New Moderator for Indian Church: CEN 1.25.08 p 6.

The 31st biannual synod of the Church of South India has elected a new moderator. The Rt. Rev. John Wilson Gladstone, Bishop in South Kerala, was elected leader of the united church by the 500 synod delegates meeting in Visakhapatnam on Jan 12.

The Bishop in Madurai, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Aswer was elected Deputy Moderator, and Mr. M. Jayakumar of Bangalore and Mr. Devasahayam of Warangal were elected General Secretary and Treasurer respectively, while 66 members of the church were elected to serve on its executive council.

Born in 1945 at Neyyattinkara near Trivandrum, South India the son of an Anglican priest, Bishop Gladstone was educated at University College in Trivandrum, United Theological College in Bangalore, and earned a doctorate in theology from the University of Hamburg. He has served as a youth pastor, instructor and then dean of the Kerala United Theological Seminary, and in 1997 was consecrated Bishop in South Kerala.

He has served on the board of a number of church and secular institutions and was President of the Senate of Serampore College, the only theological University in India, and was editor of the Journal of the Church History Association of India. In 2007 he was named an honorary fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University.

Bishop Gladstone is married to Dr. Hepzi Gladstone, an educationist, and they have two children.