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Bishop Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah (17 August 1874 – 1 January 1945)〔Melton, J. Gordon (2005). ''(Encyclopedia of Protestantism )''. New York: Facts on File, Inc., pp. 59-60.〕 (also transliterated as Vedanayakam Samuel Azariah) was the first Indian bishop in the churches of the Anglican Communion, serving as the first bishop of the diocese of Dornakal.〔(K. J. G. Sundaram (1931): A Deccan Village in India, Journal of Geography, 30:2, 49-57 )〕 A pioneer of Christian ecumenism in India, Azariah had a complex relationship with Mahatma Gandhi, who at least once called him postcolonial Indians' "Enemy Number One."〔Forrester, Duncan B. 2002. ''In the Shadow of the Mahatma: Bishop V.S. Azariah and the Travails of Christianity in British India'' (review). (Catholic Historical Review. 88 (4): 821-822 ).〕 ==Early and Family Life== Vedanayakam Samuel Azariah was born in 1874 in the village of Vellalanvilai, Thoothukudi District, Tamil Nadu, in the far south of India to Christian (Anglican) priest Thomas Vedanayagam, and his second wife Ellen. His ancestors were Saiva (a/k/a Shanar or Nadar), and traditionally orthodox Hindu and dedicated to the destructive god Shiva (hence the Tamil family name Vedanayakam possibly reflecting Shiva's 3-pronged spear or one of many names of his son Murugan).〔Billington at p. 16n.24〕 Thomas had converted to Christianity, in 1839 while at a Church Missionary Society school. He named his son Samuel after the Old Testament prophet, because of the 13 year gap after the couple had a daughter. Thomas died in 1889, but his devout mother raised Samuel, sending him at age 10 to be educated at Christian missionary boarding schools including the one at Megnanapuram run by his half-brother Ambrose, as she became the matron of the related girls' school. At the school in Tirunelveli (called Tinnevelly during British rule), Azariah helped found a society to overcome caste differences, not a popular position with his caste but which foreshadowed his career. Samuel Vedanayakam was then sent to the provincial capital, Chennai (then known as Madras), where the British principal of Madras Christian College gave him the name Azariah to distinguish him from other boys.〔http://bethechristian.blogspot.com/2011/09/introduction-significant-change-in.html〕 There, his classmates included K.T. Paul (1876-1931), with whom Azariah would later work. He also came into contact with American missionary Sherwood Eddy, who also became a lifelong friend. Azariah studied mathematics, like one of his elder brothers who also became a missionary, but never received a degree—he completed his coursework in 1893 but fell ill shortly before his final mathematics exam and later chose not to retake it. Later, Azariah would criticize those who flaunted their degrees without becoming B.A. (meaning Born Again). Instead, Azariah became an evangelist with the nondenominational Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) at age 19. By 1895, he led YMCA spiritual meetings and directed the opening of a new branch in Madras. In 1896 he met the evangelist John Mott who noted his enthusiasm favorably. In 1902 Azariah traveled to Jaffna in Sri Lanka to evangelize among the indigenous Tamils, which caused him to reevaluate the relatively prosperous Tinnevelly church's position concerning evangelization. The following year Azariah revitalized a long-dormant proposal and thus helped form the Indian Missionary Society (based in Tinnevelly), whereby fellow Tamil Christians could evangelize among their brethren. Azariah also served as secretary of the YMCA in south India from 1895 to 1909, and remained convinced of the importance of indigenization in the Christian mission. On Christmas Day, 1905, in Carey's library at Serampore in West Bengal, the interdenominational National Missionary Society was founded, with Azariah as its secretary and a mission to evangelize not only in India, but also in Afghanistan, Tibet, and Nepal. Other prominent individuals among the 17 founders included K.T.Paul, J.W.N. Hensman, Savarirayan Jesudasan and Ernest Forrester Paton.〔http://webalfee.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/the-national-missionary-society-of-india-part-1/〕 Furthermore, in 1907, Azariah attended the World Student Christian Federation Conference in Tokyo and the YMCA conference in Shanghai, and remained interested in evangelizing strategies for Japan and China, as well as India. He focused on a pan-Asian global vision and converting Asians, rather than nationalists' call to free Asia from Western domination. In 1898, Azariah married Ambu Mariammal Samuel, one of the first Christian women in South India to take a college course, whom he described as "the most spiritually minded girl in Tirunelveli." Their marriage broke or reinterpreted several native religious traditions, since the bride and groom corresponded with each other before marriage, disregarded dowry customs, set a mere 40 rupee budget for the ceremony, and married on a Wednesday.〔http://thoughtsofdeva.blogspot.com/2006/04/vs-azariah-father-of-indian-christians.html〕 The couple eventually had four sons (George, Henry, Edwin, and Ambrose) and two daughters (Grace and Mercy).〔Susan Billington Harper, In the Shadow of the Mahatma: Bishop V.S. Azariah and the Travails of Christianity in British India (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (2000), p. 3 and photo 12〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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