Church of Pakistan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Church of Pakistan or Church of Pakistan is a member church of the Anglican Fellowship and the largest Protestant church in Pakistan . Together with the Church of North India , Church of South India and Church of Bangladesh , it belongs to the family of the United and Uniting Churches. She is a member of both the Anglican Church Fellowship and the World Council of Methodist Churches .

Social activity

The vast majority of Christians in Pakistan are descendants of Dalits ("untouchables"), poorly educated and very poor. They work in rural areas as landless farmers or in brickworks, in cities as unskilled workers. Many of them are illiterate .

The Church of Pakistan endeavors to provide schooling and vocational training, particularly for young people of both sexes, to give them better prospects for their lives. It operates social institutions such as schools, vocational training centers, residential homes and hospitals.

history

As early as the 8th century, the first Christians of the Assyrian Church of the East came to today's area of ​​the state of Pakistan. Jesuits followed in 1594 . The first Methodists evangelized from 1873 in Karachi and other cities among the English-speaking population. Work began among Hindus around 1900. From 1902 to 1915, this increased the number of Methodists from 1,200 to 15,000. By the time the Church of Pakistan was founded, the number grew to 60,000. From 1964 to 1968 Hobart Baumann Amstutz was Bishop of the Methodist Church of Southeast Asia and promoted the unification of churches. The figures for the other founding churches are not available. Ecumenical cooperation has been characteristic of Pakistan's evangelical groups from the very beginning.

After 40 years of dialogue, the Church of Pakistan was founded on All Saints Day, November 1st, 1970. Four formerly independent churches merged: the Anglican Church (largest), the Methodist Church (second largest), the Presbyterian Church and the Lutheran Church. Initially, four dioceses were founded with episcopal and synodal organization. Because of problems with the growing together of the churches, another four were added. After 2001 another diocese was created.

The Church of Pakistan had the first deacon ordination of a woman on December 19, 2000.

Structure and numbers

The Church of Pakistan has 8 dioceses and "conferences" (similar to synods ):

John Samuel
Raffique Masih
Saddiq Daniel
Alexander John Malik (since 1980)
Leu Paul
Humphrey Sarfraz Peters
Samuel Azariah
Samuel Sant Masih Pervaiz

As a primate, it is headed by a moderator of the Church of Pakistan, i.e. no archbishop . The Church of Pakistan has about 3 million members ( Lit .: Greene p. 254).

See also

literature

  • Linda Greene: World Methodist Council. Handbook of Information 2002-2006. Biltmore Press, Asheville (NC) 2002

Web links