Foreign churches not affiliated to us — NCCI

In a joint statement here, NCCI president Rev Bishop Vinod Peter and General Secretary Rev IPE Joseph said that “NCCI is an apex organisation of 29 member churches of non-catholics with 11 regional councils, 14 all-India organisations and 7 related agencies, none of which is headed by a foreigner”.

Reiterating that Indian churches did not have foreign dominance, they said “the Indian church is truly Indian and some of the churches exist since the first century”.

NCCI said Indian churches are part of the global churches just as the Indian community is part of the global community.

Denying the RSS accusation that baptist churches in the North-east region were resorting to terror tactics and “forcibly prohibiting” Hindus from practicing their culture and traditions, the council asked the RSS Chief to verify the historical and theological facts.

“Indian churches have contributed to nation building through their services in the field of education, health, tribal and dalit empowerment, gender justice, child rights, ecological justice, human rights, poverty eradication and empowerment of the marginalised in society”+, it said.

Bishop Peter, who is the moderator of Churches of North India (CNI) and Rev Joseph invited Sudarshan to join forces to deal with humanitarian issues of poverty, justice and human rights.