Random thoughts on the procedure to become a Christian, Syrian Christians

I have two granddaughters. Both had been baptized shortly after birth. The Confirmation (a sacrament of the Church) of the elder one was last month and the First Communion of the younger girl last Sunday. It was while attending these functions that the question came to my mind – when does a person really become a Christian?

At the outset I must explain that I am a Syro-Malabar (the second largest Rite in the Catholic Church) Christian from Kerala and this writing could be influenced by the practices and teachings of that denomination. There are, however, similarities among the major organized Churches in the matter of accepting members into the fold.

In several non-Christian communities, birth decides the religion of a child. It is assumed that the baby belongs to the religion of its parents. In Christianity, only when a child receives baptism it is accepted into the community as a Christian. In the modern Church this function is held when the baby is a month old or so. Of course, at that point of time the infant is unable to realize the significance of the function.

But the godparents who would be present and undertake the responsibility of being the child’s spiritual guardians answer, on behalf of the baby, the questions the priest asks at the baptism. These include queries like ‘Do you renounce Satan?’ The answer by the godparents is of course, ‘Yes’ irrespective of whether they understand the theological aspects or not. Once the baptism ceremony is over, the infant is brought up as a Christian.

The next major step in the spiritual ladder of a Christian is receiving the Eucharist or the Holy Communion. This is a sacrament where consecrated bread is consumed in commemoration of the Last Supper. This has to done with purity of body and mind. The Church teaches that confession absolves one of the sins committed and thereby cleanses the mind.

Normally a child is given the Holy Communion for the first time when he about seven to ten years old. The Church considers that to be the age of reason or moral responsibility. Whether the child understands its implications or not he has to confess to a priest before receiving Communion. And once the Eucharist is received, the boy or girl concerned is bound to obey all the rules of the Church.

But it would appear that even after receiving the Eucharist the person is still not a full-fledged Christian. There is one more Sacrament, ‘Confirmation’, before one becomes ‘a true soldier of Christ’. At this ceremony, according to the teaching of the Church, the Holy Spirit bestows on the recipient several gifts that would help him to lead a true Christian life. This Sacrament is given when a person is around 15 years of age by either the Bishop or a senior priest authorized by him. Surprisingly, Confirmation does not seem to be taken very seriously these days.

In the original Malabar Church the procedure was different. What is referred to as ‘Malabar Church’ is the community that is believed to have been founded by the Apostle St. Thomas, and its descendants. After the Portuguese practically subjugated it starting from the 16c CE, the unified Malabar Church became truncated and today there are several denominations - Syrian Catholics, Jacobites, Orthodox, Mar Thoima etc. They are generally referred to as Syrian Christians of Kerala, or St. Thomas Christians, or Nazranis.

In the Malabar Church Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation were held when the recipient was well past puberty, say, at the age of 16 or 17. Usually the person’s wedding too followed shortly thereafter. Here the obvious difference was that in this system one accepted Christianity as an adult. It was with the Portuguese intrusion that infant baptism was introduced in the Malabar Church.

Child baptism was permitted by the Universal Church only from the 6c CE. What is interesting here is that when the Church policy changed in other parts of the world, the Malabar Church continued with the original practice of adult baptism till 16c CE. In my opinion, this is another proof of the antiquity of Christianity in Kerala. The Malabar Church remained an isolated community with hardly any meaningful interaction with the churches elsewhere.

Nevertheless, it had a sound theological basis. Unlike the Churches elsewhere, from the early days the Malabar Church believed that there was salvation outside the Church, that a man who lived according the rules of his religion would attain ‘moksha’ (salvation). That was why there was hardly any missionary work by the Malabar Church. It effectively led to a position that being a Syrian Christian was a matter of birth.

Here the question arises why did then St. Thomas travel to India and convert people to Christianity. The Apostle is claimed to have landed in Kerala in 52 CE. He would have left on this journey a few years before that. It would appear that his departure for Kerala was before gentiles too were accepted into Christianity; originally only Jews had the privilege Therefore his initial target for spreading the Word would have been the Jewish communities which, according to historians, were in Kerala long before Christ.

It is possible that later on local gentiles were also taken into the fold. This could explain the claims that the Apostle converted some Brahmin families. It is doubtful whether 2000 years back there was a sizable Brahmin presence in Kerala. But there could have been an elite set of local people sufficiently educated and knowledgeable to engage St. Thomas in debates. After all, they were involved in trade with many nations. Quite possibly, some of them accepted the new religion. That was a period when Kerala was a haven to all communities.

The label ‘Nazrani’ also indicates the antiquity of the Malabar Church. The name ‘Christian’ was coined by the Apostles at Antioch in the seventh decade of the Christian Era. Till then the followers of Jesus Christ from Nazareth were known as ‘Nazrani’. When St. Thomas established the Malabar Church, its members also were called Nazranis, in all likelihood initially by the Jews and the Arabs who were present in Kerala.

The Western missionaries who reached Kerala with the Portuguese and subsequently too, unfortunately, did not understand the ethos of the Apostolic Malabar Church. Their endeavour to westernize the Nazranis went on for three centuries and, in the process, much was lost. The once unified Malabar Church today lies divided into several denominations.

Related posts:

History of conversions to Christianity in Kerala – an overview

Vedas, Syrian Christians

An example from Kolkata

Kolkata has set an example to the bulldozer-happy Christian priests of Kerala. The World Monuments Fund (WMF) in collaboration with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is set to revive the facade of the St. John’s Church in Kolkata (built in 1787) at an estimated coat of Rs.3.8 millions.

Others involved in the project are Action Research in Conservation of Heritage (ARCH) and the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal. A report in The Hindu of May 11 states that this is being done “so that it serves as a catalyst for similar rejuvenation projects in the future.

But obviously the message doesn’t get through to Ramapuram, Kerala, where the Vicar and his people are planning to proceed with the demolition of the historic twin churches (see Churches on demolition line.) against the laws of the land and the reported opposition of the Major Archbishop of the Syro Malabar Church, Cardinal Vithayathil.

To overcome the Kerala Government’s directive not to alter the structure of the twin churches, the Vicar is playing the religious card. He is reportedly circulating a letter to the parishioners stating that if the Government declares the buildings as protected monuments, they would not be able to conduct prayers and religious activities there.

“It is a blatant lie”, cries The New Indian Express of May 3. The report goes on to say, “It has been well-clarified in the law that the department [of Archeology] does not interfere in the activities which are held at a structure which has been declared a protected monument. Its concern is only in the upkeep of the structure.”

I had said pretty much the same thing in my post Back to the twin churches.

Ends.

Back to the twin churches.

[Related Posts:
Churches on demolition line.
Response to post on church demolition.
Twin Churches - An Update.]

I have never been to the twin churches at Ramapuram in spite of having lived in Kerala for seven decades. But something about these churches haunts me. May be the sheer beauty of the structures evident from the photographs. May be the history behind these buildings. And of course, there is a frustration with the bulldozing policy of the Syro-Malabar Church to destroy historic church buildings and replace them with structures that lack sensitivity, ethnicity and aesthetics.

If the Church authorities want to build a new place of worship at Ramapuram it is their business. But if they want to destroy heritage structures, it is the nation’s business. The hierarchy would put forward the argument, as they usually do, that a new, larger church is required to accommodate the increasing number of devotees and they cannot afford to maintain the old ones as well.

This should not be a problem, though. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) restores and maintains monuments and heritage buildings. This has been done in several cases. ASI would not interfere in any manner with the management of the churches or the holding of rituals.

But the ASI has to be approached to undertake the task. Will the Church authorities or the people who are concerned do that? The official email of the Director General of the ASI is dgasi@vsnl.net

However, Church bosses are, I understand, trying to get around government objection and go ahead with the demolition.

See below what they plan to destroy:

(Please click on the photos for enlarged view.)

Church demolition - addenda.

Three pertinent questions are raised by ‘anonymous’ about my post Churches on demolition line.

1) Is there any chance whether the Cardinal in Cochin will be able to prevent the demolition?

2)Who is funding these activities?

3)Can these funds be used for more appropriate purposes like teaching the priests the value of cultural heritage?

The Cardinal who is the Major Archbishop and Head of the Syro-Malabar Church can certainly prevent demolitions of old church buildings. Being a learned priest, he certainly would be aware of the importance of preserving the heritage landmarks.

But does he have the will or the capability? The Ernakulam Archdiocese, the seat of the Cardinal, is already involved in court cases regarding attempts to demolish two Parayil built churches - the family’s private oratory (1869 - see A Kerala Tharavad.) and the beautiful St. Rafael’s Church (1859) at Ezhupunna. There could be more such litigation relating to other churches.

Once the Cardinal came out with a strong statement deploring the construction of chapels and other structures flush by roads and disruption of traffic by church processions. An admirable stand. But nothing really happened.

Now, about the funds. Some of the churches like Ramapuram, are rich because of large number of offerings by devotees/pilgrims. Many Non Resident Indians also contribute generously. For them it is a payback to their home church, which of course is noble. But unfortunately, instead of restoration of old churches, the concept of building anew came up. Can the priests escape the responsibility for this? Can anyone conceive of old temples being replaced by modern structures?

The money can certainly be used for much more worthwhile purposes. When incompetent people play architect, cost of construction escalates and concrete monstrosities result. It is a pity that the Syro-Malabar Church (as far as I know) does not have design parameters for its churches. A classic example of the approach of the Church authorities is described in Laurie Baker - A Tribute.

A place of worship, like liturgy, should reflect the hopes, aspirations, ethos and history of the people who are to use it.

Ends.

Also see:

Amazing Grace.

Response to post on church demolition.

First of all I must thank the readers for the response to my post ‘Churches on the demolition line’.

Reproduced below is comment by Mr. Bhattacharya: “I sincerely hope that you will be able to mobilize the support of adequate numbers of like minded persons to save this beautiful, historic Church:
"You could approach the following three Organisations for intervention.
1. The Archaeological Survey of India, which has the authority under the AMASR Act, to bring ancient monuments under its protection.
2. The Kerala State Department of Archaeology which can declare ancient monuments as protected monuments under the as The Kerala Ancient Monuments and Archaeological sites and Remains Act of 1968.
3. INTACH which files PIL ‘when actions of the local or national administration are a threat to the heritage of the country.’ They have 5 Chapters in Kerala.
You can get more information from their websites.
From: Bipul Bhattacharya. April 28, 2007 12:38:00 PM IST”

I have already communicated the details to INTACH. This is an NGO which has been doing great work in preserving India’s heritage. I had mentioned about this organization in my post ‘Armenian Catholicos in India’:

http://parayilat.blogspot.com/2007/03/armenian-catholicos-in-india.html

INTACH is likely to help in the restoration of the Armenian Church (built in 1772) in Chennai.

It will be effective if more people write to them. In fact, the twin churches of Ramapuram are on their list of protected sites. The email ID of INTACH is:

intach@del3.vsnl.net.in

I know of two other old churches, which are also facing demolition. In all likelihood, there would be more on the bulldozing list.

Ends.

Churches on demolition line.

(INTACH Post Card)

Beautiful, isn’t it?

These are the historic twin churches at Ramapuram, one of the cradles of Christianity in Kerala, India. The smaller of these, in the name of St. Augustine, was built around 1450, and the other in 1864. These monuments may be razed to the ground soon. What no invader, no government, no other community, have dared to try, is being done with abandon by the Church itself.

Aisanet TV reported last evening that a referendum is being conducted among the parishioners of Ramapuram on Sunday, April 29, 2007 about demolishing these famous shrines. The Church officials have taken a strong stand in favor of the destruction. Therefore the outcome of the vote is a foregone conclusion. The priests do not seem to be worried whether such actions and procedures conform to the laws of the country.

The move to demolish the twin churches and build a ‘modern’ one in their place has been on for some time. The Hindu carried a report about this on February 18, 2005. The reason given for this proposal by the Vicar was that more space is required to accommodate the increased number of pilgrims! Apparently he was not alert to the fact that the newer of the two churches was also built for the same reason, but people who were responsible then had ensured that the old one was preserved.

The vicar went on to give a piece of wisdom to the world: “God created the whole world for man. Archaeology is for the benefit of man and not vice-versa''. Shades of Benito Mussolini! Il Duce was reported to have said when his car knocked down and killed a boy, “What is the life of a child in the matters of state?”

The Syro-Malabar Church of Kerala, under which Ramapuram comes, is the second largest (after Roman /Latin) Rite in the Catholic Diaspora. It is headed by a Major Archbishop who is a Cardinal. Can the authorities of the Syro-Malabar wash off the responsibility for the demolition mania? There is something called acts of omission and commission.

What about the Pope?

In the recent Apostolic Exhortation, ‘Sacramentum Caritatis’, the Pontiff states, "A solid knowledge of the history of sacred art can be advantageous for those responsible for commissioning artists and architects to create works of art for the liturgy. Consequently, it is essential that the education of Seminarians and priests include the study of art history, with special reference to sacred buildings..."

[The response of some priests in Kerala to this might be, ‘Oh, it’s about some paintings in Europe’, like Stalin who once asked during WW II, ‘How many Divisions does the Pope have?’ In Kerala itself, invaluable frescos were lost by recent demolition of Thycattussarry Church. See my post ‘Historic church is no more’ by clicking on the title]

Indiscriminate destruction of heritage structures should be a matter of concern not only for Christians, but also for others. If you agree, please email this to as many people as you can. The procedure is very simple. Just click on the ‘envelope’ icon below and give the email IDs.

Let us preserve our heritage.

Ends.