Voices of the Congregation
Members of Richmond Town Methodist Church speak of faith, belonging, and what this church has meant across a lifetime
The pages that follow carry the voices of the congregation — members who have been part of Richmond Town Methodist Church for a season and those who have never known another church home. From Bangalore and from far beyond it, from the 1960s to the 2020s, they speak of how they arrived, what they remember, what the church has built in them, and what they are trusting it to carry forward.
No editorial hand has tried to make these voices uniform. They are offered as they came — in the words of the people who lived what they describe.
✞ CRADLE TO CROWN
A Three-Generation Story
Beena Mohan on 38 years, two daughters, and four grandchildren at the 150th
Some stories are best told by the people who lived them. Beena Mohan’s account of her family’s thirty-eight years at Richmond Town Methodist Church is one of those: a tapestry of arrival, settling, growing children, and now grandchildren sitting where their parents once sat.
Beena Mohan • Member since 1987
To look back at 150 years of our church is to witness a magnificent tapestry of God’s faithfulness. For 38 of those years, my husband Mohan and I have had the profound privilege of watching our own family’s story blend into this sacred history.
Mohan and I were newly married when we first walked into this sanctuary nearly four decades ago. I still remember how vast it felt — like an ocean of unknown space and faces, history, people, and possibilities.
Soon, our daughters Jemima and Benita came along, and that vast sanctuary quickly became an extension of our home. For nearly two decades our family sat together in our favourite pew every Sunday. That specific spot became a holy space of comfort, growth, and shared prayers — the backdrop of our daughters’ childhoods, and the very foundation of their faith.
Now, our babies are grown, married, and raising families of their own. To stand here today alongside Mohan, Jemima and her husband Subhakant, Benita and her husband Vivian, and our four beautiful grandchildren — Anayah, Benjamin, Isaac, and Samara — is an overwhelming blessing.
Our family is profoundly grateful to see a third generation experience this historic 150th anniversary. A milestone like this reminds us that a church is not just a building of stone. It is a house of living and experienced memories.
We stand on the shoulders of the pioneers who built this ministry 150 years ago, and we now joyfully pass that same torch of faith to our grandchildren.
As we celebrate this historic jubilee, our hearts overflow with gratitude for the past, joy for the present, and absolute trust that God will continue to guide our church family for generations to come.
“Great is your faithfulness; your mercies begin afresh each morning.”
Lamentations 3:23
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A Three-Generation Story
Naomi Manorama Joshua writes on parents Egbert and Janet Dhananjaya and their family’s over 60 years association with RTMC
The story of Naomi Manorama Joshua’s family begins in the early 1960s, when her parents, K. Egbert Dhananjaya and Janet Egbert, moved to Bangalore from Mangalore. They had come from the Basel Mission Church in Mangalore and were looking for a welcoming church where they could continue their faith and, importantly, their love of music.
Her father was a bass singer and her mother a soprano. They found what they were looking for at RTMC, and what began as a search for a church became a more than sixty-year family association.
My parents, K. Egbert Dhananjaya and Janet Egbert, were originally from the Basel Mission Church in Mangalore. When they moved to Bangalore in the early 1960s, they were looking for a welcoming church with good music so they could join the choir. My father was a bass singer and my mother a soprano. They found that RTMC was best for them and spent the rest of their lives as members here.
My father served on the Pastorate Committee for several years.
My brother and I attended Sunday school and VBS, were both confirmed in the church. My earliest vivid memory is singing in the choir at thirteen years old.
The story then continued into the next generation. Naomi was married at RTMC to Shashiraj Joshua, who was from Mumbai and transferred his membership to RTMC before their marriage. Their two sons, Karan Harold and Arjun Yohann, were baptised in the church, attended Sunday school and VBS, and were confirmed there. Shashiraj also served as Secretary of the Pastorate Committee for a year.
Today, the family still attends RTMC.
Three generations, from the early 1960s to the present. The church has been the constant across all of it.
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✞ THE ONES WHO LEFT AND CAME BACK
A Mother Who Never Let Her Children See Her Break
Rachel Hongal remembers her mother, Jessie Daniel Hongal
Among the most moving contributions we received for this section is this: a daughter’s portrait of her mother, a woman who was widowed at forty-five and rebuilt her life and her family’s faith from the ground up.
Rachel Hongal writes of Mrs. Jessie Daniel Hongal, known to the congregation simply as Jessie Aunty. Her story is one of grief and resilience, but also of hospitality, generosity and a faith that was lived quietly, day after day.
Rachel Hongal — in memory of her mother, Mrs. Jessie Daniel Hongal
My mother was widowed at forty-five, left with three children and almost nothing to fall back on. Yet she never once let us see her break.
I know exactly where she started every morning: on her knees before we woke, holding onto one verse like a lifeline:
“I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust” (Psalm 91:2).
She lived those words fully. No matter what storm moved through her life, she rose from prayer with a smile.
With three young children to raise alone, she somehow found the strength to build a life from scratch. She took on any sewing that came her way, taught tailoring part-time, catered, made wine, and prepared endless jars of pickles and jams to sell.
Our church family rallied around her, lovingly supporting her efforts, spreading the word, and ensuring she never walked her difficult path alone. In her rare spare time, she crafted beautiful quilts to donate to the women’s fellowship charity.
I honestly do not know when she slept, but I never once heard her complain. Not once.
To everyone at church, she was affectionately known as Jessie Aunty. Her kitchen was the heart of our home — a place where friends were always welcomed and where she would effortlessly whip up delicious meals.
Feeding people was her way of pouring out love.
Even after I moved overseas, she remained that same steady, radiant presence for everyone who crossed her threshold.
Then life brought her the hardest trial a mother can face: my brother Ramesh’s accident. Though he lived for many years after, he never fully recovered before eventually passing away.
She nursed him at home herself, giving everything she had. I watched her grieve, and I watched her keep giving thanks.
Somehow, both were true at once. That is the part that still leaves me in awe.
✞ QUESTION 1
How did you first come to Richmond Town Methodist Church?
Family, faith, chance, a friend — the story of a first connection
For most, the answer was simple: family. The church was simply there, as naturally as the house they grew up in. For others it was a friend, a spouse, a move to a new city.
And for a few, it was something altogether less expected — a miracle, a grief, a door opened by God before they had thought to knock.
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Shilpa Das
It was truly a miracle. I was raised in a Hindu family, but during COVID, my parents experienced Christ’s miraculous healing, which transformed my faith.
While praying for guidance, I reached out to RTMC by email. Pastor Sebastian warmly welcomed us and later baptised me.
I had always hoped for a small church, but God blessed me with a place in one of Bengaluru’s most vibrant and loving church families.
May Whittington (Samuel)
Member 1972–1982 & 1989–1991
My wider family were members of Richmond Town Methodist Church. When we moved to Bangalore from Chandigarh, we lived in the Langford Town area, so RTMC was the natural choice to worship at.
Anneke & Piet Van der Deen
Visiting members 1968–1972, from Emeloord, Holland
Three days after we were married, we left Holland for India, working for a company called Vicon. We were eventually placed in Bangalore, living on Langford Road.
The Methodist Church was close, and that must have been the reason we first went. But we stayed because we met people not only from India but from many other countries.
Our first daughter Miriam was born in Bangalore in 1972. After 25 years, we returned at Christmas 1992 and visited the church again.
Peter M. Paul
Member c.1980–1995
As our family connections to RTMC go back many decades, it was only natural that we started attending when we moved to Bangalore. We had a few relatives who were members and we felt welcomed.
Benjamin Stephen
Member 1982–2014
We were in Nairobi, Kenya, when my parents decided that my brother Edwin and I should come to India for our education. We gained admission at Baldwin Boys’ High School as boarders, and every Sunday evening we would walk down to attend church.
That is how it began.
Usha Sundaresan (nee Cornelius)
I was nine years old when my parents moved from a CSI church to RTMC. I have been part of the congregation’s story ever since — and it has followed me to Austria, where I have attended the Methodist Church in Graz since 1981.
Viji and Priya
I was part of Indiranagar Methodist Church and moved to RTMC to be with friends. What I could not have anticipated was that RTMC would become the place where I met my wife.
We met at VBS in 1980 and were married here on 5th May 1989.
Dr. Thomas Paul • Member since 1995
In 1995, Augusta, our three daughters, and I moved from Baroda in Gujarat to Bangalore. For twenty years we had been deeply involved with Centenary Methodist Church in Baroda, where I also served as head of the Methodist Technical Institute for a decade.
Leaving that close-knit community, we arrived in Bangalore with both apprehension and expectation.
Friends suggested we worship at RTMC. On one of our first Sundays, we were invited to the front and warmly welcomed as members. Coming from a small-town congregation, it took time to feel at home in such a large fellowship — but Rev. Soanes and Rev. Arun Andrews went out of their way to make us feel we belonged.
Soon I was inducted into the choir, with Mrs. Hicks at the piano and Miss Fritchley conducting. The Christmas cantatas each year were one of the great highlights of our church life.
RTMC gave us something we had feared losing when we left Baroda: a community of faith that became, in time, a second home.
Mohan Paul Prabhu • Member since 1987
I began worshiping at RTMC in 1987, soon after moving to Bangalore, mainly attending the evening service while living twenty-five kilometres away on the outskirts.
Both morning and evening services were well attended. Rev. Vinay Moses and Rev. Michael Peppin were the pastors, with Rt. Rev. Elia Peter as Resident Bishop.
The journey meant changing two buses and often standing, but RTMC offered a spiritual community sustained by God’s grace rather than outward frills.
That was enough.
Daniel Dawson • Member from 1961 to 1973
We lived quite far from RTMC, but we found that it was the place to be. That started around 1961.
It was a Sunday evening service in the early 1960s. Dr. Sam Kamalesan was the guest preacher. He preached from John 1:12 which says:
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
After the sermon, people responded to receive Christ and I was one of the many that went forward. Mr. JC Paulose talked to me and explained further and prayed with me.
Thus began my journey.
Dr. JT Seamands, Dr. David Seamands, Rev. Fred Gokavi are the pastors I remember because I was a new believer in Christ in the early 1960s and I was starting to discover what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.
The preaching of these pastors was revolutionary to me, and I was eager to learn and grow in faith.
✞ QUESTION 2
What is your single most vivid memory of the church?
A moment, a sound, a smell, a face — something that comes back
We asked people to give us one thing: a single image or moment that the mind holds when it thinks of RTMC.
The answers were strikingly varied, and together they form a portrait of a place that has lodged itself, across six decades, in the memories of those it held.
For Rachel Hongal, that memory is music.
Rachel Hongal
Member 1965–1985
For me, it is the music. I can still feel the pure energy of the congregation worshipping together as the choir led us, and how the church used to truly come alive with the younger generation.
It was a beautiful, nostalgic blur of the Praise Singers, the young men’s quartets, and the sweet harmonies of the Lazaro sisters, to name just a few.
For Benjamin Stephen, the memory is of VBS and the long journey to church.
Benjamin Stephen
Member 1982–2014
My VBS days. Living in Jayanagar 8th block — which in those days was far to travel from — I would commute on the BTS bus for those ten days and looked forward to the Love Feast on the penultimate day.
I also remember Stephen’s Hall, the library behind it, and the guitar classes I took with Ravi Arthur.
For Niranjan Noronha, the memory is simpler and perhaps all the more vivid for it:
Miss Jean Fritchley playing beautiful hymns on the Hammond organ.
May Whittington remembers not simply a sound or a face, but a turning point.
May Whittington (Samuel)
Member 1972–1982 & 1989–1991
I became a born-again Christian at RTMC in 1973, and was helped in my spiritual walk by the Navigators.
That is my most vivid memory — not a service or a sermon specifically, but the moment and the people around it.
Amritha Sarah Singh remembers RTMC through all the senses that make a place familiar over many years.
Amritha Sarah Singh
Sound: the church bell.
Smell: the beautiful garden with its lovely flowers and huge trees, and the food from Stephen’s Hall on occasions.
Faces: Mrs. Giddney, Ms. Fritchley, and many, many others.
These come back not separately but all at once, as a single impression of a place that felt whole.
For Sunitha Gokavi, one particular musical moment remains unforgettable.
Sunitha Gokavi
I was moved to tears and couldn’t stop crying after the Praise Singers sang the Hallelujah Chorus.
It was a powerful moment of recognising who Jesus is. It was the kind of moment you do not manufacture and cannot repeat.
For Mohan Paul Prabhu, the vivid memory is connected to a building, a period of change, and a family beginning its own chapter within RTMC.
Mohan Paul Prabhu
The 1990s began with leadership confronting the condition of the then-century-old building. What began as a plan to strengthen and renovate became a full rebuilding project, retaining the Gothic architecture and sloping roof while providing greater capacity.
During construction, services moved temporarily to Montgomery Hall on the Baldwin Girls’ School campus.
The rebuilt church was dedicated around August 1992. It holds a particular place in my family’s story: Our wedding was the first service conducted in the new building.
Our elder son was dedicated at RTMC in 1994, our younger in 1998. The decade was shepherded by Rev. Soanes, Rev. Michael Peppin, Rev. Arun Andrews, Rev. Vasudevan, Rev. J.D. Vijaykumar, Rev. Moses Mamdapur, and Rev. Paneer Williams.
Daniel Dawson’s memories take us back further still, to a time when young adults began creating their own rhythm of worship and fellowship within the church.
Daniel Dawson
Former Member, c.1961–1973 • Now in Brampton, Ontario, Canada
My decade at RTMC goes back to the 1960s — and my single most vivid memory is of what the Young Adult Fellowship built in those years, almost by accident.
Singing Gospel choruses was a fairly new and popular phenomenon in the late 1960s. As Young Adults, we started having a time of chorus singing every Sunday evening at 5:30 pm, half an hour before the service.
News spread, and people from a great many other churches in Bangalore started coming. RTMC was packed every Sunday evening.
I played my accordion, Albert played his guitar, and Dr. Fred led the singing. We used chorus books called ‘Singspiration’ for the congregation to follow.
All of this was done by the Young Adult Fellowship — no committee, no programme, just a group of young people who wanted to sing.
Sometime in the mid to late 1960s, we heard of good musical talents in other Bangalore churches. A few of us came up with the idea of an After-Dinner Song Service, once a month.
Again, RTMC was packed — people from many Bangalore churches coming at 8:00 pm. Various soloists, singing groups, and instrumentalists from across the city performed. It was a blessed time that people looked forward to, and I believe it continued for several years.
We were deeply grateful for the support and encouragement of Pastor Rev. Fred Gokavi, who allowed these YAF programmes to take place in the church. These evenings gave opportunities to proclaim the Gospel to many who were hearing it for the first time.
My first Sunday school teacher at RTMC, around 1964, was Mr. Malcolm Fidge — now in the UK — who was then the Engineer at FEBA India. The class met in the right-hand corner of the original parsonage.
That connection eventually led me to seven years of ministry with FEBA in the Engineering Department, from 1966 to 1973.
Miss Jean Fritchley was the faithful organist. Miss Connie Weston was the choir master. I still remember practising the sevenfold Amen and the correct enunciation she taught us — which I still use to this day.
✞ QUESTION 3
Describe RTMC in Three Words
What the congregation chose, and what those choices reveal
We asked members to describe the church in three words. The responses came from across the decades — from those who have been part of RTMC since the 1960s and those who arrived last year.
What they reveal is less variety than convergence: the same qualities, named again and again, in different combinations.
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Warm · Welcoming · Wonderful
Viji and Priya
Oasis · Community · Examples
Peter M. Paul
Good leadership · Sound teaching · Welcoming
May Whittington
Friendly · Spiritual depth · Outreach
Niranjan Noronha
Welcoming · Supportive · Close-knit
Rachel Hongal
Welcoming · Encouraging · Warm
Benjamin Stephen
Christ-centred · Lively · Open to all
Usha Sundaresan
Home · Hope · Family
Shilpa Das
Foundation · Shelter · Warmth
Amritha Sarah Singh
Spirit · Truth · Worship
Lipsita Sahu
Sacred · Beautiful · Timeless
Hannah D’Brass
Legacy · Faith · Hope
Binita George
What the Words Reveal
Ask forty people to describe a place in three words and you expect variety. What this question revealed instead was convergence — a striking consistency of feeling across very different generations, very different decades, and very different stories of arrival.
Warmth and welcome appear in more responses than any other quality. Peter M. Paul captures the campus quality that underlies this: even as Bangalore grew noisier and faster around it, the RTMC compound remained ‘an oasis of calm.’
Rachel Hongal names the church as welcoming, supportive, and close-knit — a minority community that looked out for one another, helped each other find jobs and apartments, and held each other up in hard times.
Alongside warmth, the responses speak consistently of solidity: Biblical, foundational, Christ-centred.
May Whittington, who became a Christian at RTMC in 1973, names good leadership and sound teaching. Niranjan Noronha, who came at twelve and went on to full-time ministry, names spiritual depth and outreach.
And Viji, who has been a member since 1980, offered perhaps the most memorable summary:
“RTMC stands for Real, Timeless, Meaningful, Caring. That is what it has been to us, and these qualities will stand through the ages.”
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✞ QUESTION 4
How has the church shaped you?
As a person, a professional, a parent, in your faith
Again and again, members described not what the church had given them — programmes, activities, services — but what it had made of them.
The shaping was often quiet, often slow, and, for many, is still continuing. Some speak of people they tried to emulate. Others speak of a particular teacher, a ministry opportunity, a season of discipleship or a moment when the direction of their lives changed.
For Peter M. Paul, the church’s influence came through the people he encountered there.
Peter M. Paul
Member c.1980–1995
As a young person, I saw many examples of kind, caring, humble, and upright people who I tried to emulate.
I saw that strong men are not necessarily those who display outward signs of masculinity, but those who are reliable, kind, and take care of those in need.
It was a real strength of the church that there were many role models for young people — accomplished people who were humble and willing to go the extra mile for others.
For Niranjan Noronha, the influence was more directly connected to his faith and vocation.
Niranjan Noronha
RTMC introduced me to the Bible, created a spiritual thirst, challenged me toward full-time mission and ministry, and trained me in worship, preaching, and Bible study.
My friend Sujan Shadrack invited me at twelve years old.
Everything else followed from that one invitation.
For May Whittington, discipleship at RTMC became something that continued to influence her long after those years had passed.
May Whittington (Samuel)
Member 1972–1982 & 1989–1991
The discipleship course I undertook, and what I learned through the Navigators, has helped me to this day in reaching out to others and in mission.
Rev. Theodore Williams introduced me to Christian Mission and IEM, which we support to this day.
For Anneke and Piet Van der Deen, their years at RTMC gave them a different understanding of what church could mean.
Anneke & Piet Van der Deen
Holland
Back in Holland in 1972 we discovered that the church we had attended before coming to India was more of a social happening than a means of bringing members to Jesus Himself.
Although we tried for ten years to be active in that church, we finally left.
If we do not stay with Jesus’s teachings and try to soften His message, we will be lost.
What we found at RTMC — faith as a personal relationship rather than a religion — changed the direction of our lives.
For Rachel Hongal, the lessons she learned became part of the way she approached life itself.
Rachel Hongal
Member 1965–1985
Being part of the church has strengthened my faith.
The lessons of love, grace, and service I learned there have become the blueprint for how I treat others.
I have learned to meet hardship with quiet strength and patience, because the Lord has a purpose in everything.
For Saraswathi Priyadarshini, the shaping came through an unexpected door: VBS and theatre.
Saraswathi Priyadarshini
RTMC has been the foundation of my faith and one of the greatest influences in my life’s journey.
It was here that a few wonderful women encouraged me to teach at VBS, and that single opportunity changed the course of my life.
I began directing VBS plays, which eventually led me to pursue theatre as a full-time career.
Today I am pursuing a PhD in Theatre in Education.
It all began at RTMC.
And for Mohan Paul Prabhu, after nearly forty years, what remains most clearly is not one programme or one particular event, but the accumulated presence of people and family across the decades.
Mohan Paul Prabhu
After nearly forty years, my memories are chiefly of people: pastors and lay leaders, Sunday school teachers, families worshipping together, children growing in faith.
The church in which I worshipped in 1987 was rebuilt; my wedding was held in the new building; my children were nurtured here; my wife served here; and I was given opportunities to serve that I regard as a God-given privilege.
We look back with gratitude, and forward with faith.
