1. © Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011
I’m Angeline’s mother Silviya, I have the special task of telling you about two amazing Christians who lived in our area.
First I have a question for you:
Were there Christians in India before there were Christians in England OR
Were there Christians in England before there were Christians in India?
It’s a difficult question isn’t it? What do you guess the answer is?
Let’s find out:
Because pupils are used to thinking of India as a Hindu country they will probably assume Christianity came first to England and from there to India. Not true! The earliest archaeological evidence we have for Christianity in England is about 200 years after Jesus, whilst the earliest written record relates to the year A.D. 314 – as the next slide shows, Indian Christianity dates it’s origins from one of the twelve disciples of Jesus.
© Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011

2. These are photographs of a very old church in Chennai, it is on a hill called “St Thomas’ Mount”. This is built on the site where Jesus’ friend and disciple Thomas was killed. Thomas came to South India as a missionary after Jesus’ resurrection to share His message, and many people were baptised as Christians.
This was about two hundred years before we know Christianity reached England!
This church was built by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century and obviously does not date back to the time of Thomas, but the tradition that he died in this place is a strong one. The worshippers in the left hand photograph are standing and kneeling in front of a stone cross reputed to have been carved by Thomas himself (although actually of a later date).
It is well known that Jesus sent his followers into all the world to preach the Gospel – Thomas probably ended up in South India because there were good trade routes between Palestine and India and a flourishing community of Jewish merchants was based at Cochin on the west coast. His story tells how he preached his way eastwards across the country and met with great success making many converts. He eventually ended up living in a cave on what is now St Thomas’ Mount and it was here he was murdered on the orders of Hindu priests who were angry that he was drawing so many people away from their religion. The Mar Thoma Church of India traces its origins back to St Thomas.
You may wish to look at stories of “Doubting Thomas” in the Gospels and talk together about how he changed from a man of doubt to a dynamic missionary.
You can find out more about St Thomas’ Mount at There is a version of the story of Thomas’ work in India at
Chennai (formerly known as Madras) is about 60 miles from Vellore, but none of the stories of Thomas’ ministry relate specifically to the Vellore area.
There is a special shape of cross known as St Thomas’cross which was supposed to be carved originally by the apostle, Can you find out about it and see how it is different from other crosses?
Why not compare the stories of St Thomas with some of the stories of early Christianity in England? In East Anglia the best known stories come from the Anglo-Saxon period: Etheldreda of Ely, and Felix and Fursey.
© Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011

3. In the last 250 years Christian missionaries have come to Vellore from many different countries such as Germany, America and England. As well as teaching people about Jesus and founding churches, they started schools and hospitals and did a great deal to help the poorest people of the area.
The most famous missionary of all is this American lady here, and you will see statues of her all over the Diocese of Vellore. Can you work out what her name is?
This is Dr Ida Scudder. Note her prayer on the board behind the statue. This photograph was taken at a Girls’ Hostel in Tindivanam – Tindivanam is where Ida lived as a child and young woman with her family, and it is here the story of the three women (see next notes) took place. The original Scudder bungalow where Ida lived is still used by the local church as a playgroup and children’s home.
© Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011

4. Ida Scudder trained the first women nurses and doctors in South India
Ida Scudder trained the first women nurses and doctors in South India. Her training school eventually became the world famous Christian Medical College and Hospital. Thanks to Ida’s work millions of very poor sick people have been helped, and thousands of doctors and nurses have been trained in Vellore.
Ida Scudder came from an American missionary family. Her grandfather was the first medical missionary from the United States to work in India. He had seven sons who all worked as doctors in South India. Ida’s father, John, was the youngest of the seven brothers. John had four sons and one daughter, Ida, and they all became medical missionaries as well.
At first it had not been Ida’s intention to become a doctor at all. She went back to America to school and did not plan to return to India to work. However, on one of her trips back to India to visit her family she had a sad experience which changed everything: in one evening three very worried men came to the doctor’s home - a Hindu priest, a Muslim and then another Hindu. Each of the men had a wife seriously ill at home, but they would not allow a male doctor to visit her because of the strict religious laws (purdah) which
prevented these women being seen by men who were not of their own family. As there were no women doctors available, the Scudders could not help them. During the night all three women died. It was at this point that Ida determined that she must train as a doctor to help women like these.
Ida trained in America and returned to India to work on 1st January She worked from her father’s surgery in the family bungalow, but only five months later her father died and she was left as the only missionary doctor in the area. Over the next two years she treated 5,000 patients! Many of these patients came from miles and miles away because otherwise they could not get any medical help at all. Ida trained nurses to help her in her work, but there were still no other lady doctors. The Indian Government set up a training college for male doctors in the area, but the problem of who was to treat the local women remained, the work was just too much for Ida to carry out by herself. Ida Scudder decided she must start a training college at Vellore for women to train as doctors. She had a shed built where the students could dissect bodies, she hired a hall where she could give lectures and she bought books, a microscope and a skeleton—she was ready! Ida chose the best and cleverest women to be her students, she did not worry about whether they were Christians, Hindus or Muslims, although she did make sure that she taught all of them about the Christian faith as well as about medicine! There were fourteen women students in the first group and they had to take the same examinations as the men at the government training college—Ida was delighted to find that although only 20% of the men had passed their exams, all of the women did!
At first Ida’s women students qualified as “Licensed Medical Practioners” which meant they could only work with other women in purdah. This continued until the Second World War when the Government ordered that all Indian doctors should be trained for the M.B. and B.S. degrees to the same standards as those in America and Britain. Ida Scudder was then in her sixties, but still working at the Vellore hospital. and under her guidance, and with the help of over 35 missionary societies, the hospital was re-equipped and new missionary doctors found to help with the new training.
Ida Scudder worked at the hospital at Vellore for 50 years, until she was eighty! She died ten years later, in Her hundreds of students and the local people called her the “Queen of Vellore”.
Now the hospital at Vellore sees thousands of patients every year and teams of doctors go out into the remote villages to hold clinics for the poor people who cannot make the long journey to the town. Nobody is ever turned away. The doctors and nurses show the same Christian compassion for their patients as Ida did nearly a century ago when she decided she needed to become a doctor to help the women of India
CMC has its own website at which will tell you about its current work. The photograph shows the main public entrance to CMC – note the cross atop the building.
Ida’s finding out about the unnecessary death of three Indian women turned her own life around and gave her purpose. Find out how other people made decisions which changed their lives (who to marry, what job to do etc) ask your vicar and teachers! Has anything affected you deeply and made you do something to help others (e.g. an impetus towards charity fundraising when you see pictures of a disaster)?
© Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011

5. Today the Church of South India helps carry on Ida Scudder’s work
Today the Church of South India helps carry on Ida Scudder’s work. The Diocese of Vellore runs several hospitals and also helps train nurses. The church hospitals always work with the poorest people who otherwise might never see a doctor.
In these photographs the doctor and nurses from Vandavasi Hospital have gone on one of their regular trips into the villages to hold a clinic. If they did not go to the village, the sick people would probably not be able to get to Vandavasi.
All church hospitals (and many government hospitals) hold regular village clinics – the people they help would be too ill or too poor to be able to make the long trip into town to seek help. As well as the regular hospitals, there are a number of free clinics where Christian doctors will give their time and expertise on a regular basis, for example the church sponsored eye clinic near Tirrapatur.
The church also sponsors poor but clever students through nurses’ training courses. These nurses will then promise to work for a few years at the church hospitals for lower wages, before they look for a posting elsewhere. Many of the doctors who run the church hospitals could also find better paid posts elsewhere, but they see their work as an important part of their Christian service.
What do you think is the most important part of choosing what job you will do – money…. enjoyment…. using skills……..helping others…….degree of personal challenge…?
© Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011

6. This is the same hospital whose clinic figures in the previous slide – although this is a women’s hospital (chiefly a maternity hospital) the clinics are for anyone who needs help. Most of the patients at this hospital will be Hindus, but the painting will show them this is a Christian place, and , hopefully, reassure them with an understanding that Christ (and the doctor and nurses) cares for them, whatever their faith.
Does this painting remind you of any of the stories of Jesus healing people?
What do you think of this painting? Can you find other examples of paintings of Jesus in modern contexts? What message do they give you? (Example – look online for the well known “Jesus on the Tube”)
This painting is in the entrance to Vandavasi Hospital for women. It tells people this is a Christian hospital and that Jesus cares for and loves the sick and suffering. Like all Christian hospitals, it serves the poorest people who cannot afford to pay for medicine. The doctor and nurses are doing God’s work.
© Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011