Christian missions in the Telugu country - Uecf.net

THE S.P.G. MISSION : MODERN
PERIOD 121
It is possible that the very inadequacy of the staff Indian
of clergy in one way reaUy helped the Church to find '^^^•
its truest lines of development. In India the Church has
been slow to recognise the claim of its members to have
a native ministry. In the Telugu Mission the utter
impossibility of supplying the spiritual needs of thou-
sands of scattered Christians by means of three or
four European clergy forced attention to the material
for an Indian ministry. The first to receive ordination
were Tamils by birth. The Rev. Joseph Desigachari
was originally a Tamil-speaking Brahman. The Rev.
John Appavu, however, though of Tamil origin, had
served the Telugu Mission from his boyhood. Both
these men having worked for some time as catechists
of the superior order in the Kalasapad district, the
former was ordained deacon in 1885 and the latter in
1890. Mr. Desigachari was transferred to another part
of the country after ten years' service. But Mr. Appavu
has continued to work in the Mission up to the present
time. He represents an entirely admirable type of
clergy of which it would be weU if India found a vastly
greater supply. Without any claim to be called learned,
his work has been characterised not only by enthusiasm
but by practical sagacity. He has lived in a simple
Indian fashion ; his house at Kalasapad has been the
first resort of aU Christians coming to that station for help
or advice, and he has won the respect of the heathen
residents of the village and neighbourhood in a marked
degree.
Though a start was made with TamU-speaking men,
jthe object aimed at was the raising up of a ministry