Lesslie Newbigin
Church of Scotland missionary in South India who was consecrated one of the first bishops of the united Church of South India in 1947, as bishop in Madura and Ramnad, and defended the union in The Reunion of the Church.
Newbigin describes himself on the title page of his book of 1948 as bishop in Madura and Ramnad in the Church of South India and formerly a missionary of the Church of Scotland at Conjeeveram (Newbigin, The Reunion of the Church, title page). He was one of the nine bishops consecrated at the inauguration of the united church (Church of South India, Order of Service for the Inauguration (1947), Form of Consecrating the First New Bishops, presentation). He wrote The Reunion of the Church in the last months of a furlough and dated its foreword from Madura in November 1947 (Newbigin, The Reunion of the Church, Foreword, pp. 7–8). See the Church of South India Unites Four Traditions.
In the timeline
- 27 September 1947, firm dateThe Church of South India Unites Four Traditions
Anglican dioceses, the Methodist Church and the South India United Church, itself a union of Presbyterians and Congregationalists, become one church with bishops in a service at Madras. Anglican bishops elsewhere are divided about its ministry.