A delegation of bishops and senior church executive leaders from the Church in North India met Pope Francis in private audience on Wednesday, 9 October 2024. The delegation was led by senior bishop the Rt. Rev. Paritosh Canning, bishop of Calcutta, deputy moderator the Rt. Rev. Manoj Charan, bishop of Bhopal. and CNI general secertary the Rev. Dr. D.J. Ajith Kumar. In the delegation there were 19 active and 2 retired bishops, nearly the entire NCI college of bishops, along with 12 senior church executive responsible for programmatic, legal, financial, administrative, and communications departments of the Church of North India. Additionally, Mr. Joshua Rathnam, vice president of the World Methodist Council, was a member of the delegation.
During the audience, Pope Francis greeted individually each member of the delegation, thanked the delegation for their visit and for their witness to Christian unity in the multi-religious nation of India, and asked the delegation to pray from him. The Pope led the group in the Lord’s Prayer. The delegation presented stoles with the CNI logo to Pope Francis.
The Rev. Matthew A. Laferty, director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome, accompanied the delegation and introduced them to Pope Francis. H.E. Monsignor Flavio Pace, secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, also accompanied the group.
The meeting was arranged by the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome.
The Church of North India is a united Protestant Church established through a church union in 1970. The union included the Methodist Church (British and Australian Conferences), the United Church of Northern India (Congregationalist and Presbyterian), the Council of Baptist Churches in Northern India, the Church of the Brethren in India, the Disciples of Christ, and the Anglican Church. The Church of North India is a member church of the World Methodist Council.
Photos by Vatican Media.
Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome 