CHAPTER III
AN ANALYSIS OF THE MISSION OF THE
MARA EVANGELICAL CHURCH MYANMAR AND THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH INDIA
1.
Introduction
Mission
has been integral to Christianity from the beginning. Stephen Neill rightly
says that, ‘mission, the extension of the church beyond its existing frontiers,
has been characteristic of the Christian fellowship from its earliest beginning’.[1]
But as mission faces new challenges in a changing situation, the understanding
and practice of Christian mission is changing. The older understanding of
mission has been very much challenged as Christians constantly face different
contexts of poverty, injustice, other religions and many other issues both
inside and outside the church. Therefore, this chapter will explore changes in
the understanding of mission over the years or paradigm shifts in the theology
of mission. The concern here is reformulating the theology of mission for the
Evangelical Church in Maraland, Myanmar and India so that the church may be
challenged and inspired to evaluate critically her traditional understanding of
mission, and accordingly, redefine mission in the context of Maraland. To
begin, let us briefly survey the history of the Mara Churches in Maraland.
2.
A
Brief History of MEC and ECM
As
already mentioned in the previous, the first Missionaries into Maraland were
the British couple, Rev. and Mrs. Reginald Arthur Lorrain in 1907. Herein,
Christianity was first preached among Maras by them. The first Mara Church was
founded in 1914 at Saikao (Serkawr) and the second Church at Saiha in 1933.
Both are geographically located in India now.
With
the independence of India in 1947 and Myanmar in 1948, the united Mara Church
was divided. As two different countries rules, the MIEC in Myanmar faced
certain problems and therefore, she was constituted as a separate Church.
The
years from (1907-1957) was about the birth of the church in the West Maraland
through the work of first missionaries. The church was administered directly
from LorrainVille called Saikao village where the missionaries settled. The
pastors and preachers were sent to East Maraland in Myanmar to preach the good
news to the Maras. Church administration was totally in the hand of the
Missionaries. This period ends with the
celebration of Gospel Golden Jubilee at Sabyhpi in 1957, the year that the
whole Maraland was baptized into Christianity.[2]
From
the years 1957-1967 A.D was known as decisive period for self-government of the
church in East Maraland. The Lakher Church changed her name from time to
time due to the demand of church administration. Up to1960, the Mara church was
commonly known as the “Lakher Church, or the Lakher Pioneer Mission Church”. As
the Lakher Church became a full-fledged self-supporting church, the
Lorrainville Presbytery Committee in March, 1960) had changed her name and
adopted ‘the Lakher Independent Evangelical Church’ (LIEC). The term Evangelical is used to signify her
calling to evangelize and professing her evangelical faith, and the word
“Independent” to express our commitment to become self-supporting, self-reliant
and indigenous church. In 1967, the term
Lakher
was changed into Mara as proposed by Mara church in Burma.
Thus General Assembly held at Satly (now Chakho) adopted ‘Mara Independent
Evangelical Church’ (MIEC) in March 1967.
In the year 1967, the East Maraland Church had her own Headquarters
Office at Sabaibgpi. Till 1971 the church did not have General Assembly, the
Presbytery committee was the highest body which acted both as a supreme court
and the legislature. How the names of MEC and ECM came to existence will
classify separately under their own headings in the following.
2.1.Mara
Evangelical Church
Though
the Mara people always want to be together as one society and one group, they
were divided by International boundary into two different countries as the
Myanmar Mara and the India Mara. Due to this, the united Church too was divided
with different headquarters, but the Church administration is the same as
before.
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