By Matters India Reporter

Madurai, September 6, 2020: The first bishop to ordain women as ministers in the Church of South India (CSI) passed away September 5 in Madurai.

Retired Bishop David Gnaniah Pothirajulu of Madurai-Ramnad, was the former CSI deputy moderator. He was 84.

He is survived by his wife and three children (James, Joshua and Jebamalar).

His funeral was scheduled at 3 pm on September 6 at Mahaboob Palayam CSI Cemetery, Madurai.

The Madurai-Ramnad in Tamil Nadu is one of the CSI 24 dioceses. The Protestant Church, which was formed in 1947, now has 4 million followers.

Bishop Pothirajalu was born in 1936. He was the only son of his parents.

After his initial years as a village pastor, he served as a professor in the Pastoral Care and Counselling Department at the Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary from its inception in 1969. He did his doctorate in counseling at Boston University, USA.

In 1979, he was elected and ordained as the third and youngest bishop of the CSI’s Madurai-Ramnad diocese.

He served as the CSI deputy moderator from 1988 to 1990.

After retirement, he started a global mission imitative and started rehabilitation programs for refugees from Myanmar, which remained his unwavering passion until his end.

Throughout his life, he kept his eyes focused on a mission of justice, working for marginalized people.

Advancing the role of women in the Church and society was his pledge, he ordained women as ministers in his Church.

Enhancing the involvement of the laity in the church, he spread ecumenical thought and actions.

He believed that the calling to be a bishop is for life and till his death practiced what he called the prophetic Diakonia or self-emptying.

“Bishop Pothirajalu was an honest, humble, down to earth, grassroots and a bear-foot missionary,” Christopher Rajkumar, a colleague and ministerial companion, told Matters India.

Rajkumar, former executive secretary of Ecumenism, Mission and Diaconia of the National Council of Churches in India, also said the bishop was “a great human, powerful theological visionary, committed servant of God and a tall church leader.”

Bishop Pothirajulu believed that the Church’s mission “is to be evangelization.’ All people of God are Evangelists and theChurch without evangelical vision is nothing but a club of elites who say that they are Christians, Rajkumar recalled the bishop as saying.

He was the first bishop, who after retirement, started training lay leaders at the CSI Synodical level.

He was a writer, preacher and pastor.

“A month ago, I had visited him, had a long conversation and planned a few Madurai based activities. Unfortunately, we all lost a father figure, a mentor and a good friend. Rest in peace,” said Rajkumar.

According to Mathews George Chunakara, secretary general at Christian Conference of Asia, Bishop Pothirajalu was instrumental in motivating many young people to be involved in mission and evangelism as well as preparing their ecumenical formation.

“Bishop encouraged many young teachers from the Ladydoak College in Madurai to be involved in the Asian ecumenical movement. May his memory be eternal,” Chunakara added.