Commontide
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The 2nd Sunday of Christmas
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Christmas
Because you gave Jesus Christ, your only Son, to be born for us; who, by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary his mother, was made truly man, yet without the stain of sin, that we might be cleansed from sin and given the right to become your children.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Bishop in South India and Evangelist
Anglican Commemoration
Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah (1874 to 1945) was the first Indian consecrated a bishop of the Anglican Communion, and for thirty-three years the Bishop of Dornakal in Telugu-speaking South India. Born in Tamil country to a pastor's family, he built Indian-funded missionary societies, led the diocese through a mass movement of outcaste communities into the Church, and spent two decades arguing and negotiating for the union that became the Church of South India in 1947.
Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah (1874–1945) was born in Tirunelveli, South India, to a Syrian Christian family. Ordained priest in 1900, he became bishop of the newly constituted Diocese of Dornakal in 1912, making him the first Indian Anglican bishop and a symbolic figure for indigenous ecclesial autonomy. His tenure was marked by extraordinary growth: under his leadership, the diocese expanded from a few thousand to over 100,000 communicants through sustained missionary work and mass movements of conversion, particularly among lower-caste communities. Azariah was a theological innovator who insisted on biblical translation, trained indigenous clergy, and championed theological education rooted in Indian contexts. His famous address at the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh (1910) on 'The Relation Between Foreign and Native Workers' articulated an urgent call for partnership rather than paternalism. He was a leading voice in church union negotiations for South India, laying groundwork for the Church of South India (1947). His ecumenical vision extended to friendship with both Catholic and Protestant leaders and participation in Life and Work conferences.
Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah exemplifies indigenous episcopate, demonstrating that Indian Christianity was not merely transplanted but capable of producing episcopal leadership rooted in local soil. His mass movement evangelism illustrates a non-Western missiology responsive to community transformation. He represents ecumenical witness across denominational boundaries and prophetic resistance to colonial paternalism in the church.