Stanley Scism

In 2007 January, a fight between youth belonging to rival United Pentecostal Church factions–the UPC–NE India and a breakaway organization called Mizoram UPC–led to involvement by police and, some people injured.  Here’s how (to answer questions I’ve received) the situation go to this point.

In the US political world of the late 1980s and early 1990s, people upset with the Democratic Party’s long hold on legislative power and the high advantages of incumbents toward re-election passed term limits.  This bled into the United Pentecostal Church in  North America, which passed term limits, too.  News of that got into their magazine, The Pentecostal Herald, and NE Indians who subscribed and were similarly restless managed, in an acrimonious and chaotic conference in 1994, to pass term limits AND mandatory retirement policies.

Part of the dispute based in long-term rivalry between the then-general superintendent and the district superintendent of the largest district, which comprised more than half the unit’s total constituency.  When a faction in that district rose (with the general superintendent’s encouragement) against the district superintendent, then lost the election, the executive board with the general superintendent’s support divided that district and then–crucial point–located the border between the two without consulting the parent district board.  This violated their bylaws, so the aggrieved party appealed to FMD.  My father, general director of the Foreign Missions Division at the time, said the unit needed to dissolve the illegally formed district and reform it.  The NE Indian UPC declined to do this on grounds that it would simply re-open all the animosity (which has, as you see, since happened anyway–they were deluded if they thought they could simply stifle dissent to the deed).  The aggrieved party left, forming its own organization, called The Mizoram UPC.

The breakaway faction now has term limits and retirement policies, too, suggesting this wasn’t the main reason for breaking away.  One main motive was simply power:  Two prominent laymen led the breakaway and their organization’s structure now gives a laymen’s board power to post pastors to various circuits of churches, which they call sections (as does the parent organization).  On the other hand, they have resisted some centralization tendencies of the UPC–NE India’s leadership.  For instance, their affiliated units in other states have their own names in those states.

The breakaway faction kept a name similar to the UPC–NE India in order to try through the courts to wrest buildings from the older organization.  As a result, since India’s court system is frequently slow and at times corrupt, many buildings are locked up by the authorities, vandalized by local yokels, used by no one except teens having sex, taking drugs or, now, engaged in occult practices.
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In one case I know of (and there might well be others), a local agreement between factions allowed the church to unlock buildings and start using them again.

Meanwhile, a great revival goes on.  The church in N. India went from 2000 at the end of 2005 to 2600 at the end of 2006, and from 26 churches to 38.  The church in Nepal went from 3300 at the end of 2005 to 4000 at the end of 2006, and formed two new districts.  In S India in the last month, many people have been released from demons, healed, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

Meanwhile, many people in India need Jesus Christ.  We must do all we can to bring them to Jesus’ feet in submission, to his hands to heal them, to his heart to bless and save them, to his mind to answer their deepest questions and fill their purpose.