Bangalore, May 24, 2012: The challenges some mainstream Indian Churches face today come not from outside, but from within.

A senior Church leader wants the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) to remove from its membership Churches found indulging in corruption.

“I do not know how many Churches will be left in the NCCI if such a decision is adopted,” remarked Bishop Taranath Sagar, who moderated the recent NCCI assembly where the demand was made.

The Methodist prelate’s response spoke volumes of the current state of affairs in many Churches in India.

The challenges some mainstream Indian Churches face today come not from outside, but from within.

Misappropriation of funds and illegal and unauthorized sale and lease of church properties, without accountability, responsibility or transparency, plague them.

Churches are one of the richest land owners in India in terms of real estate running into billions of rupees.

These land and properties were bequeathed by foreign missionaries, who led a life of simplicity, devotion and commitment, to create and develop such assets for future generations and for their mission and charitable work.

But today, those assets seem to be being squandered by at least a few Church authorities for their personal and selfish financial interests.

A growing body of people in the Churches and outside is now convinced that some bishops, priests and officials strike deals with land sharks and mafia, causing huge loss to the churches and to the community.

Their excuse is that such sale is to raise money used for mission work. However, vested interests in the churches corner a large portion of the money as cuts, commissions and favors.

In this light, it is only with sadness and concern that one can read about the plan of the Latin Church in Kerala to lease out part of its prime property to a private builder for a resort and shopping mall.

Are the lay people in the Church doing anything about it? According to a media report of May 9, Church officials have come to an agreement with the builder who is a member of the Church.

If churches need to raise funds, the easiest way is to sell church land. After all, the land came to them easy and without any pain or suffering.

So, where is question of any qualms or pain coming in the way of the Church leadership when they decide to sell it? The missionaries who left the land for future generations would never have imagined that what they built and preserved will be misused to such an extent that it will be all gone completely.

Court cases against bishops and Church officials involved in land scams are increasing day by day. Many such scams have come under media attention, creating a negative impression about the churches in the general public.

There are allegedly corrupt bishops in the Church of South India (CSI) who are facing cases in courts for their involvement in alleged shady deals on church properties.

There are reports of a series of cases, two of them criminal investigations, against a CSI bishop in Kerala for his role in alienating prime church properties.

Such commercialization of lands belonging to the CSI has helped generate massive illegal profits for corrupt bishops and their supporters. The land mafia in cities allegedly plays a big role in Church elections by helping the corrupt to get into power and positions.

M G Devasahayam, convener of the Joint Christian Action Council formed last year to protect the Church properties, points out that a Church trust in Chennai that initially had 105 acres of land was left with only 12 acres by 1995.

The Church is a community of believers, a movement of people consisting of mostly middle and lower middle class. They do not question or challenge the Church authorities, especially bishops, lest they invite God’s wrath.

They are interested only in their personal welfare with least concern for justice issues and this helps the Church leaders to have their way.

Are rampant corruption and greed destroying the Church foundations and making it devoid of any Christian values and principles?

Some people now begin to view it that way. Small groups of concerned Christians are organizing themselves to highlight the problems and fight this malaise in different parts of the country. Such groups need to be encouraged and sustained to build an Indian Church free of corruption and scandals.

The Indian churches, both Catholic and Protestant, have thousands of millions of rupees worth of landed properties, which are not under the regulatory control of any law.

The Christians in the pew have no say in the management of these assets. It is high time they demanded a law to protect their properties and assets, and to administer them legally as done by the Muslim Wakf and Sikh Gurudwara Acts, enacted under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution.

Christians are the only major religious community in India that has no legislation to safeguard the assets that belong to the entire community.

Influential national Church bodies such as the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Indian and the NCCI must take the lead in convincing the country’s political leaders and the parliament to pass legislation to safeguard the interests of Christians in the country.

The Church properties and assets belong to a wider Christian community in the country and not to a handful of present-day selfish leaders and profiteers in the churches.

- ucanindia.in