffna
district of Ceylon and the Basel Mission district of Malabar joined later in 1919.21 In 1924, the
United Church of North India (UCNI) was formed again through a union of Presbyterians and
Congregationalists. Eleven missions were represented in it and its area stretched from Bengal,
Assam, Gujarat, and Punjab. They followed the Constitution of Presbyterian Church.22
19
In 1914, the National Churches formed themselves into Assam Baptist Christian Convention (ABCC).
This organization grew in its stature, and finally in January 1950, the Council of Baptist Churches in Assam
(CBCA) was formed through the merging of Assam Baptist Missionary Conference under the leadership of its first
General Secretary, Rev. A. F. Merrill. Later on the name was changed to Council of Baptist Churches in Assam
and Manipur (CBCAM), and then finally to The Council of Baptist Churches in North-East India in 1959. The
Associate Convention of CBCNEI are: Assam Baptist Convention, Arunachal Baptist Church Council, Garo
Baptist Convention, Karbi Anglong Baptist Convention, Manipur Baptist Convention and Nagaland Baptist
Church Council. Frederick S. Downs, The Mighty Works of God: A brief History of the Council of Baptist
Churches in North East India: The Mission Period 1836-1950 (Guwahati: Christian Literature Centre, 1971
[2014]), 199-200.
20
CB. Firth, An Introduction to Indian Church History, (Delhi: ISPCK, 2013), 287.
21
Isaac Devadoss, “A Historical Suvey of Ecumenism in India” History of Ecumenical Movement:
Issues, Challenges and Perspectives, edited by Watimongla Jamir (Kolkata: Sceptre, 2014), 179.
22
Devadoss, “A Historical Suvey of Ecumenism in India..., 179.
6
3.3 Union of Episcopal and Non-Episcopal
Union of Episcopal and Non-Episcopal Churches was another significant model of Union of
the 20th century. The process of union occurred in the creation of the Church of South India
(1947) and the Church of North India (1970).
The formation of the Church of South India (CSI) was not a question of the drawing together of
denominations of the same type, but an attempt to heal one of the major divisions that arose in
the Western Church during the troubles of the Reformation period in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, and had been imported into India by western Missions.23 In 1910, Bishop
Whitehead, the Anglican Bishop in Madras raised the issue of unity, but nothing came out of
the discussion. He continued to speak and write about this till in the year 1919, when an
informal meeting of Indian pastors of the Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican and South Indian
United Churches convened by Bishop V.S. Azariah and Rev. Santiago, took place in
Tranquebar. In February 1920, the Episcopal Synod of the Anglican Province in India24
appointed a committee for negotiation. In 1925 the Methodist Church of South India 25 came
into the negotiation and it declared its willingness to unite with the other two churches in
January 1943. In January 1945, Anglicans passed a resolution to carry out the practical
unanimous desire of union with the Methodist and SIUC. In September 1946, SIUC accepted
the proposal of the unity. A year was spent in the final preparation for union. On 27 September
1947, the CSI was inaugurated in the St George Cathedral at Madras. 26 Further, the North
Tamil Church Council (Coimbatore) of the SIUC joined the CSI in 1950 and it became the
Coimbatore diocese of the CSI. The Kanarese Basel Mission joined the CSI in 1958. In 1968 a
group of CSI members in Malabar area left CSI and formed Malabar Basel German Mission
Church. Later, they rejoined the CSI on 26 January 2003.27
In 1924, the UNCI sent out an invitation to other churches for union. The Wesleyan Methodist
Church was the first to respond to this invitation. As a result of these developments a Round
Table Conference (RTC) was called at Lucknow in 1929 to discuss the possibility of Church
23
Firth, An Introduction to Indian Church History..., 239.
24
Anglican dioceses in South India (Madras, Tinnevelly, Tranvancore and Cochin and Dornakal)
25
South Indian districts of the Methodist communion (Madras, Mysore, Trichinopoly and Hyderabad).
26
Isaac Devadoss, “A Historical Suvey of Ecumenism in India” History of Ecumenical Movement:
Issues, Challenges and Perspectives, edited by Watimongla Jamir (Kolkata: Sceptre, 2014), 179.
27
D. Arthur Jeyakumar, History of Christianity in India: Selected Themes, (Madurai: Author, 2007), 123.
7
Union. In 1929 UCNI made the suggestion of Joint Council for union between the UCNI and
the Methodist Church in South Asia. The Joint Council became a separate platform for
negotiations, which continued from 1931 to 1945. In 1951 the RTC was replaced by
Negotiation Committee (NC) by the church bodies28, which met in Calcutta in the same year
and drew up the first Plan of Church Union in North India. From 1957 onwards the other two
bodies, the Church of the Brethren and Disciples of Christ, joined in the negotiation. The plan
reached its fourth and final edition in 1965. In 1966, the General Council of CIPBC28 voted to
join the CNI; in 1968, the General Assembly of UCNI28 decided to enter the union; the
Convention of the Churches of the Disciples of Christ accepted the plan of NC in 1969; the
Methodist Church (British and Australian Conference) also re-affirmed its position in favour of
the plan in 1969; and the Annual Conference of the Church of Brethren in 1969 decided to join
the union. Thus the much anticipated visible organic union of Churches - The Church of North
India was inaugurated on 29th November, 1970 in the all Saints’ Cathedral Compound at
Nagpur.29
A significant step towards Church Union movement in North-East took place when the Bengal
Christian Council (BCC), formed in 1926, invited the Protestant missions from North East
India for membership. Even though this was accepted, communication adversity due to
geographical condition and cultural difference made the members to withdraw from the BCC.
The ecumenical effort was rekindled when the Welsh Presbyterian missionaries in Meghalaya
convened a meeting of all Protestant churches in Shillong in 1936. Six mission societies and
two Churches30 responded and attended the meeting. This was the beginning of an inter-
denominational fellowship.31 The initial efforts to develop and co-operate in a wider objective
on united Church in North East India was made by the Assam Christian Council (ACC) which
was officially constituted on Nov. 23, 1937 at the meeting of joint conference at Shillong. At
that time the ACC has six Ecclesiastical bodies32 and six Missions members.33 In 1942 meeting,
28
UCNI, the Anglican Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon (CIPBC), the Methodist Church in
southern Asia (MCSA), the British and Australian Methodist Church (BAMC), and the Council of the Baptist
Church in North India (CBCNI)
29
Devadoss, “A Historical Suvey of Ecumenism in India..., 182-183.
30
Missions and Churches that have attended the conference were: 1. The American Baptist Mission; 2.
The Santal Mission of the Northern Churches; 3. The Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Mission; 4. The Co-operative
Baptist Mission of North America; 5. The English Baptist Mission; 6. The Church of God; 7. The Welsh
Presbyterian Mission, and 8. The Church of India.
31
Devadoss, “A Historical Suvey of Ecumenism in India..., 184-185.
32
Assam Baptist Convention, Presbyterian Church of Assam, Assam Diocese of the Anglican Church,
Baptist Church of South Lushai, Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the Church of God.
8
it began to talk about the Church union. In the 1950s the Council planned to concentrate its
union effort only among the members in the region.34 Yet, though there was an attempt and a
discussion for church union, on the other hand there was still un-readiness from the constituent
churches.35
The ACC was renamed as North East India Christian Council (NEICC) in 1964 for the wider
vision and task, but the constitutions and functions are all the same.36 The NEICC meeting,
held at Kalimpong in 1963, took concrete decisions on the question of Church union and
directed the already organized Church Union Committee to bring a union proposal to the
Conference on Faith and Order. The second Conference held in Khwan, Meghalaya in 1964
formulated the first draft of the Basis for Union to be presented in the NEICC meet on May
1965. The first Church Union Conference was convened by the Church Union Committee in
November, 1965. Here the second draft of the Basis of Union was articulated. There were
bodies who rejected this draft but among those who accepted were the two largest bodies in the
region, i.e., the Council of Baptist Churches in North East India (CBCNEI) and the Khasi-
Jaintia Presbyterian Synod. The second Union Conference in 1969 seemed more promising
with the plan to constitute the Church of North East India (CNEI). It sends the revised draft of
the documents to all affiliated bodies for comments. When the Council met together in 1970 to
take stock of the revised draft on the basis of union, majority of all affiliated churches voted in
favour of the union. However, before the final approval of the churches, the much awaited
union was put on a stay when the CBCNEI withdrew itself in 1971 on the basis of baptism,
episcopacy and centralized organization. This was a major setback that even though union
negotiations were re-opened, there were no tangible results save maintaining the status quo of
being a forum of annual meeting.37
CONCLUSION
Except for North-East, Church Union Movement achieved its goal in the Northern and
Southern part of India. Unity of the Church can no longer be conceived as a return of the other
33
American Baptist, Welsh Presbyterian, British Baptist, Santal Mission of the Northern Church, New
Zealand Baptist, British and Foreign Bible Society. Woba James, “Ecuminism in North East India” Journal of
Tribal Studies Volume XVII/2 (July –Dec, 2012), 82.
34
Devadoss, “A Historical Suvey of Ecumenism in India..., 185.
35
According to Snaitang, this could be that the issue of church union was not yet discussed in their
respective churches, or that the council members going far ahead in their thinking had jumped into the subject of
church union. Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical Movement..., 163.
36
Firth, An Introduction to Indian Church History..., 287.
37
Devadoss, “A Historical Suvey of Ecumenism in India..., 185.
9
churches as prodigals to the Roman Catholic Church and its monolithic unity. It is to create
unity among the diverse denomination or Church group. Church Union movement in India is
unparalleled in the west. It had brought positive and visible endeavors in the establishments of
union institutions like the Madras Christian College (1837), Christian Medical College &
Hospital (1900), the Union Mission Tuberculosis Sanatorium (1915). Another area of
contribution of cooperation was theological education; the first was the United Theological
College (1910). C.B. Firth commented, “Thirteen of the twenty-one colleges and seminaries
connected with Serampore College in 1960 were union institutions.”38 These were possible
only because of the Church Union Movement. Finally, one should always remember that the
task and responsibility of the church as a whole and individual is to fulfil the unanswered
prayer of Jesus Christ by uniting each and every Churches.
___________________________________
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Devadoss, Isaac. “A Historical Suvey of Ecumenism in India” History of Ecumenical
Movement: Issues, Challenges and Perspectives, edited by Watimongla Jamir. Kolkata:
Sceptre, 2014.
Downs, Frederick S. The Mighty Works of God: A brief History of the Council of Baptist
Churches in North East India: The Mission Period 1836-1950. Guwahati: Christian
Literature Centre, 1971 [2014]).
Firth, C.B. An Introduction to Indian Church Histor. Delhi: ISPCK, 2013.
Gregorios, Paulos Mar. On Ecumenism. Delhi: ISPCK & MGF, Kottayam, 2006.
Harangkhuma, F. An Introduction to Church History. Bangalore: Theological Book Trust,
1996.
Jeyakumar, D. Arthur. History of Christianity in India: Selected Themes. Madurai: Author,
2007.
Snaitang, O.L. “Church Union Movement and the Growth of Modern Ecumenism (1910-
1948)” History of Ecumenical Movement Issues, Challenges and Perspectives, edited by
Watimongla Jamir. Kolkata: Sceptre, 2014.
Snaitang, O.L. A History of Ecumenical Movement: An Introduction. Bangalore:
BTESSC/SATHRI, 2006.
Journal
James, Woba “Ecuminism in North East India” Journal of Tribal Studies Volume XVII/2 (July
–Dec, 2012): 76-88.
38
Firth, An Introduction to Indian Church History..., 237.
10