The Right Revd Paul Swarup is the Bishop of the Diocese of Delhi, India in the Church of North India. Bishop Paul serves on the Steering Group for Phase 3 of the Lambeth Conference. Ahead of the next Lambeth Call webinar, he spoke to the Anglican Communion Office about mission and evangelism.

The Right Revd Paul Swarup is the Bishop of the Diocese of Delhi, in the Church of North India. It has existed from 1947 as an Anglican diocese under CIPBC (Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon) and in 1970 became one of the 28 dioceses of the Church of North India (CNI). which was formed out of the union of six denominations (CIPBC, UCNI -United Church of North India, Baptists, Methodists – British, Disciples of Christ and the Brethren) The diocese works with the states of Delhi and Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh.

Covering a geographical area of 350-400 km from one end to the other, parishes are both in cities and villages, serving communities from all kinds of backgrounds. The diocese’s outreach is primarily through churches, educational institutions and hospitals. It has 48 churches and 19 institutions including St Stephen’s College, St. Stephen’s Hospital and St. Thomas Law College.

Discipleship is critical for the Church to grow
As he talks about mission and evangelism in his diocese, Bishop Paul explains that a major focus for the year is discipleship: ‘Our main priority is to get people back to scriptures, back to our foundations in order that we may make disciples. We see a lot of people coming to faith but there is a lack of understanding about who Jesus is and what it means to be his followers.’

The diocese has earmarked 2025 as the year of ‘Intentional discipleship and disciple-making’. During Lent, the diocese is following the ‘Jesus-Shaped Life’ studies and has had the twelve Bible studies translated into Hindi. Pastors and lay leaders have been trained to lead studies in home and family settings.

The bishop has written a book, ‘Who is Jesus?’ based on themes in Mark’s gospel. It contains nineteen studies for individuals, Bible study groups, and students preparing for Confirmation.

Bishop Paul continues: ‘Discipleship is critical for the Church to grow and become mature. While the Church in North India is rapidly growing there is a lack of depth and maturity. I believe that only if we make disciples will the church be involved in mission.’

The diocese is also devoting five days across the year to focus on each of the ‘Five Marks of Mission’ (Tell, Teach, Tend, Transform and Treasure). Their Annual Spiritual Convention in Haryana on February 28- March 2 explored ‘Tell’. Another is planned in Delhi on 28-30 March to focus on discipleship. Local churches also are involved in outreach programmes. The Cathedral Church of the Redemption supports over 60 children of leprosy patients through their education. Christ Church, in Noida, runs a small school for children whose parents make a living by collecting waste from streets, bins, rivers and refuse sites.

Meeting the challenges
One of the major challenges facing people in Bishop Paul’s setting are India’s anti-conversion laws in 11 states. These state-level statutes prohibit religious conversions that are considered coercive or fraudulent. The laws are controversial and have been criticised for violating the freedom of religion. Bishop Paul says ‘They are a serious challenge for new believers as many people are harassed when they hold prayer meetings in their house or if house churches are held in their homes. Pastors have been arrested for holding services.’

Bishop Paul describes other challenges in the diocese in the areas of ‘education, medical care, poverty, corruption, lack of jobs, communal tension… pollution.’ The Church has been responding to these needs through its outreach. Bishop Paul says: ‘In order to alleviate poverty we believe the key is to educate the poor. This is something that we are doing through our schools and churches. Some of our churches earmark scholarships for poor children no matter which religious background they come from. The Church has always been in the forefront in responding to needs of the community whether it was during COVID or during other calamities.’

The fruits of evangelism and outreach
Over the past 25 years, an inter-denominational group has invested in a School of Biblical Teaching. Bishop Paul says, ‘New believers are brought together for a week or sometimes less to teach them how to study the bible and then to teach others. This has now become a movement as many have gone through this training and then we encourage them to come for the leaders training programme. Through this, many have been equipped.’ The location of these week-long seminars change from place to place. Another inter-denominational project was a one volume Bible commentary called the ‘South Asia Bible Commentary’ which has been translated in Hindi and made available since 2020. Bishop Paul says ‘We did this so that people could have one solid resource that they could go to. This was written by South Asian scholars resident in South Asia and familiar with our context. This has been a great blessing for our people.’

Hopes for the decade ahead
Looking to the future, Bishop Paul hopes that ‘the Church in North India would grow in leaps and bounds, not just numerically, but in maturity and in discipleship. For the Church to be a voice of hope, it has to lead by example and share the good news of the kingdom and the hope of eternal life with others. The Church is also called to be a prophetic voice in the midst of corruption and persecution. Challenges will come but we are called to be faithful. At the end of the day, it is God’s mission and his work and we are called to persevere with the work of making disciples entrusted to us.’

For Reflection

Read more about the Diocese of Delhi here

Watch Bishop Paul Swarup share his testimony here

Passages that inspire Bishop Paul Swarup in mission and evangelism include:

– Matthew 10:1 – Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

– Matt 28:18-20 – Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

– Luke 9:23 – Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.