65-year-old Hnuni to be ceremoniously elevated to the post next month, marking a first in Mizoram
By Santanu Ghosh
R.L. Hnuni
Aizawl, Dec 23 : For the first time in the annals of Mizoram Christianity, a woman Church elder belonging to the Baptist denomination is poised to be ordained as pastor.
Though Christianity has been a dominant religion in Mizoram since 1894, no woman has ever adorned the coveted post of pastor in any church in the hill state.
A senior members of the Baptist Church of Mizoram said R.L. Hnuni, 65, would be the first woman to bag the laurels of being adorned as pastor. She is now the principal of the Academy of the Integrated Christian Studies in the capital city of Aizawl.
A senior official of the Mizoram church said Hnuni would be ceremoniously ushered to the post of pastor next month.
The Baptist Church of Mizoram is the apex body of Baptist churches and is the the second largest body of Christian denominations in the state. It stands next to the Presbyterian Church in terms of membership and church goers.
Hnuni, who did advanced studies in Christianity from England, was first nominated to the post by a pastoral committee of the BCM in its two-day conclave in Aizawl this year.
According to the census conducted in 2001, 90 per cent of Mizoram’s total 9.5 lakh population follows Christianity. Mizoram at present is a veritable beehive of different Christian denominations with the Presbyterians topping the list.
The Presbyterians have over 1,000 churches in the eight districts of Mizoram.
The other important church denominations, apart from the Presbyterians and Baptists, are Catholics, Seventh Day Adventists, Pentecoastal Church and the Salvation Army.
Hnuni worked as a lecturer in the theology department of Eastern Theological College in Jorhat from 1981 to 2001. She can also write and speak Assamese.
The entry of a woman pastor in the strictly patriarchal society of the Mizos is a notable event.
Though the Presbyterian Synod in Mizoram boasts of a large number of followers in the state, it has still denied women their share of pastoral roles.
Mizoram, however, has a good number of woman theologians, who serve the church as teachers, coordinators in the women’s desk and in sundry missionary activity.
The Presbyterian Church has installed a separate women’s ministry in the church forum .
Two Welsh missionaries, Savidge and Lorrain, had introduced Christianity in Mizoram, reaching the Lushai hills through Assam’s Cachar district in 1894 and since then the Christian population has rapidly increased in the state.
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