A VOICE FROM BEYOND RTMC
The Torch That Was Carried Out
Pastor Martin Alphonse reflects on fifty years of association with Richmond Town Methodist Church
Pastor Martin Alphonse • Emmanuel Methodist Church, Chennai
It was June 1973 when I first stepped into the parsonage of Richmond Town Methodist Church to meet Rev. Dr. Theodore Williams. I had heard of his unquenchable thirst for the Gospel, and of the way he had made RTMC synonymous with Christian mission. His passionate sermons for the Great Commission had placed this church on the map of global evangelism.
A year later, through his mentoring, three young men from RTMC — Albert Davis, Niranjan Noronha, and Robin Paul, joined me as contemporaries at the Union Biblical Seminary, Yavatmal. I came from Emmanuel Methodist Church, Chennai; they came from RTMC. But at UBS, mission was the flame of all our training, and we found in each other a common commitment that has never dwindled. It continues to burn.
In 1989–1994, during my pastoral service in Chennai, I had the honour of preaching at RTMC on a number of occasions. The people of Emmanuel Methodist Church always regarded RTMC as a sister church. Our choirs ministered to each other. The bond between us has never broken.
“My fear is not that our great movement will eventually cease to exist. My fear is that our people will become content to live without the fire, the power, the excitement, the supernatural element that makes us great.”
John Wesley, 1786
As RTMC marches into a new era, let that warning be our spur. We were raised as part of a movement, not merely as a congregation. May Richmond Town Methodist Church carry the torch of the Gospel into the unfinished task of world evangelisation — with fire, with power, and with the supernatural element that has always made Methodism great.
Pastor Martin Alphonse
Emmanuel Methodist Church, Chennai • In Christ’s love
