Together in Mission : CNI & CSI Hold Joint Meeting of Office Bearers  

The two biggest protestant and united churches, sharing the same mission history and tradition, the Church of North India and the Church of South India , have pledged to work and walk together closer than ever before to respond to the missional call of Christ in the given context of India .  In a joint meeting of their Office Bearers, held at CNI Bhavan, New Delhi on 6th and 7th June 2008, on the invitation to CSI by CNI, they affirmed their call to unity for Missio Dei and Kerygma.  Describing it as a historical achievement Rev. Dr. Enos Das Pradhan, the General Secretary of the Church of North India exclaimed ‘walking together is need of the hour to turn every challenge of Mission into opportunity for the edification of church and the glory of God’.  In the same spirit, commenting on the meeting, the Moderator of CSI, The Most Rev. Dr. John Wilson Gladstone said that this meeting is not only to build and mend relations within CNI and CSI but also a step towards building and mending our relations with other ecumenical partners.  

The CNI & CSI, the only united churches in India , greatest manifestation of oikoumene, would hereafter take a stand and issue joint statements on national issues to make the voice of the church louder and the demand of the communities stronger.  Resources available will be shared with each other for the visible display of partnership.  Regular communication will be ensured by the General Secretaries of both the churches and considerable space will be provided to each other in their respective periodicals.  Joint events or programmes of youth, women, clergies and Bishops will soon mark the celebration of CNI-CSI coming together.  The im media te one being an exchange of pastors with their spouses programme where ten pastors from different of Dioceses of CSI would visit the Dioceses/Churches of CNI along with their spouses in November 2008 for two weeks and during the same period ten Pastors from CNI with their spouses will visit CSI.  The visitors will be accommodated with different families so as to give them the experience of cross-cultural living and hospitality.  The visit will also help the pastors to affirm ‘one faith’ that transcends all boundaries, and that Christ cannot be divided on the basis of language and culture.