Christianity In India:
There were 30,000 Jews in India at the time of Independence. Though many have left, in a number of cities, there are small Jewish communities still residing. The Jews of Kochi (Cochin), in Kerala are of special interest because a group claims that they have arrived here in 587 BC. The Jewish Synagogue at Mattancherry and the Jew street are among the major tourist attractions in Kerala.
Christians account as the 3rd largest community in India. There have been Christian communities in Kerala since the coming of Christianity to Europe (St. Thomas, the Apostle is supposed to have arrived here in 54 AD). The Portuguese, who unlike the English were as enthusiastic about spreading their brand of Christianity as making money from trade, left a large Christian community in Goa. Generally, however, if success is counted in number of converts, Christianity has not been greatly successful in India. The first round of Indian converts to Christianity were generally those from the ruling classes, and subsequently they were mainly from the lower castes. There are, however, two small states (Mizoram and Nagaland) where Christians form a majority of the population. A quarter of the population of Kerala and a third of Goa are also Christian. India has around 22 million Christians. Some say Christianity came to India with St. Bartholomeo, others insist it was St. James but it was St. Francis Xavier who spread Christian missionary activity in the country. He arrived in the 16th century and whose body still lies in a church in Goa. Their work in the fields of reform & education continues to be admired.
Indian Directory On Christianity:
This directory provides information about the history, culture, traditions, institutions, organizations of Christianity in India. It also provides information on the churches in north India and south India.
History/ Origin of Christianity :
More than 2000 years ago, a Messiah was born to the Virgin Mary on 25th of December, the Christmas eve, and brought hope to the poor shepherds for redemption and salvation from the suffering and the promise of eternal peace. Named as Jesus Christ, the Holy Son preached about a new faith about God and his infinite blessings. The traditional rabbinical bigots who were waiting for the distant Messiah to come felt threatened by the growing influence of Jesus over the Romans that evoked much more respect that the heartless imperial orders and felt their tyrannical throne shaking underneath them. Thus, they intrigued and equated Christ's spiritual messages with political rebellion. His talk about the Kingdom of God coming soon made them ill at ease as they felt their grip loosening over their own Palestinian empire.
The threatening and the dangers could hardly stop the pure-hearted Jesus who had taken birth only to fulfill his fate as the messenger of God. He kept up with his work of relieving the distressed and helping the poor, performing miracles that he attributed solely to his faith until the day, one of his own followers gave him away on the fateful evening of the Last Supper, where Jesus distributed wine as his blood and bread as his flesh to his many followers on Holy Thursday. He was crucified the very next day, now known as Good Friday, where he bled to death as a penance for all the sins of the mankind. He resurrected on the Easter Sunday, is perhaps the most joyous occasion in the list of religious celebrations of Christianity.
The teachings of Jesus gave birth to Christianity that started off from the Roman province of Palestine and spread to the rest of Europe and finally to the entire world. With time, Christianity has divided into three major branches - the Roman Catholics who trace their spiritual history to the early disciples of Jesus, Eastern Orthodox Church that was formed in the 4th century due to the political reasons, though, the two churches became officially separate in 1054 and the Protestants that split up from Roman Catholicism during the Reformation because of the differences and reformations that were introduced in the sixteenth and seventeenth century series in the doctrines and practices of the Church.
Symbols of Christinaity:
Unable to profess their faith openly during Pagan times when Christianity was still not so popular, Christians made use of symbols to express their faith such as the Good Shepherd, the Orante, the monogram of Christ and the fish. The Good Shepherd with a lamb around his shoulders represents Christ and the soul He has saved, the Orante is the praying figure with open arms symbolizing the soul that dwells in divine peace, the monogram of Christ is formed by interlacing the first two letters of the Greek word 'Christòs' meaning Christ and the fish, which is a widespread symbol of Christ. Sometimes one can also see other symbols such as the dove holding an olive branch representing the soul that attained divine peace, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet so as to represent that Christ is the beginning and the end of all things, the anchor as the symbol of salvation and the phoenix, the mythical Arabian bird as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ, being widely used to represent Christian faith.
