Abraham Mar Thoma - Evangelization

Evangelization

He infused new spirit and vigor into the evangelistic work of the Church. He traveled throughout India and was a known figure in all the missionary circles as a great evangelist.

He believed that every Marthomite is an evangelist, so evangelism is the responsibility of every member of the Church and not that of the clergy alone. He emphasized that every man and woman was called to be the witness of Jesus Christ, irrespective of his secular occupation. It was this conviction that led him to organize groups of people and give them specialized training in personal evangelism.

The women of the Church also were encouraged to take up their part in fulfilling the mission of the Church. He encouraged the formation of the Mar Thoma Suvisesha Sevika Sanghom, (in 1919) which is the women’s auxiliary of the Evangelistic work in the Church. He was behind the establishment of the Vanitha Mandiram in Tiruvalla, the training institute of the Sevika Sanghom.

The Voluntary Evangelistic Association was established in 1924, as a voluntary lay movement of the Church.

The call that he gave to young men and women was to go and live in the villages of India, in different language areas, resulted in the establishment of Ashrams all over India from the South up to the borders of Tibet. His help was sought by Christian friends all over India to lead evangelistic conventions. Such assignments took him from Kanyakumari (Cape Comerin) in the South, to Kashmir in the North. He was a friend of every missionary in India and all of them looked up to him for inspiration and guidance.

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