To err is divine. To help is human.

St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Bahubazzar, Church Road, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India.

A mile or so away from the railway station in the present-day city of Ranchi, as the concrete road narrows to accommodate a two-way traffic with a low stone divider in between, there comes a quiet neighbourhood of colonial-era buildings and a handsome brick-built church whose towering conical steeple can still be seen from afar.

The consecrated ground that holds the holy sanctuary surrounded by large trees and a park on one side mostly remains shrouded in silence unless a service is in progress or a celebration in passing.

Caretakers are ever-present, strolling the courtyard and manning the gates. But visitors are not barred from entering. To linger in the blessed tranquillity or if curious closely examine the colonial legacy that since its construction by a British military architect has remained unchanged for over a century.

A handsome structure reflecting Neo-Gothic architecture.

The modest building is not grand or elaborate to look at nor fills one with awe as does the cathedral of its patron saint in the city of Calcutta but does emit a strong sense of sturdiness and calm.

Its pointed arched doorways, windows and steeply slanting cottage type roofs reveal its architecture to be in line with the Neo-Gothic style once much used by British engineers stationed in India. Who build structures that reminded them of parishes in the picturesque countryside of their homes in England or Ireland, and upon completion required little maintenance or repair.

Stone plaques here and there mention the names of pastors and reverends, jubilees and inaugurations. A few steps away in the middle of a large circular flower garden, a three-mast galleon with sails unfurled float on a titled pedestal. Its hull painted black and portholes coloured red, white, blue, beige green and orange.

A small stone plate etched on top of the arched doorway right before the porch records the date of the church’s founding to be the year 1870.

Almost thirteen years after the Great Indian Uprising of 1857 had coursed through the yesteryear town of Ranchi and nearly engulfed the lives of its small European community with the same fate that befell their countrymen in the British cantonment city of Cawnpor (now present-day Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India).

Yet not one signboard or plaque outside speaks of the history of the church. Of the disturbing events that preceded its construction. Nor of the English residents for whom religion had meant more than a visit to the church on a Sunday.

Perhaps for the reason that the events happened long ago and hold little significance in the grand scheme of things today, or because the church likes to forget the unfortunate past.

Second oldest chruch in Ranchi.

The second oldest church to be found in the city of Ranchi, the St. Paul’s Cathedral is an ecclesiastical institution that in spite of its beginning and long history as an Anglican establishment affiliated to the Church of England, originally sprouts from a vicious political spit within the Gossner Evangelist Lutheran Mission. An older establishment that lies not far from its premises at the bustling centre of a busy marketplace known as the G.E.L Road Complex (see Farbound.Net snippet: Pioneer of the Faith).

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An introspective study of the church, more than anything else, reveals to us the complex nature of mankind. That if at one end of the spectrum can be purposely scheming, deceitful and callous. On the other sympathetic, righteous and supportive.

It bares open the very fact that clash of opinions, battle of egos and petty politics isn’t just an accepted reality in very other spheres of life. But also to be found in the sacred confines of religion. For the simple reason that the guardians of the faith, no matter which religion they may belong to, happen to men and women of flesh and blood who share the same human vices and virtues as we do.

Furthermore, as history has witnessed over the aeons, such human vices, as they manifested in this little corner of India in 1868, is to be found in all world religions – especially Christianity where Schism became a recurring reality. Barely a few centuries after it turned into a dominant religion in the west.

The ordeals of pastor Fedrick Batsch.

The founding of the church is closely related to the ordeals of the German pastor Fedrick Batsch. A missionary and priest whose story closely mirrors the lives of many modern-day denizens unfortunate to see their selfless devotion amount to virtually nothing for a cause or corporation they so humbly laboured for. And who at the end of a weary road find their only alternative course of action is to meekly fade away into the mist or boldly claim the justice that rightfully belongs to them.

In fact, was it not for Fedrick Batsch, the main protagonist, the church would never have existed. For it was Batsch’s initial naivety to recognize realities and later his unfortunate trials that had led to the building of the church in 1870.

Gossner’s proposal to the Church of England.

Though Batsch is a central figure in the making of the church. The events that led to its creation, however, find roots in the winter of 1857 that while in India had witnessed disgruntled Sepoys of the Bengal army running amok in British administered territories. Overseas in Berlin had followed an anxious Gossner taking measures to secure the future of a mission, four of his missionaries had started in Ranchi in the year 1845.

Eighty-five years of age at the time and failing in health, Gossner was a Roman Catholic priest who had embraced the Lutheran movement and founded the Gossner Lutheran Mission. In 1844 he had sent to India, Fredrick Batsch along with three other German pastors to sow the seeds of the Lutherean movement.

After many years of discouragement, toil and labour, these pastors had eventually found success and by 1854 built the massive structure of the Gossner Evangelist Lutheran Mission Church, that one finds at the G.E.L Road Complex.

But towards the end of his life, Gossner had been dejected over not finding adequate support from his own countrymen and realizing the Anglican order was closer to his own principles, he had finally forwarded a proposal to the Church of England to take over the responsibility of overseeing his life’s work in India.

Porch view: The founding of St. Paul’s Church revolves around the ordeals of the German pastor Fredrick Batsch. One of the four pioneering missionaries to have spread Christianity in the region of Chota Nagpur.

Initial rejection of Gossner’s request by Batsch and beginning of his misfortunes.

Writes, Eyre Chatterton, the anointed Anglican Bishop of the Chota Nagpur region in 1903 and a chronicler entrusted with the responsibility of compiling the Church of England’s history in India.

Although the Church of England desirous of honouring Gossner’s request had in good faith forwarded the proposal for the approval of the Lutheran mission in Ranchi.

The elder German missionaries stationed in India, headed by Batsch, had initially rejected the proposal reluctant of severing their tie with the German people and the Lutheran mission headquarter in Berlin.

Which soon after the death of Gossner in 1858 had produced its own Evangelism Mission Society Committee called the Kuratorium to manage their overseas parish in India.

The new policies set in precedence by the Kuratorium, had not only been vastly different from what Gossner had set in motion, but the young clergymen dispatched by the Berlin committee to manage the burgeoning number of converts, which by 1860 had grown to over 10,000, had created a rift between the senior and junior members. And by 1868 blown into accusations of squandering mission funds and negligence of duties.

The feud had begun when Batsch along with other members of the senior clergymen had reprimanded the newcomers for not working hard enough. And who in turn had falsely accused Batsch of corruption in a secret letter to the Kuratorium in Berlin.

Batsch already at loggerheads with the Kuratorium had suffered unjustly. Especially at the hands of the Reverand Ansorge.

A view of the steeple: The church’s architecture reflects a Neo-Gothic architectural style. Much preferred by British engineers in India. The architect is recorded to be General Rowlatt, a British Judicial Commissioner. The total cost of the project amounted to 460 modern-day Euros.

Investigation by reverand Ansorge and humilation of Batsch.

As the charges had been of a serious nature, the Berlin committee had appointed the Reverend Ansorge residing in India to investigate the matter based on his familiarity with the country, the people and the clergy.

Ansorge, a lay missionary who had left the Lutheran church in Ranchi some twenty years after being asked to take up an outstation post had little sympathy for the elder missionaries and besides clearly expressing his prejudice had supported the young clergymen over the testament of two respectable eyewitnesses and an acquittal of charges in a formal conference held.

Moreover, Ansorge’s subsequent course of action right after the hearing had been to implement a new rule into the framework of the Lutheran church in India which had deprived the elder missionaries of their privileges and made them subordinate to the same group of men who not long before had levied charges of corruption upon them.

A rule Ansorge had further imposed with the condition, that should the elder missionaries decline the arrangements they would risk the fate of ex-communication from the Lutheran movement and a decision the Berlin committee had supported – later excommunicating Batsch and his brethren as traitors and seeders.

Request by Batsch to be ordained into the Anglican fold.

For Batsch who had initially refused to comply with Gossner’s request, and was instrumental in not only erecting the Gossner Evangelist Lutheran church building but also burgeoning its congregation after five frustrating years of hard work, this had been the last straw.

Unable to subordinate himself to those who had falsely accused him, and subsequently finding himself excommunicated by the Kuratorium. He along with four other elder pastors had then approached the Anglican Bishop Robert Milman to convert a large part of their congregation into the Anglican fold.

Bishop Milman, though closely aware of the proceedings, had at first been hesitant of being involved. Fearful his actions would be criticized as a breach of faith between the Christian sects.

Even after the Berlin committee had pronounced its verdict, Bishop Milman had tried in vain to reconcile the elder missionaries with the Reverend Ansorge.

However, when that had failed. In the April of 1869, Bishop Milman had officially accepted the request of the elder pastors to convert a large part of their congregation. And ordain the excommunicated Fedrick Batsch, Henry Batsch, F. Bohn and an Indian priest by the name of Wilhelm Luther Daud Singh.

Three garlands decorate the porch just before the main door of the church as a part of Christmas celebrations: The construction of the Church started in 1870 with British Commissioner Edward Dalton putting in place the foundation stone and completed in 1873. The same year it was consecrated by Anglican Bishop Robert Milman.

Reverend J. Cave Brown’s account of the incident.

If Chatterton’s description of the events comes across as a bit economical and inclines slightly towards defending the Kuratorium, putting the blame on the shoulders of Ansorge alone.

The Anglican Reverend J. Cave Brown provides a more detailed account of the proceedings.

A Chaplin and officiating secretary attached to the Calcutta Committee of the Society for the Prorogation of the Gospel. A division of the Church of England that oversees the management and administration of Anglican interests outside its home base.

Cave-Brown at the time was residing in Calcutta and was closely aware of the events, as was the Bishop Robert Milman. Sometimes via correspondence with the English residents of Ranchi. Particularly, Edward Tuite Dalton, a great patron of the church and the Commissioner of the Chota Nagpur region.

Waning relations.

Elaborates Cave-Brown of the rupture in the Lutheran Mission in regard to the Kuratorium’s waning relation with the missionaries in India, the conspiracy of the young clergymen and the role the Reverend Ansorge played in cementing the irreconcilable split.

The Kuratorium managed its affairs more like a business organization and had lacked the gentle and loving touch of the founder Gossner with whom the missionaries in India had been greatly attached. 

The first strain had surfaced when the Kuratorium had selected the pastor Sternberg to supersede the more experienced Fedrick Batsch and on the protest of the Ranchi clergy formally requested them to resign their positions with the intention of hiring new missionaries.

Next had followed a five-month delay of salaries that in the first place had been so unsubstantial that many times it had left the missionaries in dire straights unable to cope with even the bare necessities of living.

Finally, had come the batch of young clergymen the Berlin committee had sent for the newly built training school of the Lutheran church.

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Contempt for Batsch.

These new clergymen with university education and good connections in the Kuratorium had held the hard-working but not so highly educated elder missionaries in contempt from the beginning.

The Kuratorium’s refusal to recognize Fedrick Batsch as a senior had further undermined the authority of the elder missionary and encouraged insolent behaviour on the part of the young clergymen.

As the years had passed by, a rift had gradually developed within the mission in Ranchi that by 1868 had turned more vicious with charges of squandering mission funds and negligence of duties.

Which the young clergymen had levied against the elder missionaries in a secret correspondence to the Berlin Committee, in an attempt to have them removed.

Moreover, the Berlin Committee’s selection of Reverend Ansorge couldn’t have been more appropriate for the dismissal of the elder missionaries.

Ansorge’s prejudice against Batsch.

Ansorge from the very beginning had been clearly against the pioneers – and even before he had left Calcutta to investigate the matter in Ranchi. Ansorge’s letters were irrefutable proof of his bias against the elder missionaries and he spared no opportunity in tarnishing their image among those who did not know them.

Not only in Ranchi, did Ansorge attempt to poison the minds of the residents against the missionaries but when Commissioner Dalton (see Farbound.Net story: Major General Edward Tuite Dalton)had asked Ansorge to whom the credit was due for the successful working of the mission in the last ten years.

Ansorge had replied two or three times, not to Batsch but to God. When Dalton had pressed with the second question of, yes but doesn’t God work through man? Ansorge had again replied, not Batsch, not Batsch – as if he genuinely hated the man.

Furthermore, mentions Colonel Davis, a resident of Ranchi: My interview with Reverend Ansorge was not what I had expected as I was under the impression Ansorge was visiting to promote harmony in the church but he made no secret of his intention to support the young clergymen against the elder missionaries.

A three-mast galleon with sails unfurled stand in the middle of a flower garden: After its consecration as an Anglican institution, the affairs of the church was supervised by the Society for the Prorogation of the Gospel. An arm of the Church of England that oversees the management and administration of Anglican interests on foreign shores.

Reaction and support of Batsch by the English community in Ranchi.

Though Cave-Brown’s book, was not published till 1870 and Chatterton’s revelations did not appear in the printed form till 1924. The events that unfolded in 1868 in spite of not making the headlines was well known to English officials stationed within the Bengal Presidency’s towns and cities of Chota Nagpur, Calcutta and especially the small English community in Ranchi. Who had become even more familiar with the grim state of affairs after Ansorge’s visit in 1868-69.

The residents had been greatly saddened over the humiliation, the elder missionaries had been subjected to, particularly Fedrick Batsch, who was well known to them and greatly admired for his tireless missionary work. 

Batsch was one among four pioneering missionaries to have arrived in the Chota Nagpur region when not a single church had existed. He had toiled under a harsh sun along with his brethren and struggled through a discouraging slow start to gradually accumulate a congregational number of over 10,000 Christians from among the local tribes. Including ordaining the Indian pastor Wilhelm Luther Daud Singh.

His role had been paramount in developing the Lutheran mission with barely enough funds at his disposal. But, in the end, instead of the credit he genuinely deserved, he had been first overlooked for promotion then dismissed as a traitor, by the very order he had refused to be parted from.

These proceedings within the divine clergy had naturally left the residents of Ranchi disturbed. While not guardians of the faith themselves, they had sympathized with Batsch on a human level, supported him and eventually come together to help their old friend build a new life.

Constructed on a budget of 460 modern Euros.

Some two years after Batsch induction into the Anglican faith with a part of his willing congregation and three other Lutheran pastors. The construction of the church had begun with a total expected budget of 460 Euros.

Out of the sum, the British Commissioner Dalton had personally donated 38 Euros. Bishop Milman, 26 Euros. And the residents of Ranchi a combined total of 51 Euros.

The bulk of the amount, however, had been sponsored at an organizational level by the Anglican Society for the Prorogation of the Gospel and the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. Other sources state the British Government of India and the Building Fund of the Diocese of Calcutta also pooled in (see the Telegraph article: Church awaits archbishop).

While compared to today’s currency value, 460 Euros may not seem much for a well to do individual. In the eighteenth century, it was an exorbitant amount, impossible for even a community of people to accumulate.

View of the church upon entering the main gate: The incidents that led to the creation of the church was not a majorly publicized event. But well known to the English community residing in Ranchi and English officials stationed in Calcutta. J. Cave-Brown was possibly the first to publish a detailed account of the incident which appeared in 1870. His account was followed by Eyre Chatterton’s History of the Church of England Both authors predominantly blame the Reverend Ansorge. Although Cave-Brown’s work also hints the Kuratorium was equally responsible.

The foundation and consecration of the church.

On 1st September 1870, Commissioner Dalton had laid the foundation stone of the church, while its construction was undertaken by Judicial Commissioner-General Rowlatt.

On 9th March 1873, the newly constructed church was consecrated by Anglican Bishop Robert Milman in the name of St. Paul. An apostle from the 1st century A.D. who had inspired Gossner to spread the word among artisans and farmers, in the same spirit.

The question of whether the Kuratorium had collaborated with Ansorge in a premeditated plan to expel the missionaries giving the estranged relationship that had developed between the Indian clergy and the Berlin committee, bears no evidence.

The Kuratorium based in Germany had been dependent on the Reverend Ansorge to guide them on the right course of action and very likely supported the decision in favour of the young clergymen, simply, as they had known them better. Ironically they may have felt the residents of Ranchi, the English officials and the Anglican support the Indian missionaries had acquired was defending them in the same manner.

Gossner having spend a great part of his life seeking support in Berlin for the Lutheran Mission in India and receiving a dismal response from both the Prussian Church and his own countrymen had willingly forwarded the institution to be managed under the aegis of the Church of England.

Which had warmly received the idea without a moment’s thought. Though Gossner had wanted to hand over the entire Lutheran church. It had ultimately been a small part of the congregation and four pastors who had embraced the Anglican order. 

Batsch accepts his mistake.

During his induction ceremony in 1869, Fedrick Batsch had publicly admitted his mistake in a sermon. He had stated that the step he had eventually taken was one that he should have taken ten years ago.

The split in the Lutheran congregational numbers had not gone unprotested. The Reverend Ansorge who had hitherto refused to meet Bishop Robert Milman to discuss the reconciliation of the elder missionaries had stepped forward.

To him, Milman had replied:

In present times both the Anglican institution and the Gossener Evangelical Lutheran Church coexist within a radius of two kilometres with the happenings of the distant past now a part of their long history.

Taught internally to initiates, church historians and narrated to distinguished visitors. Both institutions continue to spread and preach the faith of Christianity within the framework of their own doctrines, help the citizens and operate other ventures.

The St. Paul’s Cathedral, in particular, has promoted education through schools since its consecration.

Its central nave capable of accommodating 500 members holds two daily Matins and three Communions on Sundays. The church now forms a part of the North India Diocese (Chota Nagpur) – a successor organization to the Church of England and is a member of the worldwide Anglican commune.