Chapter Twelve, Section I
Following that ecstatic mountaintop experience with the Christian Food and Relief Agency (CFRA), in achieving a real victory, Ruth and I were to go with the Lord down into the valley. And there were times when we thought we were going alone, without Him, into the uttermost depths of despondency, disillusionment, depression and doubt. This section and those to follow give an account of that journey, deeper and deeper until, through a series of Miracles, the Lord brought us up out of the pit and restored our faith in Himself and in humankind. Many lessons were learned on that journey which we would like to share with you so that, if, perchance, you should ever happen to walk that painful path, you may learn from my mistakes.
In mid-1968, the British Gospel Mission's Home Board decided it was time we had another furlough. Unlike the two previous yearlong, round-the-world trips, we wanted this one to be brief and only to Britain. Our plan was to be out of India for a short ninety days, during which time Bruce would remain at Mussoorie Boarding School, to complete his high school education without interruption. At the same time, Paul, who had gained a US university scholarship would leave for Florida. He and his friend, Ted Halliday, had planned to travel east, via Australia, New Zealand, a number of other Pacific Islands and the US West Coast. Before leaving for the UK, we had to see our sons just once more, which is why this trip began in Mussoorie.
It has been said that it is easier to get into India than to get out; once more, we were to prove that fact. Before going to Mussoorie, I had to make a three hundred mile round trip to Ranitola, by Jeep, for Income Tax Clearances and a two hundred mile round- trip to Aranchalganj, in the opposite direction, for Passport Endorsements and all this, in a temperature of up to 118 deg. F.. Both those trips proved futile. The Income-Tax authorities said our file was "missing" and the passport people said I would have to get the passports endorsed in Bhopal, a fact that surprised me because normally, exit-re-entry permits were issued at a district level.
I was informed that our applications, with passports, would be sent to Bhopal. Perhaps, if I had given a bribe, the formalities would have been completed without all this fuss. The only way out of the dilemma was to go to Mussoorie, another three days' journey, of over eight hundred miles and from there, try again. Allowing two weeks for the "missing" file to be found, I returned to Ranitola, this time from the Himalayas, an exhausting sixteen hundred miles' round"" trip by rail, which proved to be fruitful.
So much time already had been lost, that I decided to take an over- night train to Delhi and, from there, fly to Bhopal. On arrival at the M.P. provincial capital, I found all the government departments closed, with only a skeleton staff of gazetted officers on duty for security reasons. All the petty officials, clerks and menial staff were out on strike. While I stood in a daze outside the Secretariat, with all hope of getting away now dashed to pieces, a high ranking friendly official approached me and offered to help. He was one with whom I had served on the now defunct Emergency Drought Relief Committee, during the famine period. After poring over the mountains of papers on several desks, he finally said to me, "I'm so sorry not to be of more assistance to you, Mr. Skillicorn, but you'll just have to go to Aranchalganj, if you are to get your passports endorsed. "
Even the very thought of that rail journey was a nightmare. With no possibility, at that late stage, of securing a seat or berth on the train, I somehow had to fight and worm my way into a Third- Class coach, so overcrowded that many passengers were clinging to the sides and sitting on the roof. Packed in like fish in a tin, standing in unbearable heat and with no way of being able to get to the smelly toilets, or to leave the train for food and water, it was like hell on wheels. Even the most basic of refreshments were only available from the platform vendors who passed their exposed, fly-covered, unhygienic wares through the coach windows. I believe that it was during this unexpected rail travel, having to drink unboiled water and eat contaminated food for the first time, knowingly, in eighteen years, that I contracted hepatitis.
Heat, travel-tiredness and the exhaustion brought on by the famine relief program, now behind us, had lowered my resistance and exacerbated my health problem. But the trouble was well worth it; I did manage to get our passports endorsed and the joy of this gave me the strength to endure a further two days of hell to get back to Bhopal by train and from there to Delhi by a more comfortable mode of transport - an Indian Airlines Fokker "Friendship." But there was still one more over-night Third-Class rail trip from Delhi to Dehra Dun, before I was back again with Ruth and the boys, looking and feeling like a wrung-out dishcloth.
Ruth's condition was no better. Before we finally flew out of India, I had covered over three thousand miles of internal travel in the middle of summer, to complete formalities permitting us to leave India and return within three months. It should be no surprise when I say that both of us slept nearly all the way to London where our eldest son, Robert and his English wife, Sue, met us at Heathrow Airport. Never before, had we been so happy to set foot in another country.
How we needed this break! Furlough had become a necessity because we were both completely washed out. But we were certain that, here in Britain, we would find the love and sympathy we so much needed to pull us through. That first day in London, with Robert and Sue should have been a most wonderful and joyous experience, but, unknown to me, at the time, infection was taking over and was to manifest itself in our inability to move about on public transport.
Ruth, in particular, was seriously ill and had been even before leaving India. While I was getting our passport endorsements, she had collapsed when the children were at school and had remained, unconscious, in the house for four hours. For this reason, as soon as possible after reaching London, we made appointments to have medical checks at the East End Mildmay Mission Hospital. Knowing we had come from the tropics, they went over us with a fine toothcomb, as it were. While under examination, Ruth was found to have a serious lump in her breast, which they thought might be malignant.
With both of us in very poor physical shape, there seemed to be no way we could carry out the extensive itinerary that the Home Board had arranged for us in England, Scotland, Wales and. Northern Ireland.
How we would have managed without Mary, I do not
know. She had been requested by the Ilford
Furlough, however, was meant to be more than just refreshment for us; also, it was a means of informing the churches of the work they had so faithfully supported. To meet these churches we needed to be mobile and that first meant medical treatment. We wrote to the Home Board, requesting leave for Ruth's urgently need breast surgery and my treatment for what later was diagnosed as hepatitis. After a week, we received their reply, by post, intimating that the coming Missionary Committee Meeting in Leicester must have priority and we were expected to attend.
We dreaded the thought of travelling to Leicester by train, even though British Rail offers absolute luxury, compared with its Indian counterpart. While in Britain, four years previously, a one Mr. Fred Carmitage, a kind Leicester businessman, said to me, "Keith, if ever you get into real difficulty and need a helping hand, don't hesitate to contact me. I, possibly, could be of assistance."
As we were now passing through a real crisis, we felt that the situation warranted a phone call to this gracious gentleman who replied that a vehicle would be available within a week. The following Friday, I somehow made it to Leicester where, in a lovely restaurant, Mr. Carmitage turned over to me the keys of an almost brand new "Riley".
Ruth and I were delighted, but our joys were short-lived. A member of the Home Board, who also happened to live in Leicester, had heard of our unilateral action in acquiring a car without the Board's approval and thus, perhaps, establishing a precedent for other missionaries on furlough.
This was in spite of the fact that, on the previous furlough in Britain, in 1964, out of my own money, which I had earned by working for my brother in Australia, I had bought a second-hand "Hillman Minx". I had planned to use this car on a seven thousand mile itinerary all over Britain, thus saving the Board a lot of travel expenses. Before returning to India, I presented it to the Board for the use of the Saunders family on their furlough. We learned later that two other missionary families from Thailand and Africa, also had benefited, during their furloughs
It was because the "Hillman" was no longer on the road that, in utter desperation, we turned to Mr. Carmitage for help. To us, this was not a violation of the Mission's rule that we should not solicit such help, because Mr. Carmitage had taken the initiative, years earlier, to get us out of any real difficulty.
As Ruth and I were approaching the chapel of the
Evinghurst Road
"Why, look Ruth, it's turning into the same street where we are going. Hey, it's stopping in front of the church!"
Imagine our surprise, as we parked behind another identical "Riley", to see emerge from its driver's seat, the same Board member who had censured us for securing a car without permission! He looked at our car, as we looked at his; eyebrows were raised, but not a word was spoken! The embarrassed member of the Board went into the church and returned to say that the Committee was not quite ready for us. We would be called when our matter came up on the agenda. The door was closed and we had to stand about in the cold street. Had we gone around the corner to wait in the parked car, we would not have seen when the church door was opened to call us to the meeting.
This bizarre behaviour was an omen that something was not quite right. Had we run foul of the Board, just because of the car we now possessed for three months to make their program more efficient, if not to make our travel schedule possible at all? We seemed to be in real trouble. After a cold, long hour's wait on tired feet, when we were finally ushered in before the Missionary Committee, it soon became clear that the issues in question were far more grave.
A whole volley of questions were fired at us. My first reaction was to be overwhelmed by a sense of pity for these people who were trying to operate a missionary society with insufficient funds to permit them to make occasional visits to see the fields for themselves. By this time, we had been with the British Gospel Mission for eighteen years and during all that time, not one of their Home Board members had ever been out to India to inspect our field!.
This was one of the main reasons for the misunderstanding that had evolved between ourselves and those whom we represented abroad. Funds were so scarce that the Mission functioned for most of the time on a heavy bank overdraft. There were times when we staff in India and our colleagues in Thailand and Nyassaland (now Malawi), received our salaries months in arrears. Not that we are complaining about that; we were not missionaries for pecuniary reasons.
The first fusillade hit us like a bomb-shell "Why are you 'out of relationships' with the Indian church, to the point where not a 'vestige' of relationship remains?!!"
We were completely stunned. Certainly, our Indian
friends knew nothing of these wild allegations, which were not fired at us as
allegations but rather as unequivocal charges. We had already been judged,
without any investigation. I had been elected as the Vice-President of the
Indian
Gradually it became clear why we were being censured.
It was because I could not endorse some of the Home Board's policies concerning
the proposed entry of our Palamghat-Surgapam churches into the emerging North
India United
The main bone of contention was the "Episcopal" concept of ministry.
Within the group of churches drawing up plans for
union through a "Negotiating Committee", was the Anglican
Unfortunately, for the Anglicans, who were deeply
entrenched in tradition, there was only one valid ministry - the "Historic
Episcopate". There was no compromise whatsoever and this forced a number
of churches, both national and foreign-based, to withdraw from the Negotiating
Committee. It was this word "valid" that upset our Indian Christians,
many of whom could not understand the "historical" concept of
Episcopacy, which, to them had no historical basis. Even if some validity could
be proved, which line should they follow - that leading back to Canterbury or
to Rome? The Greek and Russian Orthodox
Interestingly enough, we found that the vast majority of Anglicans do not hold these narrow theological concepts, reminiscent of the days when non-Anglicans were called "Non-Conformists".
The proposed plan called for all the churches to enter the union with their bishops or key leaders who, through a special reconciling service of "Unification of the Ministry", at the time of inauguration, would all come into that imaginary line of successive clerics who could be traced back to the Apostles themselves!
Several years earlier, in anticipation of the British Gospel Mission churches in Palamghat-Surguja entering the proposed union, the Home Board considered that one of us foreign missionaries be ordained as a bishop in Britain by "Annual Conference". The plan did not mature because, although in the early history of the British Gospel Mission (B.G.M.) in Britain, some churches had bishops, the use of this designation was dropped because of its present hierarchical connotation.
In those early days of the B.G.M. in Britain, they
rightly laid great emphasis on the fact that, in the early 1st. Century
They quote Clement of Rome who, in 95 AD, referred to
elders as bishops. Prior to the time of Ignatius, in 110 AD, there seems to be
no evidence to support the concept of "monarchical bishop", such as
we have in the Anglican and Roman Catholic
The idea of having a foreign missionary ordained as a bishop in Britain to lead the Indian churches, smacked of ecclesiastical colonialism. This was offensive to the Indian churches who, while desirous of continued fellowship and good relationship with foreign believers, wanted to manage their own affairs, according to their Indian culture. This is another illustration of just where some Mission Boards have been so insensitive to the cultures of other ethnic groups.
To me, the idea of Britain appointing a bishop for India, was like the Kremlin discussing who should be the Polish Prime Minister or the selection of Australia's Governor-General being decided in the haI1s of Buckingham Palace. Happily, the N.I.U.C. Negotiating Committee later decided that all bishops should be Indian nationals, chosen by their own congregations and I could go along with that.
The Home Board did, however, inform us that we
foreign missionaries would go into the N.I.U.C.. as "presbyters", but
did the Indians on the field want us as presbyters? Would they have the
opportunity to make such a decision so long as foreign financial support flowed
in to supplement their budget? It was a subtle attempt to hold on to the power
and I venture to say that, if you really want to see a well-organized Power
Structure, take a good look at the
Following the Negotiating Committee's decision that all churches planning to merge, would be ushered into the N.I.U.C. by the leaders of their choice, I was keen to know whom our Indian churches preferred for their bishop. In as impartial way as possible, without revealing the motive behind my inquiry, I asked a series of questions in conferences, conventions, youth groups, women’s and men’s groups and in private conversations.
"Who is the one in the churches to whom you prefer to go for counselling? Who is the one on whose shoulder you can cry? Who is the one before whom you can pour out your soul and receive comfort? Who will accept you and love you in spite of all your shortcomings? Who is the one with a "Shepherd" heart, the one most like Jesus?" Over ninety-five per cent of those I questioned said, "Bari Teacherji, She's the one."
They were referring to Miss Shantibe Dube, Principal
of our Daulatapur Girls School who, for several years, had been secretary and
at times Treasurer also, of our Palamghat-Surgapam
To me, this discrimination was utterly repugnant and I informed the Home Board accordingly. Had I not voiced my opinion with such strong convictions, probably I would not have found myself in such trouble but I had become so incensed by the sufferings and exploitation of women, that I was not about to condone such male chauvinistic prejudice creeping into the new Indian church.
Was I being disciplined for being born, perhaps before my time? After all, the early church condoned slavery and those who initiated a movement to abolish the evil practice, were oppose by the clerics of the day. I ask the question because, twelve years later, the now well established N.I.U.C. resolved that women might qualify for ordination!
Whether this makes them eligible for election for the
bishopric, remains to be seen. If it does not, discrimination will remain to
weaken the
It was because of Shantibe's outstanding Christian
integrity and her qualities as a leader, that she had been chosen to represent
our Indian
Wherever she went, she won her way to the hearts of the churches in Britain, Sweden and Australia, but because of her sex or gender, she was not recognized in the high office of ministry to which the Lord obviously had called her. In the community at large, she was held in such high esteem that the Education Department of the Govt. of Bihar, appointed her to oversee the Matriculation and Higher School Certificate (HSC) exams within the whole district of Palamghat, a ministry which is maintained, to this day, by her niece, Pamela, whom we now have as our Indian daughter.
The British Gospel Mission seemed to place too great an emphasis on the need for males to run their affairs. I well remember one Annual Conference, during a previous furlough, when one of the churches announced the closure of its activities and withdrawal from membership in the Association. When I inquired the reason for this church's termination of existence, I was informed that they did not have any males in the congregation, to lead the Communion Service and preach the sermons! This was in spite of the fact that the church had a very strong nucleus of devout women believers!
Tradition dies hard in Britain where there are still many churches where only males are allowed to take any leadership role, even though the real Spiritual Strength of the church may predominantly be among the sisters! On a previous furlough, Ruth had been invited to speak at one such conservative church which, to overcome its problem, decided to pronounce the benediction prior to hearing their guest speaker. In a mystical sort of way, this would have had the effect of "ushering God out of the meeting" and converting the church's place of worship into a "hall"!. When the time came to give the final blessing, the presiding brother, perhaps conscience-stricken, could not speak. Turning to Ruth, he said, "And now we shall look to Mrs. Skillicorn to bring us her message!"
Ruth not only had been the first overseas missionary to visit that group, also, she had been the first female to grace the assembly from the pulpit!. It was this narrow, prejudicial, theological background against which we had to work and which contributed to the cleavage that was developing between the Home Board and ourselves.
If there was any question of us being "out of
relationships", it had nothing to do with the Indian churches, but was
made to appear that way. I was charged with "denigrating" the Anglican
The kind bishop and I had much in common - concern for leprosy sufferers - which, years later, following his retirement from the N.I.U.C. ministry, led him into the position of Superintendent of the Leprosy hospital at Puruliganj. Was it not Voltaire who said, "I may not agree with what you believe, but I'll fight for your right to believe it". It was in this spirit of Voltaire, that I related to Anglican theology.
One other aspect of Episcopacy that I found difficult to accept was the excessive power and authority vested in one single individual - the bishop.
This really troubled me in view of our Surgapam area being so isolated during the monsoon period. On one occasion, prior to this furlough, I was driving Anglican Bishop Kerketta from Ranitola to Surgapam that he might see the field, which some day could come within the orbit of his pastoral care.
"How much further do we have to go, Mr. Skillicorn?" the bishop asked several times as the Jeep bumped and rattled its way into the Surgapam jungle.
"Not far now, bishop. Only another thirty miles to go," I replied.
After another hour, the same sort of question came again, "How much longer will it be, Mr. Skillicorn. "
"Only another hour, bishop, and we'll be in Nawapara."
Talking about the distance that separated us from Ranitola, the impossibility of communication in the monsoon season and the greater problem the aged bishop would have in reaching the far-flung boundaries of his parish in the "rains", when he might have to swim the unbridged Komela, Duffi, Kanahari, Cherroban and Khulaban Rivers, I asked him a vital question that contributed further to my undoing.
"Bishop Kerketta", I questioned, "in view of our remoteness, what do you think of having an assistant - a junior pastor? He could represent you in the monsoon season, during our isolation and take any needful, urgent action in times of emergency or crisis. His decision could be tentative, requiring ratification by you after the rains, when the Forest Dept. tracks are open, enabling you to visit from Ranitola, by Jeep?" The bishop made no objection, but replied that the Negotiating Committee would have to consider the matter.
"If this proposal meets with the Committee's
approval," I told the bishop, "then the right man to be your
assistant is Zackius Minz, our leading pastor in Surgapam." Bishop Kerketta
knew Zackius very well, having had a close relationship with him on the
Committee of the Bible Society. As it seemed quite clear that the bishop and
Zackius would be able to work together amicably, I made a firm proposal in the
next
The resolution was carried and I informed the Home Board. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, some other person, by telegram, also had conveyed the Council's decision to Britain, leaving out the word "assistant", making it appear that, as alleged, I was trying to set myself up as a sort of competitive bishop for, of all things, "power and authority" (their words)!.
This was, perhaps, the most serious charge made against me. All the talking in the world could not convince the Home Board that I was not waning to make myself a bishop, but rather, seeking a greater representation for our isolated churches in the person of an assistant for the bishop - a person whom he could trust.
But I found that the more I tried to defend myself, the more I became entangled. My heart went out to the thousands of Christians and others who, during the Inquisition, were tortured and martyred at the stake by the same sort of cruel, religious judges, many of them "bishops"! Out of this experience, I learned many things, not the least being meekness. Jesus never tried to defend Himself.
Although brought, as it were, like a lamb before her shearers, He opened not His mouth. This was my mistake - not in trying to get a helper for the aged bishop, but in seeking to justify my actions. The follower of Jesus Christ never seeks to push his or her point of view. Jesus never asserted Himself; He didn't have to.
LESSON NUMBER ONE :- "JUSTIFICATION IS ALWAYS GRANTED - NEVER USURPED."
Of course, I had learned all this, theoretically, in theological college, but in that Leicester Board Meeting, had failed to apply it practically. The inquisition continued with the matter of Kalemari Khamal being raised. I can understand their feeling upset because the first university graduate in East Surgapam, whom they had never met, but were preparing for leadership, had given up training for the ministry to become involved in what one Home Board member disparagingly had called "social work". What troubled me was that I was blamed for Kalemari's change of mind and worldly desires for those "more lucrative possibilities nearer home", as they put it, implying that I had lots of money that had enticed their key man to change his career.
Money! That was another matter about which we were hauled over the coals. Even though I told the Board time and again that, never on any occasion did we ask for money, they didn't seem to believe me. Ruth and I never were able to save any of our salaries, most of which went into our ministry, because of the Board's inadequate budget. There were those who sent us unsolicited donations and they included relatives, personal friends and our home church at Balmoral
I never did hear from any of these kind donors if they received an inquiry from the Board to ascertain the truth or otherwise of my testimony. To satisfy the Board, again we agreed to "accountability". I was asked to express any other objection I had to the proposed N.I.U.C. but felt that, as an expatriate, I could best serve the Indian churches by presenting some of their own grievances felt and expressed among the national leaders.
Quite a number of our Palamghat-Surgapam karmcharis, who had contacts in Ranitola, had reservations about accepting the Anglican practice of using alcoholic wine in the Communion. They were most perturbed when told by an Anglican English missionary in Ranitola, that his own church, on entering N.I.U.C., would never relinquish the use of alcoholic wine. There would be no compromise whatsoever. The N.I.U.C. would just HAVE to accept this practice! Incidentally, this English priest was not even a member of the Negotiating Committee! It seemed that the Anglicans wanted it all their way and this unilateral approach to "unity," greatly upset our own leaders.
As with the Aboriginal People of Australia, so also with the Adivasis of India, alcohol is a lethal drug with devastating effects. Quite a number of our local tribals had been alcoholics, addicted to "Daru" and "Haria" and there were many of our Palamghat- Surgapam Christians who had found release from this pernicious habit through the Strength they found in Jesus Christ. To make hard liquor "acceptable" in our society, through the Communion, would have a most deleterious effect, setting us back many years in terms of moral growth.
The money-lenders and landlords, through their "bhattis"(wine-shops) at Champapur and Bundi, had used the grog to successfully enslave many of our tribal people and I was not prepared to allow this insidious form of exploitation to creep back into our community through Communion wine which, after all, does not have to be fermented.
Maybe I was being too fastidious, but I knew I was speaking on behalf of so many of our tribal Christians and their leaders in particular, who, like some Australian Aboriginal people, feared the possible resurgence of alcoholism through the Anglican practice of Communion. What troubled the karmcharis most of all was that they would be required, as "pruoits" (priests) under the N.I.U.C., to consume all the liquor remaining in the chalice after the celebration. Many of them had chosen to become followers of our tradition rather than link up with the Roman Catholics, for the very reason that the latter used alcohol to attract tribal people to their cause.
Under the N.I.U.C., our people would have to change their concepts concerning "consecration". . We had taught them that whereas in the Old Testament, things such as vestments, the altar, instruments of sacrifice and holy places etc., were consecrated, along with the priests, in the New Testament, it is the People of God who are consecrated - all persons in fellowship. These are the "Holy Ones or Saints", the "Hagioi" - those set apart to serve (Romans 1 :7). However, in the N.I.U.C., under Anglican influence, "things" used in worship also would become "holy", including the Communion wine, none of which could be thrown away or kept for a later meeting, once it has been "consecrated".
The introduction of this practice was to cause irreparable damage in the church and its ministry, in particular. On a later visit Ruth made to India, in 1979, she found that several of our leaders had become firm drinkers, much to the detriment of their ministry.
It can be seen that furlough in Britain, was anything but a pleasant experience. I guess that we should have resigned then and there but our hearts were back in India and we had to return to the churches we loved - churches in whose way we would not stand if they finally decided, from whatever motive, to enter the N.I.U.C..
As those ninety days of hell came to an end, we wondered if "God" was just a figment of our imagination and whether "Real" Christianity has even been tried at all. When, so easily, we could have renounced our faith, the Lord wonderfully undertook to meet our desperate need, through a most gracious couple living in Poole. This cultured English gentleman and his lady were millionaires in retirement, living in a mansion that was beyond comprehension, when compared with our primitive home in India.
Some people would consider it paradoxical to say that a millionaire could be a Christian, but these friends, living by the sea, had gained their wealth, not through exploitation, but sound, honest, business acumen. After all, the Bible does not say that money is the root of all evil but rather that it is the LOVE OF MONEY, which leads us to moral corruption. Our kind hosts treasured material possessions only that they might be used to bring joy to others.
Those few days at Poole, living in absolute luxury, saved us from throwing in the sponge and quitting our missionary career altogether. Ruth eventually was able to undergo surgery, which revealed the breast lump to be non-malignant, and I found healing from hepatitis. The Board agreed that we should return to India on the condition that we be more amiable and conciliatory!