THE ST. THOMAS CHRISTIANS OF : ECUMENICAL AND MISSIOLOGICAL CHALLENGES

Xavier Kochuparampil

The ecclesial context of the of India is that of three individual churches: the Syro-Malabar Church from the apostolic time, the from the sixteenth century and the Syro- from 1930. Now the Latin Church is spread all over India, while the other two Oriental Churches are delimited to the present political State of , which is but 0.47% of the Indian Union. This exactly is the crux of the missionary problems existing in India. Before we make a thorough analysis of the ecumenical and missionary problems existing in India, it seems quite appropriate to have a clear picture of the ecclesial situation in India.

The Indian Ecclesial Situation

We can trace the history of the Church in India according to three periods or phases of its existence: (1) the Indo-Chaldean Period from the first to the beginning of the sixteenth century, (2) the Indo-European Period from the sixteenth to the end of the nineteenth century, and (3) the Indigenous Contemporary Period from the end of the nineteenth century down to our own days. The Indo-Chaldean Period is further divided into: Early Apostolic Period and the East Syrian Period.

Early Apostolic Period ,

Christian faith was introduced into India in the very first century of Christianity. Well-established tradition holds that the Apostle Thomas who arrived in India in the second half of the first century preached the Gospel and founded the Church in India. Even though much controversy has raged around this claim, today scholars are less sceptical about it than they 2 were a few years ago.2 The community formed out of the early

1 After examining the difference between the realm of "physical possibility" and "historical actuality", Benedict Vadakkekaraconcluded in his detailed and profound study that the origin of the St. Thomas Christians in India is a historical actuality. See Benedict Vadakkekara, Origin of India's St. Thomas Christians: A Historio- graphical Critique, Delhi: Media House, 1995. 2 Cf. J.N. Farquhar, "The Apostle Thomas in ", in Bulletin of the John 244

Christianization of India is known as the St. Thomas Christians or simply Thomas Christians.' They are deeply conscious of their apostolic origin. More than anything else this living memory of the community is the best proof of its apostolic origin. This tradition has been well attested by outstanding Hindu scholars of our century' and the supreme Pontiffs of the Catholic Church.' We are not quite sure about the indigenous nature and development of the form of worship nor about the nature of evangelization and the theology they followed. What we know for certain is that the Gospel was preached and was received with enthusiasm. Moreover, we are told that the early Christian community continued to live the same socio-cultural life even after believing in Jesus Christ. They were Christians in faith but were truly Indians in culture.

East Syrian Connection

In the course of history there existed some kind of relation between the Thomas Christians and the East Syrian Church, the Church of the Persian empire. But there is no tradition that mentions the specific way in which both Churches began this long-standing relation. Malabar tradition attests to the arrival of a group of Persian Christians under the leadership of a wealthy merchant called in 345 A.D. It is pointed out that in all probability the hierarchical relation between the East Syrian Church and the Thomas Christians goes back to the sixth century. The historical fact that the East Syrian Church was the most flourishing and missionary-minded Church of the first millennium, outnumbering even the Greek and the Latin Churches, argues in favour of an earlier contact between the Indian Church and the East Syrian Church.6 The Portuguese missionaries who landed in Malabar in the beginning of the sixteenth century could see a flourishing Christian community with

RylandsLibrary 11 (1927) 20-50, p.49. 3 The present appellation "Syro-MalabarChurch" is of a later origin. It dates back to the granting of indigenousleadership to the Church in 1896. 4 K.M. Panikkar, Asia and Western Dominance, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1953, p. 375; S. Radhakrishnan,East and Westin Religion, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1958; J. Nehru, An Autobiography,New Delhi (reprint), 1980, p.273-274. 5 In his inaugural address of the Synod of of the Syro-MalabarChurch held at Vatican from 8 to 17 January 1996, the Holy Father said: "The Syro-Malabar Church, born into the faith from the preaching of the Apostle Thomas, is one of the ecclesial families in which the rich variety of the Christian East is articulated." See John Paul II, "Your duty is to build peace", in L'Osservatore Romano (Eng.E- dition), 3 (1424) 17 January 1996, p.6. cf. also Pope Pius XI, "Romani Pontifices", in AAS 7 (1924) 257; Pope Pius XII, "Nuntius Radiophonicus", in AAS 45 (1953) 96-99, p.97. 6 A. Mingana, Early Spread of Christianityin Asia, Manchester, 1925, p. 5.