More Kerala Church History

Sorry for my long absence.  I've been quite busy since posting last Sunday night. We took the early flight out of Goa on Monday and arrived in Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, where we joined with Susan's sister and her husband who had just arrived a day before from the States.  We spent a couple of days with them visiting with some of the elderly members of Susan's family. Her 93-year-old aunt (mother's sister) in Karunagappally, compensates for her memory loss, due to alzheimers, with a beautiful smile; while her aunt (father's sister) in Kottarakkara (also 93 years old) is blessed with fantastic memory. She recalled in vivid details Susan growing up as a young girl at her family's homestead.  We are indeed blessed to have relatives like them who care and pray for us.  After almost a two weeklong road trip, we came back once again to our flat (condominium) in Kalathyppady, Kottayam.  In the next couple of days, I met with the Rev. K. S Mathew, a class mate from Princeton Seminary and now the top most Priest in the Mar Thoma Church,  and several of my college friends now retired and enjoying lives devoid of strain and stress of an otherwise frenetic  Indian life. 

In many respects Kottayam, the city where my home is located and where I went to college, is central to the early development of Christianity in Kerala. As we read in the Acts of Apostles the early Christian church first flourished in cities like Corinth, Ephesus, Thessalonica, etc., the Kerala Church saw its major gains in cities like Kottayam. Here, one could see some of the oldest and biggest churches.  There are three seminaries belonging to the Jacobite, Catholic and Mar Thoma denominations.  One of the places I visited was a two hundred year old seminary of the Jacobite Church.  This seminary has a great museum and a wonderful library.  It was here that I was able to piece together the development of Indian Christianity from the early days.  The Indian church grew on its own unhampered by any outside influence for 1500 years, during which it saw few migrations of Christians and Jews from middle east, some due to religious persecutions and some for better living conditions and economic prospects.  These early immigrants were embraced both by native Christians and non-Christians.  As there were no conflicts during these 1500 years, there aren't any historical records for this period of time.  However, once the Portuguese came with the arrival of Vaso da Gama, the explorer, things began to change.  The museum at the seminary gives detailed accounts of Christianity during the colonial period.  It shows the struggle of Jacobite and Mar Thoma Churches in maintaining its freedom and independence from western Christian influence during the roughly 500 years of the colonial period.  I bought some books to further illumine my nascent understanding of the history of the church I was born into and grew up.  

The next day, which was the fifth Sunday in January, I went to my church, the Jerusalem Church, Nattakom.  I conducted the service and preached.  This was the first time my mom saw me celebrating, I saw tears of joy in her eyes. Preaching in Malayalam was not easy as I struggled to find appropriate words, but it felt good.