Chennai
City on the south-east coast of India, formerly called Madras. The Church of South India was inaugurated in its St George’s Cathedral on 27 September 1947.
The services that inaugurated the Church of South India were held in St George’s Cathedral, Madras, on 27 September 1947, with a congregation of about three thousand in the cathedral and in a temporary structure in its grounds (A Church Is Born, Inaugurating the Church). Madras gave its name to one of the four Anglican dioceses, one of the church councils of the South India United Church and one of the Methodist districts that entered the union (Church of South India, Order of Service for the Inauguration (1947), Declaration of Union). See the Church of South India Unites Four Traditions.
What happened here
- 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.
Primary sources
A Church Is Born: film and commentary on the inauguration of the Church of South India
- A Church Is Born, Inaugurating the Churchexhibitions.library.columbia.edu