long way to tipperary still lots of miles to go

Back to India.

Curiousity can't be denied.

In the same year 1947 that Samartha married he was appointed as a lecturer in the BEM Theologocal Seminary in Mangalore. According to S., because of the war it was a very low period in the life of the seminary. Besides financial problems, there were hardly any teachers and the number of students scarcely exceeded a dozen. The history of the seminary goes back to 1834, when 3 missio-naries came to Mangalore, intending from the beginning to establish a School for Catechists, which was founded in 1847. In 1863 this School be-came a Theologocal Seminary. During the 1st World War, the seminary had to be closed because the German missionaries were interned and the whole establishment collapsed for some time (till 1929). This seminary was always a rather small one & the media of instruction were Kannada &
Malayalam & always emphasized preaching the gospel to non-Christians. It has primarily prepared catechists & evangelists,
not merely pastors ...

At the time of Samartha's appointment, the Swiss missionary Paul Burckhardt was principal of the BEM Theological Seminary & the Indian K.R. Karunakar took over because of Burckhardt's sabbatical year. During 2 years Samartha taught several subjects, depending on the circumstances and the needs. In '47, under the principalship of Karunakar, the seminary was affiliated to Serampore University. In principle, now the Seminary
was an institution preparing students for the licentiate in theology & the preliminary examination for the BD-degree. Burckhardt, the principal on furlough, had had some reservations against this affiliation. Although he wanted Mangalore to be a regional centre of theological studies, as an evangelical and revivalist he found Serampore too liberal! According to Jacques Rossel, who was on the staff of the seminary, a decision against affiliation, however, might have cost the valuable services of Samartha, who might have gone to another church institution. In a strongly worded
letter to the BEM Committee in Basel he wrote in 1947:

Es war sehr viel auf dem Spiel. Haetten wir es nicht getan, so haetten wir unsere beste Kraft in Sued-Kanara, Mr. Stanley Jedidiah Samartha, BA/BD, verloren. Und was dieser Verlust bedeutet, kann leider Dr. Burckhardt nicht
begreifen. Ein neuer Gest, ein Geist der Arbeit, der Exactheit, der Efficiency, ist in unser Seminar gedrungen, ein Geist, der sich aber in andern
Sphaeren der Kirche merkbar macht. Unser SCM kennt eine Bluetezeit, die ich nicht fuer moeglich gehalten, ja nicht getraeumt haette ... Dass ist, nach Gott, dem organisatorischen Talent Samartha's zu verdanken.

Affiliation was an effort to raise the standards of the seminary and to give it a wider recognition. Still a lot of work had to be done. This period contributed little to Sam's theological thinking: three more important
years of study abroad followed.

It's a LONG WAY TO TIPPERARY:
'g ds molentjes' malen langzaam,
maar wel zeer gedegen
als het goed gaat ...