User:Millennium Sunrise/Rev. C T E Rehnius - First CMS Missionary

Early Childhood:
Charles Theophilus Ewald Rhenius was born on 5th November 1790 to Otto Rhenius, an officer in the Prussian army. When Charles was 6 years old, his father died. Charles left school when he was 14 and went to work in his uncle’s office. After he had worked for 3 years another uncle called him to come and live with him. This uncle was a rich landowner. As he had no children, he planned to leave all his property to Charles.

God’s Call:
There were many missionary magazines in his uncle’s house. As he read these Charles felt God was calling him to go overseas as a missionary. Though his uncle was unhappy about his decision, he accepted it. But his aunt tried to get him to change his mind. Charles had to struggle in prayer to overcome the temptation. He was helped by the Bible verses: “I have the strength to face all conditions by the power of Christ gives me” (Phil. 4:13) and “whoever loves father and mother more than me is not fit to be my disciple,” (Matt. 10:37).

Charles went to Berlin to study theology at a missionary college. When he left home he did not dare to tell his family of his final plans. However, his mother was suspicious and said: “Charles only do not go overseas.” To this he replied: “Dear mother, what am I to do if the Lord should so order it?” After a year at the seminary Charles Rhenius was ordained as a Lutheran presbyter.

Rhenius with CMS:
Church Mission Society were looking for missionaries for Dr John’s Schools of the Danish Mission at Tharangambadi (a Danish settlement), India. Among those came forward, Rhenius and Schmarre were selected and gave orientation on Mission Skills for 18 months in England. In 1813, the British parliament passed a new Act. This Act allowed missionaries freedom to enter India, as the British East India Company was happy with the Bhraminical Hindu India. Both could get a berth on a ship only in February 1814. At the last minute his family tried to stop Rhenius going to India. His brother wrote: “Come home, mother is weeping for you.” His resolve to obey God rather than family was strengthened by a farewell meeting arranged by CMS. Over 2,000 people attended the meeting which lasted three hours.

Like St Paul, the new CMS missionaries has an exiting journey. Once a fire broke out in the ship. It was put out with some difficulty. When the ship was closer to the Maldives, the ship was about to wreck. They reached safely Madras, only to know the bad news that Dr John, under whose aegis, they had the plan to work as missionaries. They managed to stay for two weeks with the Chaplin of the East India Company in Madras. Then they went to Tharangambadi for learning the Tamil language.

Rhenius’ Missionary Work in Madras:
After five months of language training, Rhenius was asked to come to Madras, as CMS had decided to engage him in their own mission called Mission in Madras, instead of helping Danish Mission in Tharangambadi.

The Madras Governor gave permission to work in the Black Town of Madras. The rented house, where Rhenius was belonged to a Hindu. This facilitated to study the Hindu scriptures and he visited the Kanchipuram temple as well. Through these, Rhenius understood that originally the Hindus had believed in one supreme God. Over the centuries this belief had changed into the present state of belief in many gods. So, whenever he talked with people he tried to lead them back into belief in one God – God as revealed in Jesus Christ. He started a school in the Black Town, Madras. Later the Hindus in Kanchipuram too invited him to start a school, for which he extended his helping hand. After starting several schools in Madras, he extended his work to Palmaner and Vandavasi, where he was exposed to the religious doctrines of Jainism. During his travel the Caste Hindus will not allow him to enter their house. In his diary he wrote that in one village, he had a comfortable night in a cow shed!

In 1815, the Bible Society in Calcutta decided to revise Fabricious version of the Tamil Bible. Rhenius was asked to help with the revision. Assisted by a munshi he set to work with great zeal. On his travels Rhenius had talked with many Hindus. He found that very often they could not under stand the Bible translation of Fabricius. Further a conversation with a Brahmin showed what great care was needed in translating the idiomatic expressions. They were discussing Matthew #:&, “you snakes …. “. The Brahmin took the words literally; he thought the people had really turned into snakes! This made Rhenius realize that a revision of the Bible was not sufficient; a new translation was necessary. So, he started on what proved to be a lifelong job of completing only the New Testament. When he showed his translation to his Hindu friends, they had said that they could understand his translation. So he wrote down some principles of translation. Those were not accepted in his time; but they were very similar to the principles used by the Bible Society today. Rhenius was ahead of his time. On 5th November 1917, a group of Protestants, Roman Catholics and Hindus met in Madras and formed the Tamil Bible Association.

Before Bishop Caldwell could bring out the grammar book for Tamil language, to make the foreigner better the Tamil grammar, he had written a book: A Grammar of the Tamil Language: With Appendix.

Rhenius As Apostle of Tirunelveli:
In 1816, the Rev. J Hough was the chaplain to the English garrison in the Palayamkottai cantonment. He was interested in village ministry. Hence he wrote to CMS asking o a missionary. Already the differences of opinion had grown between him and the Madras Committee of CMS. Rhenius was at that point of resigning and going home. However, the CMS did not want to loose a gifted worker. They suggested that he could go to Palayamkottai. With much sorrow he left Madras and his beloved Jains.

First CMS Church & Seminary:
Rhenius set foot in Tirunelveli on 7th July 1820 and the first CMS congregation in Palayamkottai (current Holy Trinity Cathedral) came into existence on 10th March 1822 and adjutant (current venue of Cathedral Higher Secondary School) to the CMS Church, Murugankuruchi, Rhenius started the Palamcottah Preparandi Institution. In 1824 he purchased valuable property to the north of the High Road in Palayamkottai (current venue of the Bishop Sergeant Training School) from his Hindu friend and philanthropist, Vengu Mudaliar, for a confessional price of Rest. 750 and shifted the Preparandi School to the newly acquired campus.

Meeting Velu Muthu Mukandar- First Protestant Christian Convert of Meignanapuram Circle:
Operating from Palayamkottai, Rhenius touched a number of villages all over the district and planted small congregations. The Mukandar of Solaikudiyiruppu Village was Velu Muthu Nadar. After his success in leading few to Christ in Sathankulam in 1823, Rev. C T E Rhenius met Velu Muthu Mukandar and shared the love of Christ. The Mukandar (who had special gift of prophecy and wisdom), who was in search of the right spiritual path, was getting an insight that his search could end by starting a journey with Christ. Hence he took baptism with a new name - Vedha Muthu, which made him to be the First Protestant Christian in the Meignanapuram Circle.

Villages of Refuge:
To protect the Christians from religious persecution, Rhenius had started several Christian Satellite Villages, which include: Neduvilai / Meignanapuram (1825), Idayankulam (1827), Asirvathapuram (1828), Nallur (1832), Surandai (1833).

He colonized in 1827 the Christians of Puliakurichi in a village he purchased out of money donated by a devout Prussian gentleman, Count Dohna of Scholodin, and named it after him as Dohnavur, which later became the place for Ami Carmichael to start the Dohnavur Fellowship to protect the women rescued from forced / temple prostitution.

Regretful Days:
The conflict of interest between the Anglican Diocese of Calcutta and Rhenius, whose background is Lutheran, soared high when six catechist of Rhenius choice refused to get ordained at Madras by the Anglican Bishop Tuner of Calcutta Diocese in 1830. Hence CMS regretfully terminated the services of Rhenius. He handed over all his belongings to Rev. John Tucker and along with his German colleagues left for Thoothukudi, from there hired a boat and sailed to Madras and traveled to Arcot, where Rhenius was planning to start his own mission.

Several catechists from Tirunelvelli begged him to return. They offered to send palanquins to carry him back. This was enough to make him change his mind. Soon he was on his way to Palayamkottai to set up a mission there. The supporters of Rev. C T E Rhenius stopped going to CMS Church and started a Prayer Hall for their worship at Aadaikalapuram, Palayamkottai. Similar things happened in all the places, where ever Rev. C T E Rhenius had planted churches, so was in Solaikudiyiruppu. Efforts to reconcile them failed.

Last Act of Service:
His health began to fail under the tension and strain caused by the division in the churches. Rhenius wanted every one to have a copy in the language they could understand. On 5th June, 1838, he signed notes to be sent to people in Palayamkottai. In these notes, he asked for subscriptions to the Madras Auxiliary of the Bible Society. Such was his concern for the Bible Society. On the same evening at 7:30 pm the Apostle to Tirunelveli quietly entered into the presence of his Lord and Master at the age of 48

By intense and systematic work Rhenius had set up as many as 371 congregations in Tirunelveli all within 15 years, which made Dr. Wolf, the great Jewish missionary – who came and stayed with Rhenius for a week during September 1833 – regard him as the greatest missionary who had appeared since St. Paul. His grave in Adaikalapuram, Palayamkottai just a few yards off the national highway, is being treasured as the resting place of the most restless of the missionaries who ever came to India.

References:
1. Venture of Faith – A brief historical background of the Church of South India, By Beth Walpole 1993, Published by Church of South India at Christian Literature Society Press, Madras – 600 007

2. Christian History & Biography Issue 87, Summer 2005,Vol. XXIV,321How indigenous Christian movements radically transformed entire communities. By Robert Eric Frykenberg

3. A history of Christianity in India, 1707-1858, By Bishop Stephen Neill, Edition: illustrated Published by Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 0521893321, 9780521893329, 600 pages