Christmases Past: Dr. J. Samuel Subramanian: “Christmas is big in India. The churches will be overflowing.”

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By LeAnn R. Ralph

GLENWOOD CITY  — Dr. J. Samuel Subramanian — known as “Pastor Sam” to his congregations at Glenwood City United Methodist and Downing United Methodist — grew up in India.

In addition to serving as the pastor at Glenwood City and Downing, Dr. Subramanian is an Associate Professor of New Testament Theology at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and serves as the Director of the United Methodist Center at United. He joined the United faculty in 2014 as an Assistant Professor of New Testament Theology.

Dr. Subramanian teaches at the seminary during the week, and on the weekends he is in Glenwood City and Downing, performing his pastoral duties.

He became pastor at Glenwood City and Downing on July 1, 2019.

During his time in the Glenwood City area, Pastor Sam also has, unfortunately, seen the closing of the United Methodist Church at Emerald.

“India is a very diverse country. India is the birthplace of many many religions. Hinduism is the biggest religion in India. Then we have Buddhism. Sikhism. We also have a strong Muslim population. Next to   Saudi Arabia, the largest Muslim population lives in India. I grew up in that kind of environment,” he said.

“The church I grew up in India was more like the Anglican church, or here it’s called the Episcopal church. The church John Wesley grew up in was the Church of England. John Wesley himself was an Anglican priest,” Pastor Sam said.

John Wesley was the leader of a movement in the Church of England that became known as Methodism.

“When I came to study at Southern Methodist University, I didn’t find much difference, and I became more comfortable with the United Methodist Church, so I decided to become United Methodist clergy,”  Pastor Sam said.

Here is Pastor Sam’s story of how he became an ordained Methodist pastor and a theologian, of how Christmas is celebrated in India and how the decision was made to close the Methodist Church in Emerald:

My father was a Hindu. He went to a Roman Catholic teachers’ training college. There he studied the Bible. He was much impressed with the Bible and Christianity. At his graduation, he wanted to become a Christian, and he was baptized. He was a school headmaster until his death.

My mother’s grandfather was a Hindu, and he became a Christian. So my mother was born into a Christian family. I grew up in a Christian family, living among diversity, in a very rural area. My father was a school teacher. He was a farmer. He was a branch postmaster. And he was a businessman.

My father passed away when I was three years old. My mother brought us up. I have four sisters.

My mother taught me to go to church all the time. She said, “You don’t have your earthly father, but you have your heavenly father, so you go to church and pray.”

Every Sunday I went to church. I never missed church. Church became part of my life, and in fact, church defined my life. I used to go and ring the church bell every Sunday morning. I would invite some of my fellow students to come to church.

The minister would ask me to read the scripture lesson during worship. Then we used to go for public speaking, to go to the streets to talk about Christ. That’s how I grew up.

Business admin 

I went to high school and then went to college. Business Administration for my undergraduate degree.

After that, my mother said, “You are going to be a pastor.”

You cannot say “no” to your mother! So I decided to go to seminary in Calcutta. I studied there for three years and got my degree. During my studies in the seminary, one German couple sponsored my studies all three years.

Then I came back to South India. I was born in South India. I began to teach in the seminary for a couple of years. I decided to go for further seminary training in South India, where I did my Master of Theology in the New Testament. I began to teach in seminaries in North India.

I met Mother Teresa face-to-face.

Eventually I was ordained in the Church of North India and became a full ordained clergy. Then I decided to go for doctoral studies.

Dallas, Texas

I wrote the professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, to see if I could come and work with him. He specialized in the gospels: Mathew, Mark and Luke. He said yes, I could come. So I applied to Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology, and I got admission. So I came to the United States.

I earned my Master of Divinity Degree from Southern Methodist University. I spent one year at the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas. From there I went to Canada to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, to do my PhD. I lived in Canada for four years and got my Doctor of Philosophy degree.

I came back to Iowa to serve the United Methodist Church. I served in Iowa for 18 years, non-stop. No leave in between. I took one year off to teach at Bangor Theological Seminary in Portland, Maine.

I and my wife [who also was a pastor] lived there for one year then came back to Iowa to serve the church.

There was a position open at the United Theological Seminary in the Twin Cities to teach the New Testament. I applied for the position and got the job.

The church and the seminary are part of my life. I am either in the church, or I’m in the seminary. There is no in-between.

Christmas 

Christmas is a big thing in India. Everybody goes to church. That’s another cultural shock for me here in the United States.

America is a Christian country, so when I came to America, I thought everyone would go to church. When I attended church, only half the sanctuary would be full, and sometimes less than half.

In India, if you have a hundred members on the membership roll, all hundred people will come to church. Even if they are sick, they will still come to church.

The churches will be overflowing on Sunday morning. You might not find anyplace to sit, and you might have to stand outside and listen to the message. India is a very religious country. The Hindus go to temple all the time, too.

If you are a Christian, you are really supposed to go to church.

For Christmas, we celebrate Christmas early in the morning on December 25 at  3 o’clock. Christians in India believe that was the time Jesus was born.

There will not be any Christmas Eve service on December 24, but it will a Christmas Day service early in the morning at 3 o’clock.

We all come to church, and the church would be overflowing. The Christmas service is a two-hour service with communion, and we sing lots of songs and prayers. Then we go back home and sleep.

Some churches will have Christmas Day service, too, at 9 o’clock, and the people will come back to the church.

Christmas star 

We don’t have a Christmas tree, but we have a star. Every Christian home [in India] will hang a star with lights on it. That’s how we know it’s a Christian family living here or there.

The star is very famous in the Christmas celebration. Also firecrackers. We light the firecrackers early in the morning, right after church, to celebrate Christmas.

Christmas is a big celebration. It’s a church-oriented celebration.

For Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, for any of the Festivals, it’s all church-oriented. We are being taught to go to church and pray. If you are a Christian you are committed to Christ. The way to learn about Christ is to go to church.

It’s a big celebration in India.

When I came here, I was shocked. Even Christmas Eve service, I don’t see all the church members.

I have been trying to get people to church. I have been writing to people, to those who have not been coming to church. I have been sending invitations to those people because I want people to be spiritually nurtured and to grow in the love of God and in the love of neighbor.

Where will you find another institution like church? This is where we learn God’s love, and we go out into the world to spread God’s love. We live out what Christ taught us. That has been my focus.

GC & Downing 

[At the United Methodist Church in Glenwood City,] the Christmas tree [was] put up on the first day of Advent.

Then we [had] the hanging of the greens. It is a liturgy that goes with the first Sunday of Advent. We hang some Christmas ornaments and have a reading and an explanation of the ornament.

Then we have an Advent wreath with the Advent candles to match the four Sundays of Advent. For Christmas it is called the Christ candle. Each of the four Sundays we will light another candle. On Christmas Eve we light the middle candle.

We will have the Sunday school children do the Christmas program as part of worship.

Christmas Eve will be a candle light service with scripture readings and songs.

I won’t be here for Christmas this time. I am going to India. I will have everything ready before I leave.

Downing Church will have a Blue Christmas where on one Sunday evening, we will remember those who have passed away since last Christmas. We invite their loved ones to come to church and light a candle so that will bring some consolation. That is part of the Christmas celebration at the Downing Church.

I booked my ticket (for India) a long time ago, before I knew I was going to be here. I went one time to celebrate New Year’s with my sisters, and they said, “You’ve never come for the Christmas celebration.”

I got my ticket this time so I could celebrate Christmas with them.

Emerald

There are 50 people in the community of Emerald, but none of them came to church. It is the only church in Emerald. If there was more than one, you could say there was competition. But there was no competition.

Whatever denomination it is, we come to church to worship God. I did not see anybody coming.

I reached out to all those on the membership list to come and talk about the future of the congregation, but none of them showed up.

So I invited the district superintendent to come to talk to the congregation, to talk about the future of the congregation. I set a special meeting and sent out invitation letters to all of them and nobody showed up. Only one person showed up. There were three of us in the meeting. So we decided to close the church because the church members abandoned the church.

That was the clause we invoked from the Book of Discipline. If the church members abandon the church, then the church will be closed. It’s not only Emerald. There are other churches in the same situation. There are not enough people to support the building. The young people don’t come. The church is left abandoned.

[Serving at Glenwood City and Downing] is all part of God’s will, a part of God’s plan. People are coming. Those who have not been to church for many years are coming.

But I want to build a relationship with them too, so they will keep coming, so they are connected to God, even if I am not here.

My goal is to lead people to God, so they will keep coming to church no matter who the minister is.