02.10.2026
Sharing Ideas and Mutual Learning – Dublin University Mission to Chota Nagpur 2026
In August Archbishop Michael Jackson, The Revd Steven Brunn and Dr Kerry Houston visited North India with the Dublin University Mission to Chota Nagpur. Here, the Archbishop reflects on the visit.
Members of The Dublin University Mission to Chota Nagpur try to visit Northern India every second year. The delegation for this year comprised the archbishop of Dublin and bishop of Glendalough as chairperson of DUMCN, Dr Kerry Houston and the Reverend Steven Brunn. The purpose of these visits is to encourage partnership between a functioning and flourishing University Mission and the Diocese of Chota Nagpur where the work of the Mission began in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The names of figures such as Kenneth Kennedy, Elizabeth Ferrar and William Marshall are still on the lips of members of the diocese to this day and remain much loved. We have also facilitated Bishop Basil Baskey, clergy and school principals to come to Dublin on two occasions. The relationship has developed through reciprocity into one of relationship by friendship and by sustained hard graft to enable it to work. Our focus this year was on how we can share ideas and how we can learn from one another.
The second half of August falls within the Monsoon Season. 2026 was no different from any other year – wet and getting wetter all the time. Our first stop was Kolkata where we stayed in The Bishop’s Inn, accommodation in the grounds of The Bishop’s House. Bishop Paritosh Canning is also The Moderator of the Church of North India. Our time there was short but we packed in a number of interesting and important things. The first was meeting staff and students in The Bishop’s College, the theological college for North India, following the Serampore Syllabus for all the Christian traditions and currently with one hundred and forty students on the books along with sixteen full–time and three part–time staff. During our time there, we saw not only the lasting influence of Bishop Packenham–Walsh but also significant new building projects and held an interactive seminar on the character of the church in the contemporary world.
The second was worshipping in St Paul’s Cathedral. The archbishop was afforded the privilege of preaching on the tenth anniversary of The Friendship Centre which is based in the cathedral, serving the needs of those who are lonely, distressed or disturbed irrespective of creed, class or caste. (You can read the sermon here.) During the afternoon, we visited a residential facility for old ladies and we blessed them ; we also visited the repurposed Oxford Mission to Calcutta (now Kolkata). This was extremely interesting as Dublin, Oxford and Cambridge Universities all had Missions to India. The Oxford Mission began as a boys’ orphanage. Today it continues doing the same work and also has been developed by the current Moderator, himself a former member of the Community, as a music school in both Indian and Western Music.
On Monday, we travelled to Ranchi, the home of The Diocese of Chota Nagpur. There we were greeted by long–standing friends from the diocese and settled into the diocesan hotel – The Maplewood. There was a possibility that we might travel on the Tuesday to Hazaribagh but this proved to be impossible because of the monsoon. During Wednesday and Thursday, the archbishop and The reverend Steve Brunn, accompanied by Dr Houston and the Reverend Paul Monash who joined us from Australia, contributed to three days of intensive teaching for The Catechists. DUMCN has assisted and supported The Catechetical School for many years and is delighted to do so again as it comes back to operational life after the long delay caused by Covid–19.
The archbishop spoke on the components of a holy life and on The Anatomy of Crucifixion and The Body of Christ, inspired by a close reading of St Mark 13. Steve spoke of the five smooth stones of pastoral ministry, taking the image from the young David: love, listening, story–making, grieving, leadership. Paul took up the theme of personal holiness and the capacity of leadership to interpret something that was happening as a work of God. His strap–line was: holiness is the habit of being one person with God. The second day of teaching concluded with a visit and a seminar to the Grossner Lutheran Theological College in Ranchi. The College still has as the centrepiece of its chapel the wooden cross constructed by the first missionaries. This proved to be most informative and illuminating experience as it set in clear context the early interactions of the Lutherans and the British Army in Ranchi and explains the current good relations between both traditions, not least in the local training together of ordinands on both traditions side by side.
Hazaribagh was our next port of call. We began in St Stephen’s Church and Parish. This is always a special place for the Irish delegation as we love to see the restoration of life to St Columba’s Hospital which almost disappeared off the landscape of history but has returned with both confidence and competence. It is wonderful to see the expansion of clinical services including obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and anaesthetics full–time and with other specialist doctors on call to the hospital. As things stand, emergency cases have to go to Ranchi.
There is the expectation of a fully functioning ICU, the rebuilding of the activity of the Nursing School will not only create nurses but will also attract doctors. There is the recognition that a Geriatric Department is also urgently needed. To see the board in the hospital entrance showing the range of doctors and services on offer is very cheering to us and affirming of the work that has gone into the hospital in the last half decade . Elsewhere in Hazaribagh, we visited St Elizabeth’s School, St Columba’s School and St Kieran’s College along with The Hamilton Primary School. These schools remain the lifeblood of DUMCN along with the hospital and the university. Signing Visitors’ Books, as you are invited to do on such trips, you realize that we from DUMCN alone of Westerners visit these people and these places today. This is a chilling thought and makes the work of DUMCN all the more urgent.
On Saturday we made the journey to Koderma. I had long wanted to go to Koderma which lies beyond Hazaribagh and further into the tribal area of the Diocese of Chota Nagpur. This area would have been forest in the days of the first missionaries . The city is thriving and the church was well worth a visit. It was the one church in North India which the missionaries built in 1901 and it is dedicated to St Thomas, the Patron Saint of India. It was a great joy to meet the parish priest and members of the congregation and to see the church compound. The location of the church is in the heart of the original city and its growth and development have tremendous potential. At one stage, I was called outside the church by the word: monkey. I went out and, sure enough, a magnificent cappuccino coloured male primate was walking along the back wall of the church compound. My surmise is that he smelt other primates in his territory and was marking our territory!
The culmination of our visit was spending Sunday morning in St Paul’s Cathedral, Ranchi. I had the privilege of preaching at both the English–language and the Hindi–language services (You can read the sermon here.) where, in both instances, there was a substantial congregation. The three delegates from DUMCN were welcomed and feted in the customary and elegant Indian style. During the evening, we had the opportunity to meet with the School Principals and clergy who had visited Dublin last year. This was convivial and also gave scope to look ahead to a further visit, perhaps also incorporating some of those involved in healthcare as well as in education, as is in tune with the two strands of DUMCN. Jesus Christ was a teacher and a healer. Kenneth Kennedy was both a medical doctor and a priest and subsequently bishop. The work continues in tense and difficult circumstances. Those who do this work along with all members of the Diocese of Chota Nagpur need our prayers and our support in the shared work for God in which we are invested in body, mind and soul.