Herb Hoefer
Update
1 January 2006
Friends and Family,
I arrived in Chennai New Year's night. It was another fascinating insight
into Indian Christian piety. One of the two services that every church
member attends is the "Watchnight Service," an Anglican tradition that
non-liturgical churches maintain from British days. Typically the service
begins around 11:00 p.m. and ends around 2:00 a.m. The first service is a
confessional service over the past year, and then at 12:00 begins the
dedication service for the New Year with Holy Communion.
The Borecki family and I came in by taxi after 2:00 a.m., and there still
were worshippers crowded around overflowing churches along the way. After
the service, people crowd forward for individual prayer at
the altar with the pastor and other congregation leaders. Another common
feature is that the worshippers are come to the altar to randomly pick out a
card with two Scripture verses on it, one a promise and the other a
dedication, for the New Year.
This is a service that many Jesu Bhaktas also attend. These are high caste
devotees of Jesus who do not want to join the church. Some are baptized and
many are not. One pastor we visited with over lunch yesterday said he
thought at least a couple dozen of the new faces at the Communion table that
night were Hindus. His custom is to ask them to meet him after the service
when they present themselves at the table,
give them the Sacrament, and then talk later about Baptism. Often these
baptisms take place in the home and don't get recorded in the church
registry, thus avoiding the change of legal/caste status that a
"church baptism" inflicts.
New Year's has become more than a Christian event. Even the newspapers today
reported on the crowded churches. It's such a contrast to the New Year's Eve
reveling we have in the West. Here thousands - both Christians and
non-Christians - are repenting, renewing, and worshipping in churches.
Yesterday we went to visit the San Thome Cathedral, and there still were
hundreds coming and going in worship and prayer, many of them obviously
Hindus.
The Roman Catholic Church has done a great job of developing the San Thome
Cathedral as a pilgrimate center for any and all. This is the site where
tradition is that St. Thomas (Jesus' "doubting disciple") was buried after
being assassinated on a hill outside of town in 52 A.D. They have added a
special museum and chapel on the cathedral grounds with a chapel in St.
Thomas' honor, including a shrine with a finger bone. His body was exhumed
and taken to Rome some centuries back.
People were sitting in the pews praying and coming forward into the chancel
to touch the feet of the statues of Thomas (on the side) and Jesus (in the
center) there. The Hindu worshippers, in typical Hindu style, then bring
their hands to the face of over their head, symbolically bringing the
blessing of God that the statue represents into their lives.
Almost half of the worshippers were men, many were husbands and wives, many
were shedding tears.
The tradition that Thomas came to southern India is held strongly by the
Orthodox Church in Kerala, which claims him as their founder. I had reported
on a previous trip about the "small church" near Nagercoil which Thomas
reportedly had built. Visiting this site convinced me that he was indeed in
India, as it is constructed just like a Hindu temple. Linda Borecki (who has
her doctorate in liturgics and will be leading workshops at our seminary in
Nagercoil this month) noticed the prominence of peacocks in the ancient
carvings at the cathedral. She said that the symbol of the peacock predated
the cross in the early
church, and was a symbol of resurrection. Once again, one might surmise that
Thomas brought this symbol with him.
Christmas/New Year's is a big event in the life and work of the church in
India. In fact, it begins in Advent. The India Evangelical Lutheran Church
pastor in whose home we had lunch yesterday shared about
their caroling at every member's home during Dec., in his congregation about
160 families. They also had a nice devotional plaque for the year that they
presented to each home when their caroled. He said they have a van of 15-20
people who begin their rounds at 9:00 p.m. and conclude around 1-2:00 a.m.
The families are notified which night they will be visited, and they eagerly
await this blessing for their family.
I know from my days as a missionary in India, typically neighboring
non-Christians also invite the team for songs and prayers and conduct
"suppose Christmas" devotions in offices, businesses, etc. in honor of
Jesus' birth. All of this really makes one question the commercialization
and secularization of Christmas in the West. Jesus' birth seems better
honored in the non-Christian East. We should just let everyone else have
their "holiday celebration" and we Christians focus on the honoring of our
Messiah and King.
The social service organization the wife of the pastor we visited yesterday
has done a great deal of tsunami relief work. It was interesting to learn
from her how frustrating it has been for them in India, as for us who have
been involved in Sri Lanka. For one thing, the fisherman community has
objected to others get aid, even though they were also heavily affected,
especially the dalit peasants. In India also they have struggled to find
places to rehouse the people. The gov't. wants the new housing to be at
least a half kilometer from the sea now, but, of course, there are people
already living in those locations.
She spoke of one resettlement in temporary housing 5 kilometers away from
the sea. It was unoccupied because it was in a dried-out swamp. However, in
the torrential rains they had this monsoon, the swamp
flooded. In addition, the gov't. had mandated a tarpaper roof for the
houses. However, once the sun beat on these roofs, it turned the homes into
ovens, the paper shrunk, and leaked in the rains.
Because of the scarcity of land, they have discussed placing the displaced
fishermen in four-storey flats. However, these people are used to living on
the ground. When they tried this for the slum people in
the cities, the people still lived on the ground below the apartment
buildings and used them just to shelter their animals. They also typically
do not provide water or toilets in the apartment complex, so people
have to go outside to get buckets of water and use bathrooms.
You can imagine the frustration building up in the refugee camps. People
have been without privacy for a year and battling the gov't. for places of
resettling. Many have jobs again, but they don't have homes.
The Boreckis asked me what the culture shock is for me going back to the
States after these annual two-month trips. I said my biggest frustration is
with all the whining in the USA. I can't believe what they care about and
complain about, when they obviously have so much.
Thanks for your prayers. God bless.
Herb