Readings:
Psalm 37:23-31
Sirach 4:1-12
Acts 14:21-27
Luke 9:46-50Preface of God the Father
[Common of a Missionary]
[Common of a Pastor]
[For the Ministry II]
[For the Mission of the Church]
PRAYER (traditional language)
Emmanuel, God with us, who didst make thy home in every culture and community on earth: We offer thanks for the raising up of thy servant Samuel Azariah as the first indigenous bishop in India. Grant that we may be strengthened by his witness to thy love without concern for class or caste, and by his labors for the unity of the Church in India, that people of many languages and cultures might with one voice give thee glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
PRAYER (contemporary language)
Emmanuel, God with us, making your home in every culture and community on earth: We thank you for raising up your servant Samuel Azariah as the first indigenous bishop in India. Grant that we may be strengthened by his witness to your love without concern for class or caste, and by his labors for the unity of the Church in India, that people of many languages and cultures might with one voice give you glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
This commemoration appears in A Great Cloud of Witnesses
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VEDANAYAGAM SAMUEL AZARIAH
FIRST INDIAN ANGLICAN BISHOP, DORNAKAL, 1945
Samuel Azariah was born in 1874 in a small village in South India, his father, Thomas Vedanayagam being a simple village priest and his mother Ellen having a deep love and understanding of the Scriptures. Samuel became a YMCA evangelist whilst still only nineteen, and secretary of the organisation throughout South India a few years later. He saw that, for the Church in India to grow and attract ordinary Indians to the Christian faith, it had to have an indigenous leadership and reduce the strong western influences and almost totally white leadership that pervaded it. He was ordained priest at the age of thirty-five and bishop just three years later, his work moving from primary evangelism to forwarding his desire for more Indian clergy and the need to raise their educational standards. He was an avid ecumenist and was one of the first to see the importance to mission of a united Church. He died on 1 January 1945, just two years before the creation of a united Church of South India.
from Exciting Holiness
A biographical sketch of him, made some 20 years before his death, is available from Project Canterbury.