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Friends Missionary Prayer Band (FMPB) is a missionary movement of Indian Christians. It was created in 1959.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2023) |
Friends Missionary Prayer Band (FMPB) is a missionary movement of Indian Christians. It was created in 1959.
In 1937, the World Gospel Mission started the South India Bible Institute (now SIBS Ministries). The WGM later created the Vacation Bible School movement in India.
In 1952, in a small village called Kovilpatti in south Tamil Nadu, a VBS session was held with 75 children and 8 teachers. [1] [2] [3] This was the start of a large Christian work in this area. From 26-30 December 1959 at 211 Dhanaskodi Street, Kovilpatti of Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, 24 Vacation Bible School Friends gathered together.
Theodore Williams, Emil Jebasingh, John Christopher, JTK Daniel and Patrick Joshua also met for prayer at the nearby village of Pannaivilai in Tirunelveli. This developed into several larger prayer groups and a yearly Gideon Camps. This was a continuation of the 19th century work done in Pannaivilai by Amy Carmichael and Revd Isaaku Abhram, a local Indian clergyman. They started a Praying Movement which was later named Friends Missionary Prayer Band. At the time it was declared a praying group, not an organization, church or society. The movement's main emphasis in its early period was the evangelization of India. [3]
Bishop Leslie Newbigin of Madras Diocese became the second Patron of this movement. Following his advice, FMPB incorporated into its constitution the three historic creeds of the universal church to be added to the statement of faith of the Organization. [4] Revd Sam Kamalesan led the FMPB in new directions as its General Secretary.
In 1960 the group launched Araikooval, a prayer bulletin, which was published twice a year. Money raised from the magazine was sent to other missions and missionaries. [5]
During summer vacation in 1965 and 1966, the friends of FMPB conducted outreach in rural Tamil Nadu. One team went to Pettamugulalam in Panchamalai (Periyamalai), Hosur, about 100 km from Bangalore, and started a permanent mission. [6] Harris Hilton became the first missionary with the support of his wife Padma Hilton. [7] They were sponsored by the BHEL Thiruvarambur prayer group at Trichirapalli, Tamil Nadu.
The first mission station was started on June 9, 1967 at Periamalai. [8] Hilton, Dr. Pushparaj and General Secretary Emil Jebasingh arrived in Periamalai. [9] They bought a piece of land from Chendurayane Chetty and called the location Jehovah Jireh (meaning "God provides"). Esau and John Jacob joined Hilton that year. In 1968 the first office of FMPB was started in the house of Swamy Adiyal in Sayerpuram, where it was registered as a Society.
The movement's vision grew and the first mission field was opened in North India in 1971 with the eventual aim to reach the whole of India. Daisy Hilkiah and her husband were sent to Bhasti in Uttar Pradesh on 23 July 1971.
In 1972 a ten-year plan was formulated which included the following goals for 1982:
Trichirapalli prayer group leaders Hemachandran and Jacob organized the first sponsoring of the group, and financially supported the Hilton family. The first convert of the mission was a man named Raman. He and Allimuthu of Periamalai were baptized in 1979 at Bethel, Danishpet. Simon Roberts became the full-time promotional secretary. By this time the group's yearly income reached up to Rs. 10,000/-.
Operation Mobilization trained the missionaries in Literature evangelism. The group began open air preaching and distributing Christian literature, including tracts, Bibles, New Testaments, and Gospel portions.
From 1987-97 the group were part of the "People movement" (the decade of harvest among people groups).
From 1997-2000 the group partnered with other Christian agencies.
In 2004 the group integrated Kukna churches with the CNI Gujarat Diocese. In 2006 the Malto churches were integrated with ECI.
Through the work of Indian missionaries, over 1150 churches have been established, with over 6600 congregations. [10]
Christianity is India's third-largest religion with about 26 million adherents, making up 2.3 percent of the population as of the 2011 census. The written records of Saint Thomas Christians mention that Christianity was introduced to the Indian subcontinent by Thomas the Apostle, who sailed to the Malabar region in 52 AD.
The Indian Brethren are a Christian Evangelical premillennial religious movement. Although they have some distinct characteristics, they have a lot in common, in both doctrine and practice, with the international Open Brethren movement, with whom nearly all of them are historically affiliated.
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Thoothukudi District is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The district was formed by bifurcation of Tirunelveli district on 20 October 1986. Thoothukudi is the district headquarters and largest city of the district. The district is known for fishing as well as pearl cultivation, with an abundance of pearls being found in the seas offshore. Thoothukudi district has many historical sites such as Adichanallur and the ancient trade port of Korkai.
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The following outline is provided as an overview of, and topical guide to, India:
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Charles Theophilus Ewald Rhenius was a German born missionary of the Church Mission Society (CMS). He was the first CMS missionary to arrive at India. For his missionary work in the Tirunelveli district he came to be known as the "Apostle of Tirunelveli". He was involved in the attempt to revise the Fabricius version of the Tamil Bible and also published a Tamil grammar book. Rhenius’ split from the Anglican Church in 1830 and started his own congregation. Rhenius' work was recognized in 1980 by the Reverend Daniel Abraham, the then Church of South India (CSI) bishop of Tirunelveli diocese. Rhenius's work was given official recognition by the Anglican Communion during the Tirunelveli diocese bicentenary celebration in 1980, in which, all the bishops, including Anglican bishop Stephen Neill and all the presbyters took an oath in front of the tomb of Rev Rhenius to follow the path of the resting soul, regard to evangelism.
The CSI Tiruchirappalli Thanjavur Diocese is a diocese of Church of South India in Tamil Nadu state of India. The diocese is one among the 24 dioceses of Church of South India and was one of the first 14 dioceses to be formed at the inaugural of the Church of South India in 1947.
Christianity in the state of Tamil Nadu, India is the second largest religion in the state. According to tradition, St. Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, landed in Malabar Coast in AD 52. In the colonial age many Portuguese, Dutch, British and Italian Christians came to Tamil Nadu. Priests accompanied them not only to minister the colonisers but also to spread the Christian faith among the non-Christians in Tamil Nadu. Currently, Christians are a minority community comprising 6% of the total population. Christians are mainly concentrated in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu - Kanyakumari, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli.
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Bishop Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah was an Indian evangelist and the first Indian bishop in the churches of the Anglican Communion, serving as the first bishop of the diocese of Dornakal. A pioneer of Christian ecumenism in India, Azariah had a complex relationship with Mahatma Gandhi, who at least once called him postcolonial Indians' "Enemy Number One."
Arumai Nayakam Sattampillai (1823–1918), known popularly as Arumainayagam Sattampillai, Arumainayagam, Sattampillai or Suttampillai, a Tamilian convert of Anglican church, was a catechist and the founder of first indigenous and independent Hindu Church of Lord Jesus, rejecting Western missionaries domination for the first time in the history of Indian subcontinent. This subversion paved the way for the development of a fusion model of Hindu-Christian religion, free from European missionary interference and also inspired the Indian national movement, largely centred on Bengal and Madras Presidency to fight against Western-dominated institutionalized church leading to separation of Christ from Church and Indianization of Christianity: to express and interpret Christianity and Biblical text in Indian context, socially, culturally, and religiously.
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