The Church of South India was established on 27 September 1947 as a union of the South India Provincial Synod of Methodist Church, the South India United Church (Congregational, Presbyterian and Reformed) and the southern dioceses of the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Sri Lanka (Anglican). The Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI) was one of the 24 dioceses of the new church. Sabapathy Kulendran was enthroned as the first Bishop of Jaffna on 10 October 1947. The Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India recognizes the participation of the people at all levels of Church government, but, as members of the Body of Christ and servants of the Servant Lord, we remind ourselves that power and authority should be considered a means of service.
We, the members of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India, affirm that this Church is a part of the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We believe that the Church of South India is a gift of God to the people of India and Sri Lanka, formed out of the union of four different Church traditions – Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational – towards the fulfilment of the Lord’s prayer, “That they all may be one.” As a united Church, the Church of South India is committed to the union of all who acknowledge the name of Christ.
The Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India is an autonomous Church, free from any control, legal or otherwise, of any Church or Society external to itself. It is our conviction that the destiny and character of our Church, the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India, are to be shaped by our obedience to the call of Jesus Christ as well as our determination to root the Church in the cultural and social realities of the Sri Lankan context. We are proud of the rich cultural and religious heritage of Sri Lanka and commit ourselves to share with our fellow citizens, through our life and work, God’s transforming act in Christ in a spirit of humility and openness.
The Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India is an autonomous Church, free from any control, legal or otherwise, of any Church or Society external to itself. It is our conviction that the destiny and character of our Church, the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India, are to be shaped by our obedience to the call of Jesus Christ as well as our determination to root the Church in the cultural and social realities of the Sri Lankan context. We are proud of the rich cultural and religious heritage of Sri Lanka and commit ourselves to share with our fellow citizens, through our life and work, God’s transforming act in Christ in a spirit of humility and openness.
The Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India recognizes the participation of the people at all levels of Church government, but, as members of the Body of Christ and servants of the Servant Lord, we remind ourselves that power and authority should be considered a means of service.
We prayerfully commit our lives to Christ, the giver of New Life and acknowledge the need to be continually renewed by the Holy Spirit so that we as a Church will be the sign and instrument of peace and reconciliation in the many conflicts around us. We stand before God in prayer, asking God’s Spirit to empower us and lead us in Christ’s way. We pledge to follow and uphold the Governing Principles of the Church of South India and the provisions of the Constitution for the glory of God, the good of the Church and the welfare of all people.
The name of the Diocese shall be the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (hereinafter referred to as J.D., C.S.I.) and the Diocesan Council of this Diocese shall be called the Jaffna Diocesan Council of the Church of South India (hereinafter referred to as the Diocesan Council).
Whereas the Jaffna Council of the South India United Church is a constituent part of the Church of South India which is an Episcopal Church, it is necessary that the work of the Jaffna Council of the South India United Church and that of the American Ceylon Mission be coordinated under a common Diocesan Council. The name of this Council shall be Jaffna Diocesan Council of the Church of South India.
Whereas following the arrival of the American Ceylon Mission in Jaffna on the 11th July in the year 1816 and the formation of the Ceylon Congregational Council in 1905, the Churches of the Madura and Jaffna Missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and those of the South India District Committee and the Travancore Mission of the London Missionary Society (LMS), in their organized capacity as “The United Churches of South India and Ceylon,” on the one part; and the Churches of the Arcot Mission of the Dutch Reformed Church and those of the United Free Church Mission of Madras in their organized capacity as “The South India Synod of the Presbyterian Church” on the other part; have determined for the glory of God to unite organically into one body. And whereas, in pursuance of this determination, the above two bodies have agreed upon a common basis of union which has been accepted by the Churches which they represented.
It was, therefore, resolved that the appointed representatives of the two Bodies as referred to above, having been assembled for the purpose of consummating the proposed Union, gratefully acknowledging God’s guidance in the past, and invoking His blessing upon all those who were present on 25th July 1908 constituted themselves the Provincial General Assembly of the South India United Church; and that they adopted as their own name of the Plan of the Union “The South India United Church (S.I.U.C.).” The S.I.U.C. was formed in the year 1910 and the Jaffna Congregational Council became the Jaffna Council of the S.I.U.C.
The Church of South India (C.S.I.) is the Church constituted by the union, in 1947 (27th September), of the Madras, Madura, Jaffna, Kannada, Telugu and Travancore Church Councils of the South India United Church; the South India Province of the Methodist Church, comprising the Madras, Trichinopoly, Hyderabad and Mysore districts, and the Dioceses of Madras, Dornakal, Tinnevelly and Travancore and Cochin in the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon, in which in 1950 merged the North Tamil Church Council of the South India United Church, in 1958 the Bombay Karnataka Council of the United Basel Mission Church in India, in 1968 the South Canara and Coorg District Council of the United Basel Mission Church in India, and in 1975 the Anglican Congregations in the Nandyal Diocesan area.
As a result of this historic union, The Jaffna Council of the South India United Church became the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (J.D., C.S.I.). Within a month, on 20th October 1947, the American Ceylon Mission handed over its work to the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India. This integration of the Mission with the Diocese has made the Diocese responsible for a wider and varied type of work.
The Jaffna Council of the South India United Church had inherited a Congregational tradition, though the ‘independency’ of the Local Church which is the governing principle of Congregationalism, had in later years come to be considerably modified. But the Church of South India is Episcopalian in character.
The Handbooks of the Jaffna Council of the S.I.U.C. and the J.D., C.S.I. were published in 1942 and 1959 respectively. The Constitution of the Jaffna Diocesan Council of the Church of South India together with the Institutional Appendix incorporating all amendments up to the end of the Diocesan Council of 1995 was published in 1995. Later in the year 2009, The Constitution of the Jaffna Diocesan Council of the Church of South India was amended incorporating all the obligatory clauses of the Revised Constitution of the Church of South India.
The present Constitution (November 2016 Edition) incorporates all the obligatory and mandatory clauses of the Revises Constitution of the Church of South India Synod as proposed and passed at the Special Session of the Church of South India Synod held on 8th April 2015 in Chennai, India and later ratified by the required number of Diocesan Councils. This also incorporates all Bye-Laws that came into effect from April 08, 2015.
Nothing in this Constitution shall be of any effect which is not in accordance with the Constitution of the Church of South India of which the agreement, the Synod of the Church of South India, shall be the sole judge.
The jurisdiction of the Diocesan Council shall be the work of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India as allotted to the Diocese by the American Ceylon Mission at the time of the official handing over of the Mission on 20th October 1947 soon after the birth of the Diocese on 27th September 1947 at the very first meeting of the Executive Committee of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India.
This does not preclude any adjustments that may at any time be made with respect to certain definite areas and portions subject to the approval of the synod of the church of south India.
The Office of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India shall be situated in the Cathedral Precincts, Vaddukoddai, and/or at such other place or places as the Diocesan Council or its Executive Committee may, from time to time decide.
