Emmanuel Church turns 150, plans year-long celebrations
MUMBAI: The Girgaum Emmanuel Church, which started as a congregation in the Sonapur slums in 1848 and became a full-fledged church in 1869, celebrated its 150th year on Thursday by holding a special prayer service.
The church’s management has various events lined up — a visit by 30 priests, Gospel singing, musical programmes and Bible quiz, among others. “This will give people from our congregation a reason to join us,” said Deepak Jadhav, secretary of Emmanuel Church.
The church has 125 parishioners, most of whom speak Marathi, while a handful also speaks Gujarati. It is the first church from the Indian congregation to follow the Church Mission Society, a British mission. Parishioners say that though they still follow Anglican practices, the church now falls under the services of the Church of North India.
“The church was formed as many Maharashtrian mill workers, who had accepted Christianity a long time ago, lived in this area,” said Rajan Shinde, a senior member of the church. “This is the only church that conducts Gujarati services and is built in the form of a cross.”
The Grade-ii heritage structure, made with Porbandar stone in Gothic style, underwent conservation in 2005. It has managed to retain the stained glasses that have verses from the Bible.
“In the late 19th century, Bombay’s governor would come from Malabar Hill to this church on his 12-horse chariot,” said Alka Shinde, treasurer of the church. Rajan said an American visited the church 15 years ago to trace the records of his grandparents, as it has baptism and marriage records from 1869. “We are now planning to conserve these records as well,” said Rajan.
The church has a 1800s brass lectern, altar, benches and Bishop’s chair, and a pulpit. The church also has an immersion font, used for baptism, which was made in the early 20th century.