CleanupBot II at 17:21, 13 August 2023

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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2015}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type =
| honorific_prefix = [[Bishop]]
| name = G. T. Abraham, [[Church of South India|CSI]]
| honorific_suffix =
| title = [[Bishop]] - in - [[Diocese of Nandyal of the Church of South India|Nandyal]]
| image =
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| native_name = మహ గనుడు జి. టి. అబ్రహం అయ్యాగారు
| native_name_lang = [[Telugu language|Telugu]]
| church = [[Uniting church]] ''([[Church of South India]] comprising [[Wesleyan Church|Wesleyan Methodist]], [[Congregational]] and [[Anglican]] missionary societies – [[United Society|SPG]], [[English Wesleyan Mission|WMMS]], [[London Missionary Society|LMS]], [[Church Missionary Society|CMS]], and the [[Church of England]])''
| archdiocese =
| province =
| metropolis =
| diocese = [[Diocese of Nandyal of the Church of South India|Nandyal]]
| see =
| appointed = 28 December 1994
| term = From 28 December 1994 through 25 September 2005<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://dioceseofnandyal.org/ |title=Diocese of Nandyal |access-date=25 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106141716/http://dioceseofnandyal.org/ |archive-date=6 January 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| retired = 25 September 2005
| predecessor = [[Ryder Devapriam]], [[Church of South India|CSI]]
| successor = [[P. J. Lawrence]], [[Church of South India|CSI]]
| opposed =
| other_post = 
| ordination = 1967<ref name="Took">Christopher Took (over e-mail), ''Virginia Seminary to confer honorary doctorates at Lambeth'', 25 July 1998. [http://www.wfn.org/1998/07/msg00253.html]</ref>
| ordained_by = [[Ernest John]], [[Church of South India|CSI]]
| consecration = 1994
| consecrated_by = Moderator Vasanth P. Dandin, [[Church of South India|CSI]] (Principal Consecrator) and R. Paul Raj, [[Church of South India|CSI]] (Co-consecrator)
| cardinal =
| created_cardinal_by =
| rank = [[Bishop]]
| birth_name = Gondi Theodore Abraham
| birth_date = 
| birth_place = Nossam, [[Andhra Pradesh]]
| death_date = {{Death date|2018|02|16|}}<ref name="CSI">[[Church of South India Synod|CSI Synod Communications]], ''Bishop Emeritus G. T. Abraham passes away'', 16.2.2018.[http://www.csisynod.com/pcdeptnews_view.php?Id=5591&cat=]</ref>
| death_place = [[Nandyal]]
| buried = 
| resting_place_coordinates =
| nationality = [[Indian people|India]]
| religion = [[Christianity]]
| residence = [[Nandyal]]
| parents = Rev. G.T. Mark and Christianamma Patnam
| occupation = [[Priesthood]]
| previous_post = [[Pastor]]
| education = [[Bachelor of Science|B. Sc.]] ([[Sri Venkateswara University|Sri Venkateswara]]), [[Bachelor of Divinity|B. D.]] ([[Senate of Serampore College (University)|Serampore]]), [[Master of Theology|Th. M.]] ([[Virginia Theological Seminary|Virginia]]) 
| alma_mater = Government Arts College, [[Cuddapah]], [[United Theological College, Bangalore]], [[Virginia Theological Seminary]], [[Alexandria, Virginia]]
| motto =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| coat_of_arms =
| coat_of_arms_alt = 
| feast_day =
| venerated =
| saint_title =
| beatified_date =
| beatified_place =
| beatified_by =
| canonized_date =
| canonized_place =
| canonized_by =
| attributes =
| patronage =
| shrine = Love builds
| suppressed_date = 
| module =
| other =
}}

'''G. T. Abraham''' (25 September 1940 - 16 February 2018)<ref name="CSI"/> was [[Bishop]] - in - [[Diocese of Nandyal of the Church of South India]].<ref name="Constance">Constance M. Millington, ''An ecumenical venture: the history of Nandyal diocese in Andhra Pradesh, 1947-1990'', Issue 214 of ATC publication, Asian Trading Corporation, Bengaluru, 1993. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ue_jAAAAMAAJ&q=]</ref> He also taught Christian Ministry at the [[Andhra Christian Theological College]].<ref name="Took" /> [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]]

==Studies==
Abraham studied sciences at the Government Arts College in [[Kadapa]].<ref name="Took" /> He later enrolled at the [[United Theological College (Bangalore)|United Theological College]], [[Bengaluru]] and studied theology ([[B. D.]]) during 1962-1966<ref>K. M. Hiwale (Compiled), ''[[United Theological College, Bangalore|The United Theological College]] Directory 1910-1997'', Bengaluru, 1997. p.33. [https://books.google.com/books?id=yCvXPgAACAAJ&dq]</ref> when [[Joshua Russell Chandran]] was the College Principal. As part of the University requirements, Abraham submitted a dissertation entitled ''An Estimate of the Missionary and Pastoral Ministry of Bishop Azariah from 1922 to 1945''<ref>Susan Billington Harper, ''In the Shadow of the Mahatma: Bishop [[V. S. Azariah]] and the Travails of Christianity in British India'', William B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, 2000, p.409.[https://books.google.com/books?id=gvUqv6-pH4UC&lpg=PA409&ots=9XyNmXthOU&dq=gondi%20theodore%20abraham&pg=PR4#v=onepage&q=gondi%20theodore%20abraham&f=false]</ref><ref name="Constance"/> after which the [[Senate of Serampore College (University)]] under the Registrarship of [[Chetti Devasahayam]] awarded him a graduate degree. Later, Abraham was assigned pastoral roles in the parishes of Nandyal Diocese.<ref name="Took" />
Abraham later undertook post-graduate studies in theology at the [[Virginia Theological Seminary]]<ref name="Took" /> in [[Alexandria, Virginia]] leading to a [[Master of Theology]] in 1983<ref>Anglican Communion News Service, ''Virginia Seminary to confer honorary doctorates at Lambeth'', 1998.[http://www.anglicannews.org/news/1998/07/virginia-seminary-to-confer-honorary-doctorates-at-lambeth.aspx]</ref> and returned for parish work in the Diocese. He was later deputed to teach at the [[Andhra Christian Theological College]], [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]].

==Ecclesiastical ministry==
===Pastoral===
In 1967, after the [[Diocese of Nandyal of the Church of South India|Diocese of Nandyal]] ordained Abraham, he pastored parishes within the Diocese which was still experimenting<ref name="Constance"/> with the [[Society for the Propagation of the Gospel]] and the [[Church of North India]]<ref name="Constance"/> and finally the [[Church of South India]].<ref name="Constance"/>

===Teaching===
During the Principalship of [[Suppogu Joseph]], [[Samavesam of Telugu Baptist Churches|STBC]] at the Protestant Regional Theologiate in [[Secunderabad]], Abraham joined as Faculty Member in 1987 and began teaching Theology to ministerial aspirants in a near-[[Ecumenism|ecumenical]] setting of [[Anglicans]], [[Baptists]], [[Lutherans]], [[Methodists]], [[English Wesleyan Mission|Wesleyan Methodists]] and others from the small and indigenous Churches during the teaching tenures of [[M. Victor Paul]], [[Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church|AELC]], [[G. Dyvasirvadam]], [[Church of South India|CSI]], [[Regunta Yesurathnam|R. Yesurathnam]], [[Church of South India|CSI]] and other notable faculty that included the [[Serampore College]] ''{the only constituent College of the [[Senate of Serampore College (University)]]}'' duo,<ref name="Story">''The Story of Serampore and its College'', Council of Serampore College, Serampore (Fourth Edition), 2005, p.92.[https://books.google.com/books?id=3zLPAAAAMAAJ&q=the+story+of+serampore+and+its+college&dq=the+story+of+serampore+and+its+college&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3mbuxrPfSAhVKvI8KHUisCCgQ6AEIIzAC]</ref> namely P. Joseph, [[Samavesam of Telugu Baptist Churches|STBC]]<ref name="Story"/> and the [[Old Testament]] Scholar,<ref name="GBR">G. Babu Rao, ''[[Wisdom tradition]] and the Indian Parallels with special reference to [[Telugu literature]]'' in ''Reflections on Theology Today'', [[Andhra Christian Theological College|ACTC]], [[Secunderabad]], 1990.[http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3540] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007194352/http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3540 |date=7 October 2009 }}</ref> G. Babu Rao, [[CBCNC]].<ref name="Story"/>

When Abraham joined the [[Andhra Christian Theological College]] in [[Secunderabad]] in 1987, he became the third [[Spiritual formation|Spiritual Formator]] to have taught at the Seminary, with the first two being, [[B. E. Devaraj]] and [[Ryder Devapriam]] who taught at [[Rajahmundry]] and [[Secunderabad]] during the 1960s and the 1970s respectively.

===Bishopric===
In 1992, [[Ryder Devapriam]] breathed his last during an overseas visitation to [[Germany]] leading to ''[[Sede vacante]]'' in the [[Diocese of Nandyal of the Church of South India|Diocese of Nandyal]] leading to the direct supervision of the ecclesiastical affairs by the [[Church of South India Synod]] led by Vasanth P. Dandin for nearly two years' until 1994 when the [[Church of South India Synod|Synod]] conducted elections and declared Abraham as the Bishop.

After more than a decade of serving as Bishop - in - Nandyal, Abraham retired on attaining superannuation in 2005.

==Honours==
While attending the [[Lambeth Conference]], 1998, the [[Virginia Theological Seminary]] conferred upon Abraham an honorary doctorate at a special academic convocation on 27 July 1998 in [[Canterbury Cathedral]]'s [[Crypt]] in [[Canterbury]], [[Kent]] by Bishop Peter James Lee of [[Episcopal Diocese of Virginia]].<ref>[http://www.lambethconference.org/1998/news/lambethdaily/080398ld.pdf ''The Lambeth Daily'', Issue 11, Monday, 3 August 1998. p.3]</ref>

==References==
;Notes
{{Reflist}}
;Further reading
* {{cite journal
| author=
| title=The Living church,
| year=1998
| volume=217
| issue=
| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=BDTiAAAAMAAJ&q=
}}
* {{cite journal
| author=K. M. George
| title=Church of South India: Life in Union 1947-1997
| year=1999
| volume=
| issue=
| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=zmjZAAAAMAAJ&q=
}}
* {{cite journal
| author=Constance M. Millington
| title=An ecumenical venture: the history of Nandyal diocese in Andhra Pradesh, 1947-1990
| year=1993
| volume=
| issue=214 of Asian Trading Corporation, Bengaluru publication
| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=ue_jAAAAMAAJ&q=
}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-rel}}
{{Succession box| before=[[Ryder Devapriam]], [[Church of South India|CSI]] 25 August 1985 – 4 September 1992 | title=[[Diocese of Nandyal of the Church of South India|Bishop - in - Nandyal]] | after=[[P. J. Lawrence]], [[Church of South India|CSI]] 29 May 2006 –2012| years=28 December 1994 – 25 September 2005}}
{{S-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abraham, G. T.}}
[[Category:Anglican bishops of Nandyal]]
[[Category:Telugu people]]
[[Category:20th-century Anglican bishops in Asia]]
[[Category:Indian Christian theologians]]
[[Category:Senate of Serampore College (University) alumni]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Virginia Theological Seminary alumni]]
[[Category:Senate of Serampore College (University) faculty]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Church of South India clergy]]

G. T. Abraham - Revision history

CleanupBot II at 17:21, 13 August 2023