- Dr. David Lalpi, Noida
These are times that try our souls. News of MELC’s plan for Delhi expansion has agitated the alert minds of our Zou community here.
Back at home in Manipur, my family is an ardent adherent of the Lutheran church; and to that extent, I consider myself a member of this denomination. But living in a metropolitan city like Delhi, I think our secular and legal identity as “Zou tribe” has more relevance in everyday lives.
The Zou community rightly takes pride in our historic and enduring association with ZCF, the mother of all ethnic Zo Christians in Delhi. Till now, we are not forced to make a cruel choice between our loyalty to our common Christian identity and our conflicting sectarian allegiances like MELC, ZPCS or ZCBC.
Past experience affirmed that ZCF is a “Free Church” that has an intellectual legacy challenging us to expand our minds, to transcend our “narrow domestic walls,” and to explore more inclusive religious possibilities. This exposure allows for an expansive community bond that sustains our sojourns in Delhi, a strange land for many of us.
Against all odds, a slightly different version of Free Church has been held up by the Kuki Worship Service in certain cities of India. Unlike the predominantly Baptist Paites, the diverse nature of denominational affiliations among the Kukis and the Zous makes Free Church the best model available in our present condition. We don’t need sectarian zealots here. But we yearn for visionaries who appreciate social solidarity beyond one’s local church – a community of interest based on shared language, history and culture.
It will be a tragedy of history if we in Delhi fail to learn any lesson from the recent Shillong Split of ZWS, and the bitterness of spirit created by such sectarian divisions and social segregation. Are we tempted by short-term financial benefits in tithe harvesting, or sentimental feeling of victory in extending a sectarian empire, or temporary gains in membership statistics? If anyone glories in these, I despise such mean souls.
.::. All my articles can be view here: MELTED HEARTS .::.
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These are times that try our souls. News of MELC’s plan for Delhi expansion has agitated the alert minds of our Zou community here.
Back at home in Manipur, my family is an ardent adherent of the Lutheran church; and to that extent, I consider myself a member of this denomination. But living in a metropolitan city like Delhi, I think our secular and legal identity as “Zou tribe” has more relevance in everyday lives.
The Zou community rightly takes pride in our historic and enduring association with ZCF, the mother of all ethnic Zo Christians in Delhi. Till now, we are not forced to make a cruel choice between our loyalty to our common Christian identity and our conflicting sectarian allegiances like MELC, ZPCS or ZCBC.
Past experience affirmed that ZCF is a “Free Church” that has an intellectual legacy challenging us to expand our minds, to transcend our “narrow domestic walls,” and to explore more inclusive religious possibilities. This exposure allows for an expansive community bond that sustains our sojourns in Delhi, a strange land for many of us.
Against all odds, a slightly different version of Free Church has been held up by the Kuki Worship Service in certain cities of India. Unlike the predominantly Baptist Paites, the diverse nature of denominational affiliations among the Kukis and the Zous makes Free Church the best model available in our present condition. We don’t need sectarian zealots here. But we yearn for visionaries who appreciate social solidarity beyond one’s local church – a community of interest based on shared language, history and culture.
It will be a tragedy of history if we in Delhi fail to learn any lesson from the recent Shillong Split of ZWS, and the bitterness of spirit created by such sectarian divisions and social segregation. Are we tempted by short-term financial benefits in tithe harvesting, or sentimental feeling of victory in extending a sectarian empire, or temporary gains in membership statistics? If anyone glories in these, I despise such mean souls.
.::. All my articles can be view here: MELTED HEARTS .::.
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