CHRISTIANITY'S ENCOUNTER WITH THE SPIRIT AND GENIUS OF INDIAN CULTURE An Unaccomplished Mission Saju Chackalackal CMI 1. Introduction Has the Church in India been true to her apostolic nature, as the sent, in letting herself incarnated in India by absorbing the best from the religious and cultural paradigms of people and in infusing the Gospel of Christ in the lives of the people of the missions entrusted to her? Have the three Churches in the Catholic communion, namely, Syro-Malabar, Latin, and Syro-Malankara, understood their vocation as catalysts within the Indian Church and in the larger universal Church, and played her role rightly to lead the faithful from within, in taking the spirit of the Gospel to the known and unknown lands and to the ends of the earth? Has her institutional commitment at any stage eclipsed the mission thrust, and her attempts to be a truly incarnated Church? Has it ensured that its existence is relevant in an ecclesial situation that is miserably divided along regional, social, cultural, hierarchical, and ritual interests? Finally, in the course of the last fifty years, after the closing of the Vatican Council II, have we succeeded in generating and maintaining a sense of true ecclesia in the complex scenario of India? What has happened to the new awakening and enthusiasm with which Indian Church that launched into the processes of inculturation in theology, liturgy, catechesis, music, etc.? Did it lose sight of its leadership, on the way, in matters of shaping genuinely Indian missionaries for the Gospel? Does it, any longer, hold any sway in matters of inculturation and interculturation at a time when theologically and existentially it is found to be a necessity? If a group of native pioneers of Dharmaram were able to break new ground and could go beyond their regional shackles of the Syro-Malabar Church and the unjustifiable understanding of proper territory, at a time when none of the ecclesiastical leaders or religious congregation could even imagine her mission as going beyond the territorial restrictions, and if the CMI pioneering missionaries were ready to explore the unexplored, possessing only Divine inspiration and missionary zeal as their capital, then the generations of the twenty-first century should shoulder a greater responsibility, not only to break new grounds in making the Church relevant today, and in its missionary explorations, but also to facilitate a renewal of the being of the Indian Church so that her existence would become a catalyst in the life of the universal Church and the society at large. Given the present status of her missions and the lethargy that we encounter in many domains of ecclesial life, especially in matters of inculturation and interculturation and dialogue with other religions, it must be pointed out that none of those component ecclesial bodies and officials can wash their hands of and shed the responsibility for the current state of affairs. As this essay primarily focuses on the Church’s thrust in the domains of inculturation or interculturation and dialogue with other religions, we need to assert the sad fact that, what we lack today is a collective will for positive action within the Church. There is no place or time for complacent attitudes, or to mouth comforting platitudes, comforting statistics and hollow claims to showcase that all is well with our Church. Having access to such a rich and vibrant religious culture of India and Indian religions, and almost all the faithful of the Church having closer contact with members of the larger society, and the Indian Church having already prepared a large pool of theologically trained personnel, we need to initiate attempts to look critically at the ecclesial structures and dynamics, both in the local churches and outside, and creatively redraw her being and identity. At the very outset, I maintain my confidence in the Spirit’s blessings upon us to make a significant difference in being a relevant Church in India. The Church seems to be gripped by wrong priorities to the extent that all creative and Spirit-led activities are considered to be non-essential so much so that the key personnel seem to be misplaced in their thrusts and intentions, the unfortunate result of which is that other resources seem to be wrongly allocated to serve the interests of retaining some alien and imposed traditions. If the Church is allowed to let herself go wherever she is led by the Spirit, if the Church leadership lets itself to be led by the Spirit, and if all the faithful would be led by the enlightenment of the Gospel, made more conspicuously visible through the documents of the Vatican Council II, then, the scope for inculturation or interculturation and dialogue with other religions would thrive and will impact a metanoia, an inner transformation within the Church leading to a kerygmatic koinonia that would throw open the Church to the world at large and to the people of other faiths in a blessed land that has been imbued with a sense of the Divine all through her known history. 2. From Inculturation to Interculturation Culture is a human reality. Although it cannot be restricted to any one segment of human life, it must be borne in mind that there is no area in the life of a human being that is not affected by culture. The integrated dynamic whole of culture would, then, include meanings and symbols, values and goals, philosophies and beliefs, techniques and technologies, innovations and explorations, revelations and revolutions, without excluding any domain of human intercourse. It is through all these aspects, that, a human society, usually located within a geographically restricted location, facilitates its culture. As it is a dynamic process, culture is never a finished product; it fashions new identities and, hence, there is always room for improvement and a necessity to remain open to other cultures while imbibing the best from others and the novel openings offered by the critical and creative members of the same society. There is also the possibility that, as a human-made contingent reality, culture may also become extinct, if its dynamics are lost and its components become irrelevant and meaningless to the people to whom a particular cultural paradigm is bequeathed. Then, such a society must be courageous enough to leave behind the superfluous and meaningless cultural patterns which would pave the way for redrawing its cultural paradigms by making itself relevant to the contemporary living milieu. Culture should remain dynamic and organic. Although there could be moments or phases in human history where culture may get sedimented and stagnated, it must be borne in mind that, being a human reality, it is impossible for any culture to remain static: it either enhances itself through the dynamic integration of various aspects of human life as they evolve within a social ambience, or it disintegrates and descends into oblivion by closing itself, and insulating itself from any outside contact. The latter may arise out of situations especially in which those in authority may feel threatened by changes in the over cultural ambience that would endanger their own established patterns and programmes, challenging or sabotaging their vested interests. As Joseph Pathrapankal has aptly pointed out in his critical and creative exploration of the Dimensions of the Word, “… religious issues can always be made use of as a camouflage for selfish motivations.” Joseph Pathrapankal, Dimensions of the Word, Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2000, 244. Hence, even if spontaneous cultural growth guarantees an ongoing process of samanvayam of all that one culture would encounter as capable of enhancing its value and relevance, there will always be agencies who would hold the same culture back to its old structures and self-same dynamics so much so that, eventually, it would become a toy in the hands of those who design and dictate terms for their advantage, even if it thwarts the integral life of the entire society and its people. Being a human endeavour, no culture is perfect at any given point in time; it is like a constantly flowing river. Just as the running current is indicative of the life of the river and its ability to gather from its shores and from all that it comes in contact with, a culture absorbs from the surroundings all that would be adopted by its constituent members, making it richer and more enhanced, provided that an organic as well as critical and creative integration is facilitated in its ordinary existence. Alternatively, it must also be stated that a closed approach or a careless adaptation in the process of getting exposed, may lead to a total disruption of a culture to such an extent that it would be endangered and destroyed. The balancing act is not always very easy; it becomes all the more difficult as there cannot be any lasting and exclusive structural or institutional direction for the adoption of the cultural patterns that evolve in the course of time, as the dynamic reality would evolve beyond the already existing patterns and parameters. A people led by the Spirit have always adopted a dynamic strategy in their ongoing attempts at infusing themselves with newer dimensions of different cultures. During the Old Testament times as well as in the New Testament times, we come across a number of instances where they had striven in all openness to imbibe from the cultures amidst which they lived. Reviewing the approach of creative integration adopted by the Israelites, we may conclude that the response of the People of God, as enshrined in various books of the Bible, is an invitation not to isolate but to involve in and imbibe from others, all that is found to be noble and life-enhancing. According to Pathrapankal, “Israel realized that their task was not to isolate themselves from others and build up their own ghetto religion and religious practices, but to live in the midst of others and get involved in the mainstream of the history of all peoples, thereby influencing them for the creation of a better human society… In spite of all what is said about the election of Israel by Yahweh as a special people, who were insulated from others and were protected by God, what we find at the centre of Israel’s religious belief is that they were to live with others, learn from others and be a witnessing community among others.” Pathrapankal, Dimensions of the Word, 239-240; See also Dt. 4:5-8. The author continues with a reference to the contrary moves within the Bible itself: “It is true that the Deuteronomistic theologians were critical of the cultural openness of Israel to their neighbours because it brought in its train several unhealthy practices into the religion of Israel. All the same, the fact remains that Israel had the courage and the sense of freedom to remain related to their neighbours and their cultural practices” (240). The seed of cultural integration is spread across and is continued through the New Testament period as well. The Jerusalem Council and the preceding conflict between the approaches of Peter and Paul towards the adoption of the ‘Hellenistic’ culture and cultural practices into the life of a Christian community imply a very strong normative position for the later approaches towards cultural integration, without diluting the message of Christ. Referring to the two different versions on the solution (Acts 15:5-12 and Gal 2:1-10), Pathrapankal draws a very bold conclusion: “In principle, the solution arrived at in Jerusalem had once and for all precluded the possibility of any more cultural domination, resulting in the cultural alienation of the weaker communities.” Pathrapankal, Dimensions of the Word, 243; see also J. Wijngaards, “Adaptation of Pagan Rites in Early Israelite Liturgy” in God’s Word among Men, ed. G. Gispert-Sauch, 247-256, Delhi: Vidyajyoti, 1973. The analysis of this biblical context does not provide us room for any preferential treatment to one or the other culture, although each local Church could eventually design approaches that could be restricted to its own cultural milieu, without, however, not dictating to every other local Church what is to be followed by them in turn. This is not to suggest that, then, there shall be a total relativization of the Christian message and practice. In fact, the core of being ‘Christian’ is certainly beyond any culture or tradition and, to that extent, there is no room for a chaotic relativization. Yet, as the Christian message, from its inception, has been clothed in different cultural paradigms, which has been an ongoing process, and, as the message was taken further to the ends of the earth, it is to be understood that no human shall try to cap the possibility of cultural adaptation in the life of a Christian community; instead, a true Christian approach should be one of openness and integration in such a way that nothing that is good shall ever remain alien and outside its organic ecclesial life. From a Christian point of view, the ultimate principle that shall guide the evolution of a culture should be the person and teachings of Jesus Christ himself, which are enshrined in the Bible, the apostolic tradition, and the living and dynamic reality of the Church. In his approach, Jesus had adopted many aspects from his own living contexts insofar as they were found to be selfless, life-giving, and other-enhancing. As the noble traditions of the Church would indicate, in the course of time, the Christian community, despite the pulls and pushes from various corners, had finally succeeded in adopting the same broad, open, and catholic approach in integrating elements from the various cultures with which it came in contact through the preaching of the Gospel, and the eventual establishment of Christian communities. If these dynamics are taken into account and are identified to be the inner dynamics of Christian life, then it would indicate that the very being of any church has to be by necessity, dynamic and evolving. It is this dynamism that was captured in the attempts of inculturation, although technically it meant only the infusion of the receiving cultures with the Gospel message. As the new ecclesial consciousness emphasizes the fact that it is this mutual influence conceived in the Gospel that is being taken up by and rooted in any socio-cultural milieu, the process may be better referred to by the expression ‘interculturation’. As this expression seems to capture the actual dynamics of the Gospel proclamation and the expected transformation, we shall prefer interculturation to inculturation, although the latter is popularly better known and is generally understood to include the two-way dynamics intended to be part of the former. Further, whatever be the concept employed in theoretical discourses, the reality indicated is said to belong to the core of being Christian; hence, inculturation or interculturation may be employed to refer to the vocation of any Christian community not only to absorb its being from the Gospel but also to integrate the best practices by interaction with the socio-cultural milieu of the given community. 3. Interculturation: The Inner Rhythm of the People of God The Jesus-centred and Spirit-led community of disciples constituted a movement. It was destined to be successful as it was being led by the belief in the Spirit; as the person of Jesus was the initial and foundational inspiration, it was destined to be a success. As a movement, the community of Christian disciples experienced more flexibility and fluidity in their commitment to the person of Jesus Christ, although there were elements within those initial communions that tried to restrain their dynamics along the line already prescribed by the Jewish traditions. The Spirit led them to experience the freedom of the children of God in such a way that they could envision the moulding of their value system, lifestyle, and worship patterns by drawing from their own living milieus. Inspiringly, this process had a two-way impact: while external expressions of the faith of the newly constituted Christian community assumed the living patterns of their socio-cultural milieu, those patterns were purified by the Jesus-inspired values so that both of them were ultimately mutually enriched and enhanced. As it is the destiny of any movement, gradually, the community of Christ’s disciples also began to participate in the dynamics of institutionalization. Although there are a number of advantages in becoming institutionalized, namely, assuming a fixed creed and code, and a demarcated community and practice, which attempt to distil and safeguard the new vision into the then available moulds, it has an inherent danger of imprisoning and curtailing the Spirit into those exclusive moulds, and the subsequent difficulties faced when letting the Spirit lead its subsequent members and institutions to assume newer and more meaningful forms of expression when the same Spirit-led movement would spread to other socio-cultural milieus. It is true that both the person of Jesus and his Gospel had been originally given to us in the Jewish social, religious, and cultural contexts, but mostly in the Greek and Syriac linguistic and conceptual forms. As an incarnated person, Jesus and his message became enshrined in the Jewish paradigms, although both of them could not be restrained or constrained exclusively by those paradigms; instead, those paradigms were purified and perfected by Jesus’ presence and the newly announced Gospel and its value system. As the message of Jesus spread across the world, it began to infuse – initially, in a very limited manner and, later, with the conversion of Constantine, making a very significant structural impact, eventually, enveloping the whole western world – the Greco-Roman cultures to such an extent that both of them became crucially important in the later spreading of the Christian message and institutionalization of the Christian community. In fact, a close observation of the dynamics at this stage would clearly tell upon the mutual impact that the person of Jesus Christ and the Gospel message had upon the Greco-Roman systems: truly, there were immense opportunities for mutual enhancement: the Gospel had its lasting influence upon the Greco-Roman socio-cultural patterns, on the one hand, and the thought patterns, philosophical paradigms, juridical structures, etc., of Greece and Rome, upon the establishment of the institutionalized form of the Church and her life patterns, on the other. The above-mentioned crucial and existentially necessary events in the history of the Church, though quite well-known and documented, bring to focus a specific fact: in any instance of interaction between the person of Jesus and the rest of the world, between the Gospel and its subsequent announcement to various peoples and cultures, we could see a two-way process of mutual influence and enrichment. Jesus could infuse the world with a new value consciousness; the God-given world had given him the body for expression in this world. The Gospel, as it was preached to the peoples and cultures, permeated them with a new value system; those socio-cultural contexts had given the Gospel novel ways of expressing the message of Christ in a language that is akin to their mind-set. Indeed, at the core of the spread of the Christian message and the establishment of the Church we see an ongoing process of interculturation. This process was so dynamic and mutually enhancing that both Jesus and his Gospel message, as it spread further across the world, and the Churches that were eventually established in various parts of the world, could become instruments of mutual and ongoing positive influence, in a hand-in-glove manner, giving rise to a new heaven and a new earth in the Spirit. Commenting on these dynamics and drawing his own conclusions based on them for ecclesial practice in the context of the present age, Pope Benedict XVI states: “Considering the meeting with the multitude of cultures it is said that the synthesis which the old Church performed with the Greek world, was the first inculturation of Christianity; other cultures should not be bound by it. They should have the right to go back behind this inculturation and to return to the simple message of the New Testament in order to inculturate it anew in their own regions. This thesis is not simply false, but it coarsens things and is inaccurate. For the New Testament is written in Greek and includes in itself the contact with the Greek spirit which ripened in the previous development of the Old Testament. There are certainly elements in the development of the old Church which do not have to be carried over to all cultures. However, the fundamental decisions which refer to the connection between faith and human reason belong to faith itself and are part of its proper development.” Benedikt XVI, Glaube und Vernunft, 28f. (translation by H. Waldenfels), cited in Hans Waldenfels, In-Between, Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2011, 101-102. Without denying a unique place to the first cultural contacts made both by the Jewish and the Greek, the venerable Pope makes room for an immersion of the Gospel message and Christian faith into the new cultures to which they are taken. Pope John Paul II makes a specific reference to the context of India in his Fides et ratio as follows: “In India particularly, it is the duty of Christians now, to draw from this rich heritage the elements compatible with their faith, in order to enrich Christian thought. In this work of discernment, which finds its inspiration in the Council's Declaration Nostra aetate, certain criteria will have to be kept in mind. The first of these is the universality of the human spirit, whose basic needs are the same in the most disparate cultures. The second, which derives from the first, is this: in engaging great cultures for the first time, the Church cannot abandon what she has gained from her inculturation in the world of Greco-Latin thought. To reject this heritage would be to deny the providential plan of God who guides his Church down the paths of time and history. This criterion is valid for the Church in every age, even for the Church of the future, who will judge herself enriched by all that comes from today's engagement with Eastern cultures and will find in this inheritance fresh cues for fruitful dialogue with the cultures which will emerge as humanity moves into the future. Thirdly, care will need to be taken lest, contrary to the very nature of the human spirit, the legitimate defense of the uniqueness and originality of Indian thought be confused with the idea that a particular cultural tradition should remain closed in its difference and affirm itself by opposing other traditions” (Fides et Ratio, §72). It is a fact that the Gospel message is never available to us in its pristine purity (i.e., completely freed from all socio-cultural elements), as it was always incarnated in one or the other socio-cultural milieu and was communicated in and through human language; its incarceration primarily occurred within the Jewish milieu, and it got recorded using both Syriac and Greek linguistic and conceptual expressions. However, as both Syriac and Greek languages and cultures are alien to most cultures and societies to which the Gospel is announced, its real incarnation lies in the newly-given cultural contexts of the people who have to assent to and celebrate their faith in Jesus Christ and, as a result, have every right to employ their language and their cultural expressions. What has happened in the history of Christian missions, especially the earliest ones, is that the mutual acceptance and influence that prevailed then, was so strong, that while the vision of Christian life was instrumental in restructuring the life of the faithful and renewing their cultures, these cultures succeeded in offering the Gospel and the Church novel ways of expressing and re-discovering the inner core of the Gospel message by subsequent generations and the whole multitude of Christian faithful from across the globe. So, it was a two-way process that every local church had initiated, which has enriched the universal Church by way of enhancing human understanding of the Word of God by taking cues from every culture to which the Gospel was preached; it has also made room for the multifaceted forms of expressing the same Christian message so that both the message and the people are, in turn, made whole and dynamic both from human and Christian points of view. 4. Vatican Council II and Church in India Seminar: A Right Start The ideal way of being the Church always requires that she adopts a dynamic and multifaceted approach in which the Church – theologically, structurally, and sacramentally, e.g., in the forms of her self-expression and celebration of the Christ’s person and message – is never a finished product. Church is a pilgrim on earth, and in her ongoing pilgrimage, she carries with her being the being of various peoples and their cultures (along with their agonies and ecstasies, failures and successes, despairs and hopes). Although the concept of an ideal Church sounds pretty acceptable, reality had not always been so. There were ups and downs in the Church’s (officially, for the whole Church and, personally, on the part of individual members) response to the sacred duty of partaking in the ongoing becoming process. As the Church is constituted of human beings, we cannot expect her to be always perfect in all her responses; yet, we come across in the history of the Church, certain heightened moments when genuine attempts were consciously made to make her being true to her original design and to make herself relevant to the times and peoples for whom Jesus was incarnated. One such instance may be seen from the statement made by the Propaganda Fide way back in 1659 (note that the Synod of Diamper took place in 1599, and its aftermath in terms of the denial of rightful freedom to continue with the practices of the faithful of the Syro-Malabar Church); its instruction to the Vicars Apostolic reads as follows: “Do not in any wise make any attempt to persuade those peoples to change their rites, customs, and ways, provided they are not very manifestly contrary to religion and morals. For, what is more absurd than to introduce France, Spain, or Italy, or any other part of Europe into China? It is not those things, but the faith that you must bring in.” (Collectanea S. Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, Rome, 1907, vol. 1, page 42; vol. 2, pages 23 and 33). The most significant and celebrated moment in the recent history of the Church, in fact, a very unique response along this line, is seen in the Vatican Council II. The Church which has responded to the signs of the times started to take stock of its own status and its mechanisms by way of an introspection to respond to the realities with which she was surrounded in the epoch-making Vatican Council II. The presence of the Spirit working in and through the Council Fathers could be attested to, by paying attention to the innovative breakthroughs that they made in the form of laying down new theological outlooks and the call for the Church to renew itself from within in order to make its Christian existence more meaningful and relevant to the time and space in which she was incarnated. In making her catholic existence consistent and in tune with the time and space within which her members are placed, different documents issued during and after the Vatican Council II made very specific injunctions on inculturation and dialogue, again not as a decorative addition, but as an existential necessity. For, inculturation is necessitated by the very nature of the Church as an incarnated reality amidst humanity. She is placed among the cultures of various peoples; then, as the Good News given to her has to penetrate into the life of the people and transform them in such a way that there would emerge a new culture – a new earth and a new heaven for those people who embrace Christ – as a result of which neither the carrier of the Good News, nor those who receive it, would be able to remain as they were. While the Good News will assume the forms of a particular culture when it is brought into that cultural context, the latter will be transformed by the infusion of the Gospel values into its inner recesses. Such a noble vision was re-affirmed by the Vatican Council II, following the immortalized mode of Christ’s own incarnation. Thus, winds of renewal within the approach of the Church towards other religions and cultures could be seen in various documents that were issued by the Vatican Council II. Although I have no intention to offer an exhaustive treatment on the contributions of the Vatican Council II in this regard, it would be appropriate to dwell on it briefly so that we will be better placed to see the progression and the well-intentioned move of the Council for a meaningful renewal of the Church. The Decree on the Missions (Ad Gentes) opened up the new vistas in Church’s approach proposing that all that is good in every culture and religion of the world shall be integrated into the life and culture of the Church: “From the customs and traditions of their people, from their wisdom and their learning, from their arts and sciences, these Churches borrow all those things which can contribute to the glory of their Creator, the revelation of the Saviour’s grace, or the proper arrangement of Christian life” (AG §22). However, clarifying the unique and indispensable role of the Gospel and the nature of evangelization, Pope Paul VI wrote in Evangelium Nuntiandi, which came up with a landmark position with regard to the theology of culture: “The Gospel and, therefore, evangelization, are certainly not identical with culture, and they are independent in regard to all cultures. Nevertheless, the kingdom which the Gospel proclaims is lived by men who are profoundly linked to a culture, and the building up of the kingdom cannot avoid borrowing the elements of human culture or cultures. Though independent of cultures, the Gospel and evangelization are not necessarily incompatible with them; rather they are capable of permeating them all without becoming subject to any one of them” (EN §20). So, while the central Gospel message is taken to be the supreme ideal of the existence of a Church on earth, the Pope made it clear that the essential connection between the Gospel and culture should not be ignored; moreover, the implied injunction also insists that integrating elements from various cultures into the Christian life is quite natural to her existence and, hence, it must be promoted to enhance the existence of an integral and holistic identity of the Church. The transformation intended by the Church covers her total existence. Evangelium Nuntiandi continues: “What matters is to evangelize man’s culture and cultures not in a purely decorative way as it were by applying a thin veneer, but in a vital way, in depth, and right to their very roots, in the wise and rich sense which these terms have in Gaudium et spes” (EN §20). This being the clear injunction from Pope Paul VI, today we need to introspect on our ecclesial life, both from the perspective of the universal Church and from the specific perspective of the Indian Church as to whether any focused and strategized process has been initiated to realize the yearning that the Pontiff had emphasized. Moreover, we need also to face up to the challenges posed by those who are convinced of the fact that the inner being of the Church – at the very roots – is in need of correction and revamping; are we ready to face such challenges and to take up the task of reinventing our faith in Christ in the given contexts of our Indian society and cultures? Unitatis Redintegratio (“Restoration of Unity”), the Decree on Ecumenism, issued by the Vatican Council II, true to the catholic nature of the Church, defined the unity of the Church focusing on the unity of the people of God. Ecclesial communion, reiterates this Decree, should preserve “unity in essentials,” although it leaves the rest to the creative freedom of the community of faithful: “While preserving unity in essentials, let everyone in the Church, according to the office entrusted to him, preserve a proper freedom … in the theological elaborations of revealed truth” (UR §4). It makes room for a mutual appreciation of the innovations in living our faith in Christ in varied cultural and social contexts. It would also mean that various expressions and formulations of faith – offered from different corners of the world into which the Gospel is announced, and which begin to explore their own ways and means of giving expression to their faith acclamations – are “to be considered complementary rather than conflicting” (UR §17). These positions indicate that the Church welcomes creative innovations in interpreting and articulating various dimensions of faith using the idioms and symbols from multiple human contexts; it also indicates that no one tradition shall cultivate any prejudice against others, even if the cultural ramifications and nuances are not well understood by those who do not belong to the cultural contexts. The mind of the Council very clearly insists that the unity in essentials would not mean the introduction of uniformity in all aspects of Christian life; instead, the multiplicity in faith expressions is seen as an enrichment to the Christian message leading to greater harmony among the faithful by taking into account the character of various nations, as it would be more attuned to the cultural and social dynamics of the people. The second Vatican Council was providentially led to the formulation of a ground-breaking document in the whole tradition of the Catholic Church, namely Nostra aetate. In one of the narratives (relatio) of October 1965, Augustine Cardinal Bea, a key figure in the drafting of this declaration, held that the purpose of this declaration was not a complete exposition on other religions but “to show that there is a bond between man and religions which is meant to be the basis of dialogue and collaboration.” AS IV/IV, 722, cited in Ruokanen, The Catholic Doctrine of Non-Christian Religions according to the Second Vatican Council, 85 (footnote 1). It is worth noting a statement by John Peter Muringathery, a Catholic priest who pioneered practical interreligious dialogue in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu: “The statement [NA] reflects the Church’s determination to liberate herself from the ecclesiology of the Middle Ages which was absolutist in its claims and marked by its negative attitude to other religions. When Christians look upon other religions as inspired by the devil or the sum total of man-made techniques, they continue the attitude of the old Israel, ‘We alone are the chosen people of God’.” “Evangelization and Dialogue,” Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 54, 8 (August 1990), 403-404. Hence, as he clearly articulated, this declaration took notice of those elements that unite one another, Christians and members of other religions. Although it does not offer an exhaustive treatment about other religions nor about Church’s approach towards other religions, it lays the foundation and opens up new avenues of exploring and understanding the religious reality in the context of contemporary pluralistic society. Further, it is inspiring to note that, while addressing a group of members from other religions, on 3 December 1964, Pope Paul VI stated that India is “a nation that has sought God with a relentless desire, in deep meditation and silence and hymns of fervent prayer.” Pope Paul VI, “Address of Pope Paul VI to the Members of the Non-Christian Religions,” https://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/speeches/1964/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_19641203_other-religions.html accessed on 9 September 2015. In 1986, this positive outlook on Indian religions in general and Hinduism in particular was reiterated by Pope John Paul II while addressing a similar group at Madras: “Your meditations on the things unseen and spiritual have made a deep impression on the world… It is my humble prayer that the remarkable sense of the Sacred which characterizes your culture may penetrate the minds and hearts of men and women everywhere.” Pope John Paul II, The Pope Speaks to India, Bombay: St. Paul Publications, 1986, 86. These statements clearly indicate that, following the teachings of Vatican Council II, instead of animosity and suspicion, Church began to cultivate a positive attitude and approach towards the spiritual contributions made by other religions in India and elsewhere. This has served to pave better ways to realize harmony and understanding that were badly needed in the new world that witnesses to the co-existence of members of humanity pledging their allegiance to different religious faiths but, at the same time, many of them fighting with each other for their own dominance within the power structures allegedly animated by pseudo-religious motives. Indian Church as a whole received the directives of the Vatican Council II with much enthusiasm. In fact, the leadership of the Indian Church, along with a number of enlightened theologians, found it a God-given opportunity to renew her inner being and to reclaim her lost identity in the course of being subjected to external forms and core ideals being imposed upon her from outside her own sources. As she was gathering momentum to transform her ecclesial life after the vision of the Vatican Council II, all the three Catholic Churches of India came together for a national seminar, titled “Church in India Seminar,” in which resources were pooled from across the country and from various strata of the Church, to deliberate about the course of action. It was certainly a Spirit-led moment of enlightenment for the Indian Church. “The Church in India Seminar,” held in 1969 at Dharmaram College, Bangalore, against the backdrop of the Vatican Council II with a view to responding to its ground-breaking and Spirit-led innovations, was a unique milestone in the history of the Indian Church. It began with a sense of openness to, and appreciation of, various peoples, cultures, religions, traditions, etc., that had been instrumental in shaping the destiny of India. There was a gradual evolving of a consensus among the participants, that the Indian Church would mature and establish itself only when the members of the community would be truly rooted in the wisdom and cultural paradigms of India in the form of philosophy, theology, liturgical practices, etc. There was, then, the need for being open to other religions and cultures, not as a concession to them, but as an existential necessity of being truly an Indian Church. The bishops of India, who had happily and courageously partaken in the new spirit of the Council, wrote in a joint Pastoral Letter to the whole Catholic Church in India: “The Church in India, if it is to be true to its essential mission, must be a Church rooted in the Indian soil, thoroughly at home in her various languages, culture and way of life, intimately sharing the ‘joys and hopes, grief and anxieties’ of the Indian people, and acknowledged by them not as a foreign but very much as their own.” All India Seminar on “The Church in India Today,” 1969. There was a consensus evolving among the Christians in India that, in general, “the Gospel had the trademark of western Christianity. Correspondingly, it contributed to the elimination or disparaging of the local cultures of the people evangelized. Christianization meant westernization in terms of socio-cultural life. Its consequence was alienation of Christian people from their own culture, social milieus and religious traditions, and evasion from their people’s historical adventure and drifting away from the mainstream of national life. The Christians were considered as aliens or at least as second-class citizens and a marginal group living in a ghetto of their own. They were considered introverted or foreign-oriented, with their eyes directed either on themselves or on foreign countries, and not on their fellowmen.” D. S. Amalorpavadass, Gospel and Culture: Evangelization and Inculturation (Mission Theology for Our Times Series 11), Bangalore: NBCLC, 1978, 12-13. Then, inculturation cannot be looked at as a decorative addition, but as an existential necessity in being and becoming the Church of Christ in the Indian milieu of dynamic multiplicity. Theologically, then, it is not an option but an imperative in the life of a true Christian community. However, as many have identified themselves with the given forms of Christian living, and have already distanced themselves from the living milieus of their own cultural and social contexts, any attempt to shed the western (i.e., Latin) garb (on the part of the Latin Church), the Chaldean garb (on the part of the Syro-Malabar Church), and the Antiochean garb (on the part of the Syro-Malankara Church) and, simultaneously, to assume an indigenous identity that is in tune with the native socio-cultural milieu, is looked upon with some sense of suspicion, scrupulosity, and resistance. To what extent can we assume that the Church has succeeded in responding to the changes that have taken place in the world within which she is placed? If the Church is placed within the world, can she insulate herself completely from the changes? Is it not proper that the Church, without being carried away by the sway of cultural deceptions and outbursts, tries to involve herself in letting her message infuse the cultures with catholic values, and be favourably influenced by those constructive elements that can be integrated into the enfleshing of her own being? The true vocation of the Church is to respond to the needs of the present by being focused on the person of Christ and firmly rooted in the Gospel, along with openness to both the past and the future of the community of the faithful. In this way, she would make herself truly Christian and relevant to the people and the era within which she encounters the world. 5. Inculturation Faces a Roadblock? After the Vatican Council II, there came up a number of personal and institutional initiatives to renew the Church and her liturgical life by incorporating valid elements from among various cultural and religious systems of India. Serious study of other religions was undertaken; their scriptures were studied for better understanding, and some inspiring passages from them were even introduced into the prayer sessions of the Church, though mostly conducted for specially initiated groups. Christian bhajans were composed and began to be widely used in community prayers and even in para-liturgical services. Two institutions that must be remembered in this regard are the National Biblical Catechetical and Liturgical Centre (NBCLC) and Dharmaram College, both situated in Bangalore. During “The Church in India Seminar,” held at Dharmaram College, its community not only assisted the entire gathering to join in a prayer session along the line of Indian meditation (accompanied by the chanting of Sanskrit bhajans), but also had taken the lead in formulating an Indian Christian form of Eucharistic Liturgy (based on the then used official version of the Syro-Malabar Qurbana, known as ‘Indian Mass’), which was celebrated twice during the All India National Seminar, on 23 May 1969. Although many bishops and delegates from all over India participated in this celebration and were genuinely appreciative of the whole Eucharistic celebration, and had given an unprecedented recognition to this initial but bold move to take the Indian Church in a new direction, the Church as a whole, and the official Syro-Malabar Church in particular, were not very much inclined to lead the community along this line. Later on, official interventions halted this innovative move and Dharmaram has almost given up its pioneering leadership in the much-appreciated attempts of inculturating ecclesial life in India. Saju Chackalackal, “Towards New Horizons of Indian Christian Living” in New Horizons of Indian Christian Living: A Festschrift in Honour of Prof. Dr. Vadakethala Francis Vineeth CMI, ed. Saju Chackalackal, 49-84, Bengaluru/Coimbatore: Vidyavanam Publications/Preshitha Communications, 2009, 62-64. A passage from this article is worth quoting to bring to mind the responsibility of the Church: “It is true that the Indian Church as a whole has taken almost a reversal attitude, especially with regard to liturgical renewal and inculturation; yet, the spirit of openness and the quest to design a more meaningful liturgical celebration that were at the back of these earnest attempts must be recognized and resuscitated. What we lack now is the foresight and farsightedness among the hierarchy and the innovative and daring attitude among the theologians, both of which need to be firmly rooted in the sound and deep God experience with its unwavering centrality in Jesus Christ” (63). Even though the NBCLC still retains occasional celebrations of its own version of the Indian Mass, it does not seem to have made any lasting or extensive impact upon the psyche of the Indian Church at large. Even after five decades, all the three Indian Churches seem to be comfortably perpetuating their own inherited lifestyle and liturgical worship patterns without any disturbance. Even if one is disturbed due to the lack of interculturation initiatives, he or she will have to be resigned to an almost dormant existence when it comes to the mainstream Indian Christian life. In all, the thrust for inculturation in the mainstream Indian Church was short-lived. The leadership was not ready to take up the risk that was part of the initiative, which would call for very careful investment of personnel and resources. It happened to be a failed story as there was neither a personal determination nor a collective will on the part of the church leadership; it is unfortunate to note that the failures in this regard are conveniently attributed to the unaccepting attitude of the people, and claiming that they are not yet ready for such a drastic change in the ecclesial life in India. Although it is very strange to see that a group of sui iuris churches in India, in the post-colonial world, opt for, accept, and perpetuate the imposed ritual and cultural patterns of foreign churches as the most important in constituting their being and identities, we must squarely face the question as to why did the whole story of inculturation and adaptation lose its glitter and almost end up so abruptly? Why did it lose it lustre as immediately as it had taken off? Why the enthusiasm of many genuine groups and initiatives has been lost on the way? Has the inculturation thrust of the Church in India reached a roadblock, and if so, why? One thing is very clear: it is not because of the realization that inculturation or interculturation is perceived to be irrelevant in the lives of the people. There were, in fact, many other factors and individuals who were responsible for nipping the positive response that the Indian Church had initiated immediately after the Vatican Council II. The earnestness with which the Indian Church has begun the process of inculturation, at least in the form of a few cultural adaptations, is well-depicted in a letter that was sent from Holy See on 25 April 1969 to the then Archbishop of Bangalore, Most Rev. D. Simon Lourdusamy, officially listing the 12 points of adaptation (see Appendix), which not only gives us an idea as to the nature and depth of inculturation attempted along with both the cautious instructions given (with reference to the postures, use of incense, nature of exchange of peace, etc.) and the generous indications of further openness shown by the Holy See, The proposal to compose a new Indian Anaphora is positively welcomed; the insistence for study by the “Consilium” is perfectly in tune with the nature of the Church, as the Anaphora is the most significant part of the Eucharistic celebration. but also indicates the sorry state of affairs that the Indian Church is besieged with in the whole process. While the authorities of the Indian Church could apply in all earnestness for some adaptations in 1969 and get them approved by the Holy See, Interestingly, within a month’s time the approval from Rome was given for adopting the 12 points of adaptation. In fact, the 12 points were approved by the CBCI in March 1969, which got the official approval from the Holy See on 25 April 1969 itself. the later developments indicate that all that we have attained in the domain of inculturation and adaptation is limited to these twelve points. It must, at the same time, be said that, except for a couple of changes adopted in general, such as the exchange of peace, etc., what was permitted in the form of 12 points of adaptation remain restricted either to some special occasions or to some specific institutions. The Church in India has not moved any further in this regard. The proposals were listed as constituting only “the first stage of inculturation in the Liturgy.” Amalorpavadass, Gospel and Culture, 81 (Appendix 2). However, later, the Church leadership seems to have adopted a stand that these are not concerns of any importance; as a result, the initiatives and investments in this regard have almost come to total halt. There were more of brakes applied than were accelerators when it came to the issue of inculturation and interculturation, especially in matters pertaining to the liturgy. Probably, some of the officials were doubtful about the outcome, especially as a result of a bit of haste and initial enthusiasm. It is sad to note that the brakes applied by certain offices were certainly detrimental to the whole cause of genuine interculturation so much so that the initial enthusiasm from most was nipped in the bud itself. Although the issues of inculturation were discussed at length and across the Church in India immediately after the Vatican Council II and “The Church in India Seminar,” those discussions were eventually restricted to a few experts and even fewer selected institutions (both of which seem to be on the further decline as the years go by!) The inclusion of a paper on inculturation and dialogue within this Dharmaram national mission seminar seems to be only one among the many ‘decorative’ reasons for the waning of interest in the Church, and not out of any existential necessity felt deep within the Christian consciousness, especially of the Syro-Malabar Church. The faithful as well as the Church leadership today has a responsibility to look into these non-deliberated and comfortably forgotten facts if the Church is serious about being incarnated in the Indian soil and in being relevant to the Indian psyche. There is a theory that the common faithful are not interested in matters pertaining to inculturation, at least as it was initiated in India. Although the truth of such a statement cannot be completely refuted, it must be borne in mind that interest in matters of this sort can be elicited from someone only if he or she is well- informed about it; one’s information horizon will set one’s interest; even one’s dreams and aspirations arise out of the personal knowledge base. The church leadership is accountable for the ignorance of the common faithful about the dynamics of inculturation as they are unveiled in the life of Jesus Christ, in and through the Gospel proclamation, and in the life of the Church, especially as they were proclaimed at the Vatican Council II. A Council of the Church or an official inculcating the relevance of the Church in its members strikes a chord with the ecclesial community only when the content of the teachings reaches the consciousness of the faithful and is manifest in their daily lives and worship practices. If the noble vision of the Vatican Council is not transferred to the people of God, then their consciousness will not aspire for a transformation of their life by adopting the cultural paradigms of the native cultures. On the other hand, if the faithful are persuaded by the leadership to shun any contact with the native cultures as they are depicted or perceived ‘devilish’ in nature, one cannot expect them to have any openness to those cultural forms; and, as per the instructions given, they will try to adapt themselves to certain foreign or alien cultures and cultural forms in their life and worship. As they are instructed and educated only in such a manner of life and worship by the leadership, even though they are practically alienated from their own cultural roots, they will feel comfortable, by the thought that this is what is expected of their newly found faith. Fortunately, this negative impression can be changed, by being true to the consciousness of the Church in the post-Vatican period; but, what is primarily required is to disseminate the teachings of the Church (not of one or the other individual’s personal preferences, but of the positions arrived at by the Magisterium from time to time) among the common faithful so that they would begin to aspire for a new being and a new face of the Church in India. Once the common faithful are informed, then getting the Church to be rooted in the local culture and adapting it to the local customs, and making use of the idioms and language of people in every aspect of her life would become quite natural. It will also make the Church get firmly entrenched in the land, making her being truly ‘Christian’ in its core. 6. The Syro-Malabar Church and the Quest for Interculturation The Gospel of Christ was preached to the people of India way back in the very first century and the Church was established by Apostle Thomas. The newly-founded community of Christians is said to have been truly rooted in the cultural ethos of the land and were considered to be essentially native; indeed, they consciously maintained a different religious identity and were considered to be of a high social stature which was associated with a different value system that they had bequeathed from their own religious scriptures and the person of Jesus Christ himself. Although historical documentary evidence is scarce, the obvious presence of a Christian community in South India, especially in Kerala, is an ample testimony to the presence of a living tradition, which has never been broken or destroyed in subsequent centuries despite various political and social upheavals that this community had witnessed and partaken in, over the course of time. At one stage in its development, there was a close collaboration between the native Church and another foreign Church, i.e., the Chaldean Church, in terms of administration of the community through their hierarchy and the eventual adoption of their liturgical practices. Due to the longstanding association with this Church, the native Church has eventually lost touch with its earliest practices. Consequently, either due to administrative force on the part of the Chaldean church leadership or due to voluntary option of the faithful of the native Church (it is only a logical conjecture, although we do not have any valid proof for either), there came to exist a structure and tradition which was akin to that of the Chaldean Church. Its force can be seen from the single fact that the whole liturgical tradition was not only designed as per the patterns of the then Chaldean liturgy, but even the language of the foreign Church was adopted as the liturgical language. All these indicate that the force from the latter was so pervasive that the native community had to finally relent to the designs of a foreign Church, which eventually began to even determine its destiny. Having lost its own identity as a native community of Christian disciples established by Apostle Thomas, and having been under the spell of the Chaldean hierarchy and those who were close to them who decided it to be the best for the faithful of an Apostolic Church, the native Church slipped into a total grip of the Chaldean powers. Thus, the original native Christian community in India seems to have been forced to become a totally foreign Church, alienating itself from most of its own cultural milieu and linguistic foundations. Though considered to be a historical accident (although some would still claim it be a providential intervention), most probably against the will of the members of the native community of the faithful, the earliest Church in India became completely foreign in its texture and structure; having been alienated from its own original spiritual sources and spontaneous linguistic expressions, both of which are considered to be central to the worship of any society. In this way, the Church lost its natural ambience for spontaneity in Christian living, especially in its worship, which could have been further accentuated by its continued success in holding the administration of the native Church for quite a long time. The sad saga of the earliest Christian community in India underwent a further revamping and reshaping with the arrival of the Portuguese sailors in the sixteenth century. As the trade route was established, there began the arrival of the missionaries. The vibrant and living Christian community seems to have come across a number of hurdles in continuing with its Christian life with the arrival of the western missionaries. Although the missionaries had been pursuing their mission in all earnestness on the western coasts, especially in Goa, their movement towards the southern coasts made them come in contact with the already existing Christian community. Due to the cultural differences and linguistic incompetence, and the allegiance of the faithful to the forms of the Chaldean Church, this encounter had a drastic impact upon the native Christian community. As they had a different set of cultural, social, and liturgical practices, the Portuguese missionaries could not comprehend it. Eventually, the western traders got involved in the political alignment of India, and as they began to exert more power for the safety and perpetuation of their trade interests, the missionaries also began to assume a more powerful role. The division of the whole world by the Holy See for the sake of evangelisation (which almost coincided with the trade interests of different European nations) happened to contribute to the strengthening of the colonial as well as the ecclesiastical powers, and there came to exist a nexus between the colonial civil authorities and the ecclesiastical authorities, which further empowered the ecclesiastical authorities to exert an overarching control over the Christian life not only on the new communities that the western missionaries had established, but also on the native Christian community. This led to more damage to the native Church by way of suppressing a number of native practices and local cultural elements that were retained in their life and worship despite the onslaught of the Chaldean Church in its administration and liturgical practices. The missionary authorities were bent on re-designing the Christian life of the faithful – whether they belonged to the native Christian community or to the newly-established Christian community did not matter to them – along the structures and patterns of Christian life that were familiar to them; that is, eventually, the form of western Christianity was forcefully imposed on the native Christian community. Due to their ignorance of the divergent traditions already existing in the Christian world, and the possibility of the Gospel being lived in tune with the local idioms, patterns, and lifestyles, the missionaries were bent on imposing their idea of Christian life upon the natives; instead of a unity in imbibing the spirit of the Gospel, they wrongly assumed that a uniformity with their life patterns and worship forms would guarantee Christianness. Due to the political backup that they enjoyed from the colonial authorities, they had every resource at their disposal to get their designs worked out. However, as the native community was already more organized by now, they were not ready to be completely submissive to the designs of the western missionaries; naturally, there were protests. As the native Christian community did not yield to the designs of the colonial missionaries, the latter began to call upon their universal authority vested with them by the Holy See, which was further resisted upon by the local Church. This conflict went beyond reasonable proportions as a result of which, a part of the native Christian community was separated from the Catholic communion, especially as the policies and functioning styles of the Church authorities were more political and akin to those of the colonial powers, and, at least in part, were not found to be Christian in essence. In the end, the western missionary authorities not only messed up an already existing Church by alienating it from all that it had cherished as its own, and all that it had bequeathed from the Chaldean Church, but had been instrumental in dividing the Church into various fragments, thus becoming the root cause for an ever-increasing anti-Christian perpetration of disunity among the disciples of Christ, whatever be the theological or juridical justification offered to defend these acts under the guise of historical mistakes. Thus, despite all the good that has been brought to India by the foreign churches, the Chaldean Church and the western missionaries together not only laid the foundation for almost a total alienation of the native Christian community from its own cultural and religious sources, but continue to perpetuate the same directly and indirectly, by employing all available means at their disposal. Indeed, the new era of ecclesiastical jurisdiction does not provide any room for direct involvement in the matters of the native Christian life; however, both the remnants of the Chaldean and western missionary traditions are so strong within the Syro-Malabar Church, that they continue to divide the dynamics of this church along these two poles: there are many who attribute the allegiance of the church to the Chaldean traditions; voicing their concerns, another group rallies against them by insisting that a number of practices from the western Churches must be adopted to make Christian life more meaningful. As these two camps try to justify their own positions, and, in the process, polarize the whole church along these lines, a simple but naked question needs to be asked: is there a need to regain the Syro-Malabar Church to its true, glorious Christian vocation in being and becoming an effective instrument of Gospel proclamation and the establishment of God’s Kingdom in India? If the historical accidents of being influenced by the Chaldean Church, on the one hand, and the western Church, on the other, did not finally succeed in providing any effective alternative to authentic ecclesial living in the native model, then, both of them have failed in making the native Church an incarnated church among the people, as they failed to infuse it with the Kingdom values and to facilitate positive interaction with the cultural and religious ethos of the land. There is, therefore, a necessity on the part of both groups to give up their egoistic positions and to begin to work together for a more effective but indigenous form of Christian living. Instead of hanging on to the vestiges of alien traditions of bygone eras, a true Christian has a responsibility to keep himself open to the stirrings of the Spirit; it is a necessity for a Christian to follow those steps of the living Spirit and respond to the needs of the times so that Christian life in India would be redeemed and, along with it, would play the role of redeeming everyone else. Even in the twenty-first century, the first native Church, the Syro-Malabar Church as it came to be christened, does not seem have come of age in claiming its own identity and to set its destiny through the exercise of a collective will. In the opinion of Francis Vineeth Vadakkethala, it is sad to note that “The Church in India still looks to the West as if the ideal Christianity is in the West. In a country that floods with mystical and devotional literature, it still uses the prayers and liturgical texts of the Western Church. Though the Eastern Church is an exception to this sense of fidelity to their own identity and tradition, it is often so uncompromising that it becomes the preservers of certain Middle East traditions, no matter where they are now actually living. Quite contrary to the genuine nature of the Oriental Church, today it seems that change to the local culture is more difficult in the Oriental Church than in the Latin Church.” Vineeth Vadakethala, “Identity and Universality in Religion: The Quest for Personal Identity in the Religious Tradition and the Universal Mission of Jesus,” Third Millennium 10, 1 (2007), 46-47. Thus, whether it is the church of the East Father Vineeth laments: “The various Oriental Churches in which the freedom of self-expression was much more alive in ancient times have also at times fallen under the spell of this power craze. When the Church is divested of its real spirit which alone gives it the radical power of transcendence over itself, it is just like any other power in this world and is really comparable with the political or cultural power struggles operating in colonial empires and their conquered nations.” Vadakethala, “Identity and Universality in Religion,” 59-60. or that of the West, a slavish allegiance was followed, to the traditions bequeathed from alien cultural milieus. These traditions were originally forced upon Indian Christians through questionable methods of persuasion, which were coupled with political might, than through the inculcation of genuine values originating in faith experience and expression. It shall, then, be the quest of the Indian Church, of all the three Rites of the Catholic Communion and of all other Christian denominations, to develop, not only an Indian face and identity, but also assign an Indian being (sat) to the Church in India, which is the existential need of the Church, if it were to be really rooted in the cultural and religious psyche of the people and land. See Chackalackal, “Towards New Horizons of Indian Christian Living,” 68. The Syro-Malabar church is better placed to have had mastered the art of inculturation and interculturation in India. Apart from the very conducive existentialist opportunities that were present from the very beginning of her existence in South India, she has had a successful saga of having imbibed a number of cultural elements into the life patterns and traditions of her ecclesial life. The very positive interaction that is said to have existed among the members of the Christian community and other religious communities in Kerala and the very high regard that kings and other authorities of society had towards Christians in Kerala are all indicative of their positive and visible presence in the then society and their spontaneous integration into the civil society. This integration is said to have resulted from their ability to be inherently part of the society through their own contributions; they were never considered to be outsiders, but an integral part of the society precisely because of their lifestyle and worship patterns; although their lifestyle and worship patterns had obvious Christian elements, they were culturally integrated into the social fabric of Kerala. However, as it has been already indicated earlier, the contemporary Syro-Malabar Church is found to be a ‘ritually colonized’ church. Its early members either depended upon the liturgical traditions of the Chaldean Church or the Latin Church, or, as is obvious in some instances, the traditions that were imposed upon them. Just as any colonized people find it hard to give up certain colonial legacies, as their long association and continued practice unconsciously make the colonial elements a part of their own identity, the Syro-Malabar Church finds it very difficult to shed its colonial ritual practices bequeathed to it or imposed upon it. If any of these are found to be meaningful and, hence, in need of organic integration into their lifestyle and worship patterns, we must make the best provisions for the same. For, nothing shall be considered to be foreign if it is found to be good and life-enhancing. Integration of newer visions, ennobling values, and life-enhancing practices from any culture or tradition, provided they can be integrated into the central Gospel message without contradiction, is the lesson we gather from the life of Jesus Christ and the early Christian communities. Yet, in fact, it is obvious that the assumption of many foreign forms is only out of an uncritical attitude toward colonial culture, and the reluctance to give up those practices that were adapted at various historical junctures without, however, raising the issue whether that was justified or not. Just because a historical situation necessitated the adoption of one pattern, it does not bind any Christian to adopt the same for-ever; if the historical encounter was an imposition by external forces which operated with the clout and craftiness of political power and the enticement of spiritual benefits ensuing from religious provisions, none of them shall be binding on later generations who come to the awareness that these negative forces are not necessarily part of their being and identity and, so, they have every reason and responsibility to distance themselves from such sources and traditions and their remaining vestiges so that they would be successful in evolving a new and meaningful being and identity for themselves. 7. Syro-Malabar Missions and a Call for Interculturation To be a church is to be rooted in the local socio-political and cultural context of a people. Just as Christ was completely incarnated, the Church too bears the responsibility in her being to incarnate herself among the people. If the Church is to be considered a true church, then it must be localized without losing her latitude to its universality insofar as both Christ and his Gospel go beyond any particular culture and time. We have already seen that the Gospel is assured to assume the cultures of people as the Good News is brought to them. This entails a greater responsibility on the part of all the Churches in India, in general, and the Syro-Malabar Church, in particular, to go beyond its local linguistic and cultural forms (mostly bequeathed from the Kerala context) as her members take the same Good News to people of other linguistic, cultural, and socio-political backgrounds. This is all the more serious as there are significant variations among people of various linguistic, ethnic, and cultural contexts. If no single culture can offer a complete closure on Jesus Christ and his Gospel, and invites the same message to assume the innumerable number of cultural forms as and when the Gospel message is made to encounter those cultures, then the earlier forms must make way for later ones, as the Gospel is taken to various local cultures by the members of the Syro-Malabar Church. However, it must be admitted that the Syro-Malabar Church today faces a serious difficulty in shedding its linguistic, socio-cultural, and liturgical, and ritualistic traditions when her own members involve in the acts of evangelization among various peoples. There remains the same confusion and difficulty that the Latin Church had faced in shedding its western garb while it had assumed the responsibility of evangelizing various communities in India. While all are in unison in the criticism and condemnation of the failure of earlier western missionaries in letting the local customs and cultural patterns remain untouched, because of their over-enthusiasm to transplant a Church of their familiarity in the alien lands, even the new generation missionaries of the Syro-Malabar Church also fail to incarnate Christ and his Gospel among the people by letting its own cultural baggage drop. It becomes all the more difficult as both native (practically of Kerala origin) and foreign (mostly Chaldean, and in some cases, Latin) elements adapted at one point in the historical development of this Church are attributed with ‘sacred’ unchangeability, especially in matters of liturgical worship. It is a matter of pride that the Syro-Malabar missions are thriving both in terms of the number of Christians and institutional strength. Given the fact that there have been only fifty (or, even fewer) years of missionary activity in various regions, especially in North India (to be exact, outside the proper territory of the Syro-Malabar Church), the achievements of these missions are stupendous. While thanking the Lord for the good yield and congratulating the whole lot of selfless and enthusiastic missionaries for their achievements, it is high time that both the mother Church and the newly established churches begin to think seriously about the being (sat) and expressions that these churches must assume. If the theological position on interculturation that we have already laid out in the previous pages is right, then the new missions must have the willingness or readiness, not only to bring the Good News to those people, but to incarnate the same Good News amidst them by imbibing from their local language and culture. Although we may not be able to predict what it would be and how it would finally look like, one thing must be assured: that it will not merely be a replication of the mother church at least in its expressions; for, it should emerge from the new culture and should try to respond to the needs of those people in the given socio-political contexts. It would then mean that though the missionary would be influenced by the structures and spirituality of the mother church, he or she would be in a position to overcome them in view of letting the Gospel assume a new ‘flesh’ from the life and culture of the people to whom it is announced. The lifestyle, worship patterns, administrative structures, training methods (catechesis as well as seminary formation), etc., should have a native origin; they must emerge from the cultural contexts of the people. What is intended is not a blind adaptation on a wholesale basis, but a judicious and organic adoption of the best from the living milieu in view of enfleshing the Gospel message in a language, idiom, and style that would be close to the heart of the people to whom the Gospel is announced. 8. Interculturation, Liturgical Renewal, and Responsibility to New Generations It is in the mind of the Church that the liturgy of the Christian community is periodically renewed in order to make herself more relevant to the existential life situations of the people of God. Vatican Council II has made it very clear that an ongoing renewal of the liturgical forms and texts is not an option but an obligation of the Church so that she would change what is irrelevant and not suitable. Hence, the following strong injunction was given in the Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy: “The liturgy is made up of unchangeable elements divinely instituted, and of elements subject to change. These latter not only may be changed, but ought to be changed with the passage of time, if they have suffered from the intrusion of anything out of harmony with the inner nature of the liturgy or have become less suitable” (SC §21). Liturgy, being part of Christian faith expression and experience, is a human response to the divine intervention in human history; being a human response, without eclipsing the divine elements, every liturgical celebration shares in the human limitation, usually emerging from a limited human understanding of the divine realities and their ability to give expression to the same understanding depending on various human situations and cultural forms. Thus, the Church has made room for responding to these limiting factors even in the liturgical texts and forms by providing for correction, change, and improvisation without sacrificing those ‘unchangeable’ and ‘divinely instituted’ elements. To my mind, these divine and, hence, unchangeable elements refer to those aspects which are directly taken from the Bible and firmly established traditions sans their cultural lineages. The cultural lineages shall remain binding only on those who would continue to be part of the same socio-cultural matrix. It is true that we encounter a practical difficulty in distinguishing between essentials and non-essentials in liturgy. One thing is certain: the most essential part of any liturgy, especially the Eucharistic celebration, is constituted by the person of Jesus Christ and the Good News announced by him. Having stated earlier that the Jewish milieu and Greco-Roman cultures have had very significant influence upon the early formulations of Christian faith, both in the East and the West, we should bear in mind that a people totally distanced from the ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ cultures would not be bound by those liturgical paradigms. The same is the case with any other liturgical tradition. Although certain historical situations have directed and influenced the emergence of the life of the Syro-Malabar Church, especially its liturgical tradition, the apostolic origin of this church and its presence in a very unique culture of India, imbued with a heightened sense of the Divine and a highly developed cultural ethos, should have facilitated a very different liturgical tradition. Had it not been for the repeated imposition by two different ecclesial traditions (Chaldean and Latin), the Indian Church would have been blessed with a different identity very much in tune with the Indian ethos and a liturgy much at home with the aspirations and spirituality of the land. Although even almost after two centuries, we have not succeeded in realizing one of the sorts, isn’t it worth considering such a possibility, within the provisions already made by the Sacrosanctum Concilium? Here I am not referring to the general Indian Church, but very specifically the case of the Syro-Malabar Church, which is the first bearer of the Good News in the Indian soil. It is an unfulfilled mandate that she has been provided with; even if it has taken a long time, it is still not too late, and, maybe, it is even the right time to think of such a possibility. According to Francis Vineeth Vadakethala, “in the process of inculturation what we are really concerned about is not to swallow any thinking from any other sources, but to absorb into us the basic pattern which is not incompatible with our Christian faith.” Vineeth, The Asian Vision of God, Bangalore: Vidyavanam Publications, 2004, 28-29. Then, only if we would begin once again to dream about such a possibility will we generate the much- needed collective will and concerted action in this regard. If we would dare to explore the unexplored, by focusing on the person of Christ and the Gospel and the existential situations of the faithful in our Church, we could affirm that it is still a realizable dream. The Syro-Malabar Church exists in the twenty-first century; she has spread her reach far and wide as her faithful have either begun evangelisation or as the existing faithful, have migrated to different lands and cultures. It is natural for any people to move wherever they would find better pastures for their living. Moreover, the reality of globalization has also given ample opportunities for the faithful of the Syro-Malabar Church to quickly find new habitats, especially in a number of cities both in India and abroad. These realities have broadened the geographical horizons of the Syro-Malabar Church. While most of the discussions with regard to the Diaspora Syro-Malabar Christians pertain only to the issue of autonomy and jurisdiction, at least as far as the hierarchy is concerned, the new found ambiences – varied as they are – should once again bring to the consciousness of the Syro-Malabar Church the realization of making herself more relevant and effective in the new worlds. Instead of perpetuating an ethnic or mere ritualistic identity across the world for those who belong to the Syro-Malabar Church, we should let these Diaspora communities evolve their own meaningful existence by giving them sufficient autonomy and opportunities for adapting Christian life to be in tune with the social and cultural ambience in which they live. Instead of perpetuating Malayalam language and the Chaldean-influenced liturgy across the whole world, it is imperative that the Church lets these communities evolve their new identities, but being firmly rooted in the person and message of Jesus Christ. As we look at the faithful of the Syro-Malabar Church in the Diaspora, there crop up a number of questions, to which we have a responsibility to provide answers and offer strategic support. Although I may not be in a position to offer solutions to all the problems, let me try to pose some of those questions: Are we ready to let go of our cultural garb as our new generations move out of the familiar and comfortable habitat of Kerala and, accordingly, dare to redefine our own identity in the newly-given cultural contexts? Can we justify the Church perpetuating a linguistic and cultural ghetto by restricting our identity and existence as Christians to those forms that our forefathers have subscribed to and practised within the Kerala context? Can the identity of the Syro-Malabar faithful in the Diaspora be understood merely in the limited sense of a ‘ritual’ identity? Are our Church and her leadership capable of redefining her identity, especially in view of making herself relevant to the new generations that will never ever come back to Kerala at all? Have we been able to enshrine an identity for the Church and the constituent members that would permit itself evolve as the Church would move out of the frameworks of Kerala culture (or any other culture for that matter)? Will her ritual identity be visible only in the liturgical celebrations, mostly following the Chaldean form, especially as we complete 2000 years of our existence as an Apostolic Church, and a very limited period of fifty years or so outside the geographical boundaries of Kerala? It is sad to see that our Diaspora liturgical communities tend to perpetuate some age-old but, in those regions, sometimes unbecoming patterns. There was a time when Syriac was used as the liturgical language, even when the majority of the faithful did not understand a single word of it; but it was enforced and sustained on the grounds that it was the only permitted liturgical language. Mercifully, things have changed for the better, at least for those who lived in Kerala. Yet, in the Diaspora communities, it is sad to see that the same strategies are being preserved. In cities outside Kerala, where the faithful of the Syro-Malabar Church participate in the Syro-Malabar liturgy, many a time the liturgy is conducted in Malayalam (by justifying that the elders insist on Malayalam, the language in which they had started to celebrate the liturgy, and a language in which they are most comfortable) and those youngsters whose spontaneous or initiated language is not Malayalam are forced to go back to the old style of using transliterated texts. This is happening even in cosmopolitan cities, such as Bangalore, and we can reasonably imagine that the situation is not much different elsewhere, as both the clergy and the senior faithful are comfortable only in Malayalam. Having experienced, and understood the difficulty of a meaningful participation in liturgical services when they are conducted in an alien language using almost foreign expressions and ungraspable symbols, liturgy turns out to be almost a routine and ineffective source of Christian life to which members do not relate, and, as a result, may not feel inspired. Do we have any justification for creating and perpetuating such an injustice to our new generations? The fact is that a good number of the young generation find themselves more at home with liturgical celebrations that are better understood and evoke a sense of belongingness and an experience of the divine in their own idioms and language. Instead of insisting exclusively on the correctness of mere literal translations of liturgical texts and insistence on the rubrics, the changed ambience of new generation Syro-Malabar Christians would demand for greater sensitivity to facilitate an effective Christ experience, which would then enlighten them and call for a meaningful Christian witness in their new world. 9. The Syro-Malabar Church: A Church in Dialogue Any church in Asia finds itself amidst a number of living religions which are both religiously and politically powerful. For a Christian, plurality of religions is an existential reality, where a positive response and vivid relationship with them becomes a constant necessity. Pope John Paul II, in a letter to Cardinal Cassaroli, Secretary of State, wrote in 1982: “I have considered the Church’s dialogue with the cultures of our time to be a vital area, one in which the destiny of the world at the end of this twentieth century is at stake.” L’Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 28 June 1982. As it has been repeatedly emphasized through Papal teachings and the documents issued by various regional bishops’ conferences in Asia, the importance of dialogue in the life of the Church, especially with members of others religions, cannot be overemphasized. This is especially the case in the context of India, as religious plurality runs through the fabric of Indian society. Other religions are not merely a theoretical concept but an existential reality with which every member of the Church lives and interacts in an ongoing manner. Taking a cue from the statement of Pope John Paul II, it must be stated that the destiny of the Indian Church, including that of the Syro-Malabar Church, can be redeemed not all alone by focusing on the Christians, but also on every other person who constitutes the Indian society; such is the intimate connection between the life of Christians and the rest of the people of India. If the dynamics of interculturation are taken seriously and if we hold that they enshrine the core of Christian life, then dialogue with other religions cannot be seen as a decorative addition to the mission of the Church. For, genuine dialogue takes place in any human situation provided the partners in dialogue are mutually affected. Although there were times when many believed that dialogue is initiated by the Church in view of letting the members of other religions listen to her, it is now understood that in genuine dialogue all partners must possess an attitude of ‘listening’ to others. In earlier contexts, the partners in dialogue were supposed to be neutral participants; it was seen as resulting from a mere tolerant attitude. Proper dialogue, however, is different; it calls not only for a sincere involvement from partners, but also for mutual appreciation and, eventually, the acceptance of certain values and practices from the other, provided they are found to be better for integration in the life of the dialoguing partner. In fact, dialogue offers an opportunity for an in-depth understanding and mutual appreciation of the faith content and related practices and the resulting cultural expressions as they are found with many other religious communities that are otherwise alien to one’s own consciousness and social existence. The Syro-Malabar Church, in her historical context, could be seen as a Church that has always been in dialogue. While the western churches began to perceive the reality of other religions very late, i.e., initially in the sixteenth century, which was further accentuated in the late nineteenth and twentieth century, as they began to be present alongside and interact with other religions in the mission territories, the Syro-Malabar Church, from its very inception, found herself amidst the members of other religions. Although she did not, at that stage, develop a well-articulated theology of religions, her members had been living with members of other religions with a sense of openness and mutual appreciation. In fact, the close proximity with which the faithful of Syro-Malabar Church existed with the members of other religions made a positive impact upon their own faith expressions. While the essentials of Christian faith, especially the foundational faith in the person of Christ, were kept intact, they could easily adapt themselves to a number of cultural forms and practices, especially in matters pertaining to food habits, festivals, customs, and even in the external forms of sacraments and sacramentals. As dialogue with members of other religions was an existential and ongoing one, members of the Syro-Malabar Church never found it difficult to adapt their Christian faith expressions by incorporating many elements from the cultural practices of their native communities. It was not even considered to be an act of borrowing from some other culture, as it was looked upon as their own culture and they found themselves at home with it. The interest in dialogue with other religions, however, seems to have undergone a negative transformation in the twentieth century. It is ironic that, while the rest of the Church started to open up the avenues for dialogue with other religions, especially with the Vatican Council II, the Syro-Malabar Church has backtracked from her own established practices. It is stranger to note that a number of members of the Syro-Malabar Church claim that no practice from other faiths of the native community can be integrated into the life and faith expressions of the Christian community, as they are now completely segregated as ‘Hindu’ or ‘alien’ to Christian life. With ease and comfort, thus, they have created a parochial impression that anything that is adopted by the native society is not ‘Christian’; it is mercilessly branded as ‘Hindu’, forgetting the fact that most of us – Christians, Hindus, Dalits, Muslims, etc. – form part of the local society and share a number of common cultural factors. They constitute our common lineage, and emphasising this fact will provide us with a serious reason to invest our time and energy in more creative and productive dialogue with members of other religions. Certainly, dialogue is an inner attitude of openness and the manner of our life adopted in the diverse Indian society; it need not begin at all, as we find ourselves in such a blessed existential opportunity. Although dialogue is an ongoing endeavour of the Syro-Malabar ecclesial life, of late, it seems to have lost its lustre. It emerges from a sense of self-complacency and self-reliance in which Christians tend to consider themselves to be perfect and complete as far as their religious existence is concerned. Being a Christian would mean, to them, that there is nothing more to be learned, except to live a life perfectly in tune with the given traditions and dogmatic formulations. Accepting the perfection of Christ and the Christian message does not mean that all the expressions we have adopted in our ecclesial life are perfect. As all these expressions are human-made, they are always in need of improvisation, as and when they are realized. One would come to know about the need for change and improvisation only when he or she gets a chance to interact with others. Although dialogue seems, then, to be an imperative to facilitate ongoing interaction with the members of other religions and cultures, a complacent attitude would render dialogue futile and redundant. If a Christian community develops such a complacent attitude, it must be stated that it is not only un-Christian, but even goes against the very human nature and the dynamics that are usually adopted by human beings in their path of life and development. Along the line of analysis of dialogue offered above, it may be stated that, in the present day Syro-Malabar Church, dialogue with other religions seems to be mostly approached in two different ways. First, most members do not seem to be seriously interested in a dialogue that would initiate any positive change in their life and practices as Christians; for them, their religious life and practices are already set with definiteness; even if they interact with the members of other religions in their living contexts, they insulate their religious life in such a way that there is no scope for change in their Christian life. Second, there is another group of experts, mostly priests and religious. As they consider dialogue with other religions to be their vocation and an existential necessity, they invest their time and energy, even sacrificing their whole life, for this cause. They are found to be quite effective in the context of an institution or a locality. However, their contribution into the larger Christian frame or in initiating positive influences and transformation in Christian life is found to be almost absent. This is due to the fact that such individuals and their vocation are not taken to be integral and necessary to Christian life; instead, they are again seen as decorative additions. It may be better said that their presence is ‘tolerated’ by the members of the first group, but will not be accorded any significant place in the ecclesial life as such. To use a derogatory expression, sometimes they are seen as mere appendices to the mission of the Church. Many, including the leadership, tolerate them as long as they remain outside the ‘sacred territory’ of ecclesial life; if any change is warranted, and if that would affect anything that pertains to the ‘established’ traditions of life, especially that of worship, then immediately they are resisted and, if possible, rejected. It is a fact that there are a number of centres of dialogue across the Syro-Malabar Church, established both by the hierarchy (as necessitated by Vatican Council II) and other members of the Church, especially by religious congregations. Most of them are found to be quite active in conducting programmes such as interreligious prayer sessions, celebrations of festivals of various religions, programmes for the social uplift in which members from different religions collaborate, etc. Many a time such institutions are, however, considered to be not essential, but optional; they exist only because there is an option for such an institution on the part of the other individual who has taken it up either as an assignment or as a personal vocation. The mainstream Church does not seem to be very enthusiastic about their existence and contributions, much less in bringing in any transformation into the Church. If the partners in dialogue, even if from the side of the Church, were to call for change or transformation within the church, it is very likely that such suggestions would be shrugged off as unwarranted overtures. Thus, dialogue does find a spontaneous place in the Church, but is let to function as a peripheral institution; in other words, despite the clear injection given by the Vatican Council II, within the precincts of the Indian Church, dialogue does not find a place of its own. Many a time, it is tolerated. If such a status prevails, we cannot expect any good to come out of interreligious dialogue as far as enrichment of the ecclesial life is concerned. As Christians largely seem to be insulated from partners in dialogue, the very fact of dialogical existence in the contemporary life of the Indian Church seems to be an unfounded aspiration. Is this what we expect from a Church which had willingly adopted her dialogical existence close to her heart? Dialogue for the Syro-Malabar Church was a true encounter of her sons and daughters with the members of other religions and cultures. An encounter involves not only a mutual recognition of and listening to the other, but an attitude of openness to the other persons and communities. In personal encounters, it is quite likely that each one is mutually influenced, especially by the ideas, cultural practices, and religious ideals accepted by the encountering partner. If this principle is followed, then the Syro-Malabar Church (and, of course, the Church as a whole, especially in India) should change its strategy with regard to the place and dynamics of dialogue with other religions, especially in the context of India. Instead of a peripheral attitude that has been adopted so far, which has not been effective in any real sense, the Church should come out of its traditional shackles and comfort zones in letting its encounter with other religions and cultures positively impact in her being and becoming the true Church in the Indian context, or wherever the message of Christ is taken. As long as the cultural baggage of the local cultures is carried over to other cultural contexts as unchangeable essentials, the message of Christ and the being of the Church will keep them alienated from the lives of the people. It will only highlight the foreignness that is usually ascribed to the Church in India by its political detractors. Although the Syro-Malabar Church was established in India almost two thousand years ago, and has an impressive track record of being interculturated in its initial stages of growth itself, most of her practices have foreign influence and her being seems to adopt the tone and texture of alien cultures and religious practices. This must be stopped if she is to assume her true vocation as an incarnated church. The moment dialogue is adopted as her fundamental mission the Syro-Malabar Church would open up both her being and her avenues to a process of ongoing transformation, making herself attuned to the socio-cultural contexts of the land and her people. The day the Church begins to change from within herself in her attempt to respond to the given socio-cultural contexts, the mission of encounter and dialogue will be found to be more effective. It is only on that day, that the Church would affirm its dialogical existence: her members would begin to make their Christian commitment, not in exclusion and withdrawal from others, but, by attempting to be integral and inclusive of others, especially in being partners in building up a truly Christian society designed after the values of the Kingdom that Jesus Christ had brought to us, which will be shared by all those who are led by the Spirit. 10. Conclusion Inculturation and interculturation are basic dynamic processes through which the divine and the human, and both human and human, become perpetually integrated and made whole. If this process can be seen as “a process of growth toward maturity,” Arij Roest Crollius, What Is So New about Inculturation? Rome: Pontifical Gregorian University, 1984, 15. as Crollius calls it, the invitation that the Church in India has received should be wholeheartedly welcomed and further processes need to be initiated if the Church has to attain a state of maturity. The usually adopted position that there is no need for inculturation and interculturation echoes the lack of readiness on the part of the members of the Church to participate in these maturation processes. As Indian Christians, we are invited to give Christ to a people who have already encountered God in and through their own religious milieus and structures; then, the responsibility of every Christian in India is greater and all the more difficult; if Christianity were to be at home in India, the Church should be able to shed her foreign look and allegiance, be it in matters of cultural expressions, language, or worship patterns. The Church has the potential – theological and intentional – to be truly Indian and truly Christian in form and in spirit, which has to be made relevant to a people who have a fully Indian religio-cultural mechanism to assist them at it. If the Christian message is to be made appealing and relevant to the people of the land of Rishis and Gurus, both Jesus Christ and his Good News should be presented to them in the languages, idioms, and cultural forms of the land, which have been granted and guaranteed by the mystery of incarnation and the catholic vision enshrined in the Bible and the teachings of the Church. Given the context of the universal Church and the Church in India, the ideal depicted above does not seem to be easily realizable. However, the difficulty we encounter makes it all the more urgent to initiate processes in this regard. While narrow vested interests will continue to exert pressure to make sure that the status quo is maintained (as, otherwise, they have a lot at stake) in the Church, those who are enlightened by the vision that Jesus Christ has bequeathed to us, and the Church in general, has enshrined in her history, though in an imperfect manner, especially in the vision unveiled in the Vatican Council II documents, should ready themselves to take up the cross for the sake of availing a ‘resurrection experience’ to the Church in India in letting go of at least some of her acquired foreign elements that are no more relevant to the people and to the times. Positively put, we are in need of redefining our being and identity as a church located in India, but open to the rest of the world. The Church is in need of a new Pentecost which would usher in the Spirit who would open the new avenues and guide us through the inner inspiration that everyone is infused with. In concrete situations, the task ahead is tough, unending, and maybe, painful and even life-threatening. Yet, if what has been established in this regard is based on the historical and theological basis of the Christian community, and if those who involve themselves in the process are convinced of the assistance of the Holy Spirit, who has been guiding the people of God all through, then, there shall be nothing to hold us back in getting the Church truly incarnated in the land of India, or any other land to which members of these Churches would take the Good News. A quote from Jules Monchanin, who joined hands with Swami Abhishiktananda to found Saccidananda Ashram (Shantivanam), should infuse us with hope and courage in this regard: “… We may need centuries – and lives sacrificed – and we shall perhaps die, before having seen anything of it [i.e., to raise a Christian India in the Indian forms]. It is not a single man who can undertake such a task, but a group of men [and women] united by the same vocation. Christian India – absolutely Indian and absolutely Christian – can, and will be, something marvellous. It is not too much to prepare this from afar, even if it is by the gift of our lives.” Cited in Amalorpavadass, Gospel and Culture, 28. Come what may, we shall not let Jesus Christ and his Good News fail, nor shall we fail him in his ongoing mission of incarnation, continued through the pilgrim Church, and through the processes of interculturation and dialogue with different religions. It is these processes that would make the being of the Church in India truly Indian and truly Christian. Appendix Consilium ad Exsequendam Constitutionem De Sacra Liturgia Official Document of the Holy See Approving the 12 Points of Adaptation “The 12 Points of Adaptation” was approved by the Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in March 1969, which was subsequently approved by the Holy See on 25 April 1969. Vatican City, April 25, 1969 Prot. N. 802/69 To Most Rev. D. Simon Lourdusamy Archbishop’s House 18, Miller’s Road Bangalore 6, India Your Excellency, The Cardinal President of the “Consilium,” His Eminence Benno Cardinal Gut, has accepted the proposals of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India for certain adaptations in the liturgy, according to articles 37-40 of the Liturgical Constitution. In his name I would like to establish what follows: 01. The posture during Mass, both for the priests and the faithful, may be adapted to local usage, that is, sitting on the floor, standing and the like; footwear may be removed also. 02. Genuflections may be replaced by the profound bow with the anjali hasta. 03. A panchanga pranam by both priests and faithful can take place before the liturgy of the Word, as part of the Penitential rite, and at the conclusion of the Anaphora. 04. Kissing of objects may be adapted to local custom, that is, touching the object with one’s fingers or palm of one’s hand and bringing the hands to one’s eyes or forehead. 05. The kiss of peace could be given by the exchange of the anjali hasta and/or the placing of the hands of the giver between the hands of the recipient. 06. Incense could be made more use of in liturgical services. The receptacle could be the simple incense bowl with handle. 07. The vestments could be simplified. A single tunic-type chasuble with a stole (angavastra) could replace the traditional vestments of the Roman rite. Samples of this change are to be forwarded to the “Consilium.” 08. The corporal could be replaced by a tray (thali or thamboola thattu) of fitting material. 09. Oil lamps could be used instead of candles. 10. The preparatory rite of the Mass may include: (a) the presentation of gifts. (b) the welcome of the celebrant in an Indian way, e.g., with a single arati, washing of hands, etc. (c) the lighting of the lamp. (d) the greeting of peace among the faithful in sign of mutual reconciliation. 11. In the “Oratio Fidelium” some spontaneity may be permitted both with regard to its structure and the formulation of the intentions. The universal aspect of the Church, however should not be left in oblivion. 12. In the Offertory rite and at the conclusion of the Anaphora the Indian form of worship may be integrated, that is, double or triple “arati” of flowers, and/or incense, and/or light. The above mentioned adaptations can be put into effect by the Episcopal Conference and local hierarchies in places where they see fit and in the degree and measure that they think fitting for the faithful. A catechesis, however, should precede such changes, and if necessary, a gradual implementation could be done. The proposal to compose an Indian Anaphora in collaboration with experts in different fields is most welcome. When completed, copies should be sent to the “Consilium” for study. It might help if this were not publicised too much. With hope and prayers that these adaptations will help the people of India, so noted for their spiritual inclination, to deepen their lives in the Paschal Mystery, I am. Respectfully yours in Christ, (sd) A Bugnini, CM Secretary PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 30 It is part of an edited book titled Church on Pilgrimage: Trajectories of Intercultural Encounter, edited by Kuncheria Pathil (expected to be releasted in 2016)