Holy Trinity, Narsapur

Now that school is closed for the summer, I have been available for weekday trips.  Unlike the trip to Madiriparum a few days ago, this was a day trip.  We traveled half way across the diocese of Dornakal to Narsapur (about 5 hours one way). 

The diocese of Dornakal is large geographically (covering parts of three Indian states) and in numbers, nearly 800 parishes and missions.  As a result, Bishop Devamani tries to visit more than one place per trip.  The purpose of this trip was the dedication of Holy Trinity church.  On the way we stopped at Christ Church, temple city (so named because of the Hindu temple of pilgrimage located in the city). 

After leaving Christ Church we began a 40 Km drive into an Indian forest, a wilderness with numerous (small) tribal hamlets along the way.  Our next stop was at one of these hamlets.  (All of the visits except Christ Church were to mission churches serving hamlets in the Indian forest.)  St. Andrew’s was a small church with half walls (the wall behind the altar was the only one that went all the way to the roof) made of mud.  The rest of the wall was chicken wire to keep the chickens and wild animals out.  It looked like a small gathering of a dozen or so; however, when I counted I found 36 of which only 1/3 came from the group traveling with the bishop.  (This dedication has been greatly anticipated throughout the diocese and is a great celebration so the group traveling with the bishop is three times normal.)  Most of those attending from the hamlet where female (I only saw one boy among more than a dozen girls).  Presumably (because I didn’t ask) most of the males were out in the fields (cleared area of the forest).  Please don’t take this to mean the females have it easy – far from it, it is just that most of them work in and near the hamlet.

Since our purpose was to dedicate a church at Narsapur we could not just drive there.  As with all of the dedications I have attended in India, we were stopped some distance away so we could have a parade to the church with the people of Narsapur.  (No spectators for this parade, everyone participates.)  Of course the parade was led by tribal drummers and dancers in their festival dress.  When we reached the church they made sure that the Bishop knew he was welcome and included as one of them.  Don’t worry; he made sure I was included too.  One of the clergy borrowed my camera so I would have (several) pictures to share with you.

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Let me back up to last year.  About this time last year there was to be a retreat.  Since the diocese of Dornakal does not have a retreat center (nor a camp), it made arrangements to help out one of the poor tribal communities by renting a (closed for the summer school holiday) hostel.  The hostel had been cleaned in preparation for the retreat but the night before they arrived several people though it would be fun the break in and make a mess of things.  Needless to say the tribal leaders were not happy.  The retreat was moved to another location; however, the people decided to walk through the woods and talk; thereby enjoying the environment before returning to the city in search of another location.

As we might have imagined, the discussion included the reason why the DMS (Dornakal Missionary Society) retreat came there – to strengthen and encourage the missionary work in the hamlets that had accepted Christ.  This experience served to underscore DMS’ plans not to expand their work to other hamlets at this time.  Besides, it was not in the budget and there were not enough evangelists to go around already.  While they were walking near Narsapur a couple of women from the village came up and greeted the bishop.  (The picture is of the fields, village and surrounding forest as seen from where Holy Trinity now stands.)

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They then proceeded to present the bishop with a deed to a parcel of land.  We wish to give this to the church if you will build a church on it.  I still haven’t heard how these women came to believe in Christ.  With so few visitors to this area, the group must have stood out.  This was their chance to ask for help in sharing the light of the gospel with their hamlet and they took it.  After the service I took this picture of Holy Trinity; quite a contrast to the hamlet buildings in the previous picture.  (There are no buildings adjacent to the church, probably because it was a deed to a field that was given for building a church.)

These acts of greeting and of faith that a church would be built if they just believed were also in contrast to the events in the hamlet that would have been host to their retreat.  But the story goes on.  There was nothing in the diocese of Dornakal budget for building new churches.  However, it was decided that an evangelist serving some of the other missions in the area should also visit Narsapur.

A short time (weeks, maybe a month) later the diocese received an offer from via their connection with the diocese of Gloucester, U.K.  They wanted to donate the means to build a church in India.  They only requested that it be named after our congregation.  That is how Trinity Church came to be built at Narsapur.  This story continues to generate excitement throughout the DMS.  Many members of the DMS came from throughout the diocese to be present for the dedication of a church God made possible (bringing people, land and money together) in a remote hamlet of the diocese.

   

The first picture is Bishop Devamani Thandrigaru recognizing and presenting the traditional shawls to the ladies to donated the land.  The other picture is Bishop Devamani Thandrigaru presenting a shawl to the evangelist and his wife who serve Narsapur.  (Sorry, this one is blurry.)

The trip concluded with visits to Shakeena church and school in Jaggavaram and to the church in Povacharum Colony.  Both of these churches are missions serving other hamlets in the Indian forest; however, unlike St. Andrew’s, these buildings were more like the newly dedicated Holy Trinity church building.

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