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Worship

Click on the small photographs below for a larger version which can be printed, or used with an interactive white board.

The Church of South India is a united church: in 1947, shortly after India achieved independence, the majority of the churches of the south of India united as one church (this did not include the Roman Catholics and some Pentecostal churches or the ancient Mar Thoma Church).  Before this date there were a number of different missions working in the area now in the Diocese of Vellore – in particular the American Arcot Mission, but also missions from Britain and Germany.  The church buildings and the forms of worship services often reflect these different national origins, although the Church of South India has, of course, developed its own particular style and practices. The CSI Synod Liturgical Committee has developed several new orders for worship for different occasions. These include three different cycles for lectionaries for daily Bible readings and "propers" and collects for Communion services. The different orders of service can be found in the "Book of Common Worship".

Apart from those pastors who have very large town churches, every minister has more than one church to look after.  Some have a town church and just three or four villages, some have as many as twelve village churches to look after, with long distances in-between.  Every pastor has a team of lay people to support him – the most important of these are the catechists who have trained to lead church services (but not to take Holy Communion services).  There are not enough pastors to visit every village church every Sunday.  Most villagers will see their pastor only once a month for a Holy Communion service, and on other Sundays a catechist will lead a praise service.  Town churches will have at least one service every Sunday.

Unless you worship at St John’s Church in Vellore, which uses English, you will find that services are held in Tamil, which is the language of the state of Tamil Nadu.  In the north of the Diocese, in the state of Andrah Pradesh, the main language is Telagu.  Some of the churches in Andrah Pradesh, such as Palamaneer (see photograph) have separate services in Tamil and Telagu each week.  As many Christians will be using English when they work ( in hospitals, schools, banks etc), English is also used in the services -  for example some English hymns and worship songs are very popular.

When you ask a pastor in Vellore Diocese how many people there are in his congregation he or she will normally tell you how many families there are, not how many individuals.  Sunday church services are usually very well attended in the towns with over two hundred families present.  In the villages the congregations are smaller so there may be only thirty or forty families – but this will still be over a hundred people.

Indian Christians enjoy singing, and every church, however small, will have a group of musicians and a few expert singers, or even a large choir, to help lead the worship.  Often worshippers will come to church early just to sing worship songs together before the service starts.  Many of the town churches have their own loudspeaker systems for the musicians and for the service leaders.  The loudspeakers are especially important, because some churches are so full that the service has to be broadcast to those sitting outside the building – the worship leaders also need to be heard above the sound of the ceiling fans!   Hindu temples also have loudspeaker systems to broadcast worship to passers-by. 

A typical service includes: prayers, Bible readings, a sermon, singing, the Lord’s Prayer (said by the entire congregation together) and notices about the different activities that will be going on in the pastorate during the week.  One special feature of the services is that the collection bags for money offerings will be passed round the congregation twice – the first collection is for the work of the local church and the second collection for the work of the diocese (you can read about diocesan projects in the “Self and Community” and "Natural World" sections of these pages).   In the villages people may bring offerings for the church “in kind” , for example, rice or even live chickens!

If the service is a Holy Communion, the pastor will normally use a chalice for the prayer of consecration and the leaders of the church (e.g. the catechist, the Treasurer and the Church Secretary who will be sitting up near the altar) receive communion from this.  The rest of the congregation come and kneel at the altar rail where they have individual small cups of wine – often there is only a limited number of small cups available, and a team of people will be washing and filling the cups behind the altar while the distribution is in progress.  In other churches you might find that the reverse is true – that special visitors may be offered their own individual cups and the congregation share the chalice.

Children are always present in large numbers with their families at Christian services, but larger churches usually have a Sunday School meeting nearby, so that the children can follow their individual programmes.  In the town churches there may be as many as three hundred children in the Sunday School.  They learn choruses in Tamil and English, hear Bible stories and learn memory verses from the Bible, sometimes they will prepare plays to act out for the adults in the main service.

Dance is also a very popular form of entertainment in India, and dances will often be devised to accompany the singing of Christian hymns. The dances may be in the traditional Indian style, or the modern "Bollywood". You will probably not see a dance in an ordinary Sunday service, but any special service, such as a church dedication, is sure to include something of this kind.

Town churches often have extra services or meetings for young people after the main service of the day, or in the evening.  “Young people”  usually means anyone aged between fourteen and thirty.

If there is a baptism it will take place in the main Sunday service.

	This church in Palamaneer holds separate services in Tamil and Telagu – you can see the same Bible quotation either side of the altar in the two different languages.
	Altar and communion rail in a small chapel in the Yelegeri Hills which was built to celebrate the new Millennium.
	A small group of young musicians leads the worship in the village church of Vandranthantal.  The church building itself is so small that the women and children sit inside for the service while most of the men have to sit outside - you can see one of the benches through the open door..
	The choir at St Paul's Church
	Children at Central Church Sunday School with their teachers.
	At Bagayam Church Pastor Samuel tests the children on their Bible memory verses.  This four years old boy has memorised a whole chapter of the Bible.
	Visitors from Cambridgeshire with the pastorate team from Bagayam Church.
	Dancing to Christian worship songs