A Spire in the Sand

Six points

1. The first Christians here were Indian. A woman called Clorinda was baptised in 1778. She built the first church in Palayamkottai. Tamil teachers taught the first villages.
2. A German man named the village. His name was Rhenius. By 1831 the old village of Neduvilai had a new name: Meignanapuram.
3. A man from Wales built it up. His name was John Thomas. He worked here from 1838 until he died in 1870.
4. The church took 42 years to finish. People began building in 1843. They used it from 1847. The spire was finished in 1868. The roof was finished in 1885.
5. Mary Thomas started a school for girls. She ran it for about sixty years. Then her daughter ran it.
6. They taught simple things, many times. The Lord’s Prayer. The Ten Commandments. The Creed. Jesus died for sinners. They did not promise people money or good health.

Before the missionaries

The land here is red sand. Not much grows. But palmyra palms grow well. Many people climbed the palms. They made palm sugar from the juice. Life was hard. There was often sickness and not enough rain.

Christian missionaries came to Tranquebar, on the coast of Tamil Nadu, in 1706. Later a missionary called Schwartz visited the south. In 1778 he baptised a widow at Palayamkottai. She took the name Clorinda. She built a small church there. For many years, Tamil teachers looked after the Christians. In 1797 whole families began to ask to learn about Jesus. They started Christian villages, like Mudalur and Nazareth.

Rhenius gives the village its name

Rhenius came from Prussia, a part of Germany. He came to Palamcottah in 1820. He walked from village to village. He preached. He wrote books in Tamil. He trained young men to be teachers. He opened schools. He bought land for Christian families who had trouble in their old villages. One of these villages was Neduvilai. It got a new name: Meignanapuram, “town of true wisdom.”

In 1835 Rhenius and the English mission society disagreed. They argued about how to make Tamil teachers into pastors, and about the English prayer book. They stopped working together. The Christians were divided for three years. Rhenius died in 1838. After that, the groups came together again.

John Thomas

John Thomas was born in Wales in 1807. He came to India on Christmas Day 1836. One year later he preached his first sermon in Tamil at Meignanapuram. He loved this place more than any other.

The village was in a sandy desert. Thomas dug wells. Soon there were gardens with fruit and flowers. He planned wide streets. He built schools.

He trained many Tamil teachers. Every month they came to see him. They prayed together. They practised preaching, and he helped them do better. They learned the Bible. Then they went back to their villages. By 1868 there were Christians in 125 villages. In 1869, twelve of his Tamil teachers became pastors.

John Thomas died on 28 March 1870. He is buried at the church. Twelve Tamil pastors and many people stood around his grave. A college and the village sports clubs carry his name today.

The church

Before the big church, the people met in a small room with a roof of palm leaves. In 1843 they laid the first stone of a new church. They wanted to thank God because the Christians were united again. That evening, two thousand people ate a big meal of rice and curry together.

The church opened in 1847. In 1868 the top stone of the spire was put in place. The Governor of Madras came to watch. A thousand children sang. Four thousand people shouted, “Glory be to God!” But the roof was still made of grass and leaves. In 1885 the people finished the roof. They carried sand to protect the floor. They gave palm trees to build the scaffolding. The church opened again on 22 January 1885. That was Mary Thomas’s birthday.

Mary Thomas and the girls’ school

Mary married John Thomas in 1838. She lived in Meignanapuram for about sixty years. She started a school for girls. At that time, very few women could read. Girls came from the villages to live and learn at her school. Many became teachers.

The school is called Elliott Tuxford. This is not a person’s name. Tuxford is a small town in England. Its pastor was Mr. Elliott. He and his people paid for the school building. They named it for his wife, who had died.

After Mary died, her daughter ran the school for almost fifty years.

The Tamil teachers

The Tamil teachers did most of the work. They taught in every village. They earned very little money. When people were sick with cholera, the teachers stayed and helped. Some of them died.

We know a few of their names. John Devasagayam became a pastor in 1830. Thomas was an old teacher who wrote poems about the Bible. Paul Daniel was a great preacher. He died after he visited a sick woman. In 1877, 162 men and 7 women stood up in the church. They promised to teach new Christians one day every week. Many women teachers are not named in the old books.

What they taught

New Christians learned the Lord’s Prayer first. Then the Ten Commandments. Then the Creed and a catechism. They learned by saying the words together, again and again. Most adults waited about two years before baptism.

Every morning and every evening they prayed together. On Sunday they used the prayer book in Tamil. At Holy Communion they heard: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” When people were sick, they prayed: make him well, “if it shall be thy good pleasure.” When people died, they were buried with hope in the resurrection.

What changed

• Prayer: people prayed together every day.
• School: girls and boys went to school. In 2011, almost all people in the village over age seven could read. For women, it was 93 out of 100.
• Water and work: wells, gardens, later a small hospital and sewing work. Today most workers in the village do not work on farms.
• Giving: poor families put small coins in clay pots. Once a year they broke the pots. The money paid their own Tamil pastors.

The big festival

Every January there is a big festival called the Asana Pandigai. Very many people come home to the village. Early in the morning there is Holy Communion. In the afternoon everyone shares a free meal of rice and curry. This meal is called the asanam. People from other faiths come too.

No old book tells us why the festival is in January. But we know some things. People ate a big meal together when the first stone was laid in 1843. The church opened in 1847. The finished church opened again on 22 January 1885, Mary Thomas’s birthday. And St. Paul’s day is 25 January.

Then and now

Today some preachers say different things. Some say that God will always heal you if your faith is strong. Some say that God will give you money if you give money to the church. Some say, “God told me this. Do not ask questions.” This page does not name any church or preacher.

The old teachers at Meignanapuram did not say these things. Their sermons were checked against the Bible. Even the leaders had to answer to others. You can compare what they taught with what you hear today.

Check it yourself

• Read The Tinnevelly Mission by George Pettitt (1851). It is free on archive.org.
• If you can, visit the church. Read the words on the stones. Ask old people for the names of the teachers they remember.