Upswing in Ecumenical Trends in India

There are a number of ecumenical undertakings in India despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Christians in India have responded to the Biblical directives for Christian unity by resolutely obliging to the cause of Christian unity at local and national levels.

National Prayer: One Sound One Hope

“In these difficult times, while we are fighting COVID-19, we pray for the healing of the sick and for the recovery of our land. As a family of God, we are united in one accord and united in faith in this solemn prayer”. These are the words of Cardinal Oswald Gracias, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, (CBCI) on the occasion of the great ecumenical prayer which all Christian Churches in India celebrated on the day Pentecost on May 31^st, 2020. The prayer day “One Sound One Hope” on the day of Pentecost was organised by United Christian Prayer for India (UCPI) and was endorsed by several Church leaders of our country. The scope of bringing all the churches from Jammu & Kashmir to Kerala and dissemination of invitation and promotion materials from Arunachal Pradesh to Gujarat covering more than 3,00,000 churches and 100 different Christian organizations was not a small effort and yet it was done with utmost sincerity.

Outstanding Ecumenical Theological Engagements

The Ecumenical Christian Centre (ECC), a prestigious Christian institute in Bengaluru in the southern Karnataka state has been actively involved in interreligious and ecumenical discourses using online platforms during these unprecedented times. “Bringing together Christians and Churches in friendship and fellowship is yet to be accomplished. We are moving towards it slowly and steadily,” says Rev. Fr. Dr. Mathew Chandrankunnel an eminent ecumenist and scholar who heads ECC.

ECC was set up in 1963 by the late Reverend M. A. Thomas of the Mar Thoma Church to promote Christian unity among all humankind and creation. Rt. Rev. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius is the chairman of ECC and is the Metropolitan of Malankara Syrian Church in India.

In the words of Rev. Dr. Johnson Thomaskutty, Associate Professor of New Testament, Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, and a significant collaborator to ECC, “From April 2020  to July, we are continually engaged in several series of wider ecumenical seminars, lectures, and research presentations. The real motivations behind all these initiatives are Jesus’ teachings about the unity of the believers found in the Bible (St.John:17). The prayer of Jesus invokes an urgency to bring the stratified body of the believing community to the path of freedom, equality, and fraternity, and to make the churches and Christian aware of the biblical messages of peace, righteousness and love. The Covid-19 situation, though is very challenging is also an important time to energize the ecumenical initiatives without any superficiality, hypocrisy and various internal and external biases”.

ECC programmes done in collaboration with CBCI office of Ecumenism and Dialogue, Buddhists religious leaders and scholars, Hindu religious leaders and scholars, brought together people from different faith traditions like the Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists  and Christians from different traditions like the Catholics, Protestants, Charismatics and Pentecostals. These undertakings caused hundreds of persons around the globe from different time zones to engage in serious theological engagements, spiritual awakenings and borderless ecumenical and interreligious discussions.

Rev. Dr. Johnson Thomaskutty states further, “We cashed in on the current opportunity to bring people from varied doctrinal and theological backgrounds and regional and national areas to experience a genuine ecumenical spirit without national, regional, linguistic, gender-specific, casteistic and class-oriented biases. The Zoom platforms helped us to make the Indian, Pakistani, Burmese, Bangladeshi, Nepali, and the Eastern and the Western Churches to discuss together the biblical themes without any prejudices”.

It is true that in the early period of the ecumenical movement, many Churches declined invitations to participate in the movements that later led to the formation of the World Council of Churches. However, the commitment of the Catholic Church on ecumenism has been highlighted by its innumerable doctrinal and pastoral implications since Vatican II. Pope Francis has made some outstanding ecumenical gestures. In 2014, he celebrated an ecumenical service with Orthodox churches in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In mid-2014, he visited a Pentecostal community in Caserta. In June 2015, he became the first Pope to enter a Waldensian church. On 31 October 2016, Pope Francis travelled to Lund in Sweden to commemorate the Reformation with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).

Gospel Music

Christianity focuses on the life, message and the ministry of Jesus Christ, a belief in one God who through the power of the Holy Spirit raised him from the dead. The emphasis on these aspects differed among Christians resulting to diversity. And yet one of the major ways Christians have experienced the life and message of the Bible dwell richly throughout this pandemic COVID-19 has been through singing hymns individually and in families and also using online platforms. Gospel hymns are beloved because they share depth of the Bible in memorable ways. Gospel music from different churches are widely used, a sign of ecumenism lived and practiced. Directly and indirectly it has united Christians and have deepened ways of Christian faith and faith living.

Reflecting on the use of technology during the pandemic, we are seeing great and amazing miracles of Gospel music shared and used by various Churches. Whether confined to home or in quarantine centres or hospitals Gospel music has been extremely useful; a wonderful blessing of our times for finding hope and comfort in God.

Ecumenism has a lot to do with human relationships among Christian leaders and the believers. If there exists decent relationships among the leaders and the faithful we can easily listen to each other, emanate to recognize each other, engage in ecumenical activities and of course worship jointly. The Indian context of the commitment for the unity of the Church has implications for the dignity of the human person, for the sanctity of life, family values, education, health care, the preservation of creation and interreligious dialogue. In all these fields we can work together, and such co-operation can bring us closer together.

The efforts and fruits of ecumenical activities needs to be taken forward, and the continuation of the relationships developed will fashion the ecumenical journey forward. The future of India and the world needs more ecumenical alliances, with renewed trust, urge and obligation, the ecumenical efforts are to be continued. It is worth heeding to the words of St. Peter, “Honour everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God  (1 Peter 2:17).