55
PART IV
Appendixes
Appendix I
The Growth of a
Christian
WSCF Conference at
Tambaram
By John Gault
The Australian
Student Christian Movement is a part of the World's Student Christian
Federation, which links together in fellowship and study students of many
countries and races. Last December the Federation conference was held at
Kottayam was hustle
and bustle, Tambaram was slow and easy; and I think the change in tempo bore
fruit. With the conference centered on worship and Bible study, the spare time
for thought, personal discussion, and group encounter after the addresses allowed
us to see the conference as a whole, rather than as a series of disconnected
studies and discussions.
The Bible study. The
ASCM General Secretary, Frank Engel, who was also the conference chaplain,
prepared the Growth of a Christian. It brought home to us again, as is very
necessary, our obligation to live as Christians. "The Christian is
sanctified; but he has still to live this status out". We faced, as we
must always face, the problem of the "good pagan", but being in an
Asian setting made us face further the man who relies on God in order to gain
spiritual strength and power, but not a Christian God who himself redeems and
sanctifies.
Our Bible study in
living the Christian life was continued in the addresses and the group
discussions afterwards. There could be no Pietistic compartmentalization of the
Bible study and the addresses. They were both seen as parts of a whole. They
took us through some our corporate concerns as members of the Federation:
Politics, University, Evangelism, Church and
From The Australian Intercollegian, March 1,
1953
56
who wishes to
become a politician, and Walter Fyfe, who believes that professional
politicians are a menace to society; or between the Indians who do not wish
Church organizations to be one which they could never support and the Americans
who truly sought to understand how they could give off their vast resources of
money, men and materials without becoming or being regarded as dollar
imperialists. We were able to hold our tensions within the fellowship of the
Federation. However, as we did so, we had to remember the absence of delegates
from
Two excursions were
most valuable breaks in the program. On the first, we went to the College's
Rural Service League project. They have adopted one of the nearby villages,
built a school there, which now has 200 children, and pay the full-time
teacher. There is a small dispensary, and people requiring a doctor have their
treatment paid for. With the help of WHO and Church World Service, they are
able to give the children a glass of milk and a huge bun for lunch each day. It
is most probably their only regular solid meal, and we were particularly amused
to see one little boy, dressed in his birthday suit, attacking with great vigor
a bun about half his own size.
For the second, we
went to the Government T.B. Sanatorium where we were able to see the World
University Service ward. We talked for some time with the students there and
found them extremely grateful for the opportunity of getting treatment and
later returning to their studies.
The most moving
experience of the whole conference was the service of Holy Communion on New
Year's Eve, celebrated according to the Liturgy of the Church of South India
by the Moderator, Bishop Michael Hollis. As the "Kiss of Peace" was
passed from one to another through the congregation and as we knelt to receive
the Body and Blood of our Lord in the first moments of the New Year, we knew in
an even deeper sense what it was to be one in Christ in that service, and yet to
have to bear with those who were not able to join with us the shame and scandal
of our separation. We remember again His prayer, "That they all may be
one... that the world may believe".