Our Visit to The Most Magnificent ‘Medak Cathedral’.

In hope of peace, good health and happiness we pray to all the Gods of all religions. As Hindus, we regularly visit Temples in the city and go on pilgrimages to ancient Temples of great religious importance located anywhere in the country. As a young student at a missionary school, I began to pray along with fellow students at the school Chapel and during school outings and excursions at Churches. And later when visiting other cities and new places on tours and sightseeing we have visited and sincerely prayed at Churches, Synagogues, Gurudwaras, Durgahs, Buddhist Temples, Jain Temples and at any place of religious significance. With such a background, we have visited the magnificent Cathedral at Medak Town, twice so far. I call it magnificent and support my statement though weakly with several photographs of the Church attached to this article.

The Cathedral at Medak Town is popularly called as Medak Cathedral or Medak Church. It is at 100 Km. from our house in Secunderabad. Medak Cathedral is the seat of the Bishop in Medak for the Church of South India (CSI). This Cathedral is the largest of all Churches in the State of Andhra Pradesh. The Cathedral also sees over the Diocese of Medak which is the single largest diocese in Asia and the second largest Diocese in the World. The main landmark of Medak Town is the Cathedral. It is built on an immense scale in white granite in Gothic style and stands on a sprawling 1000 acre land. The Cathedral is 100 ft. wide, 200 ft. long with a 175 ft. high bell tower and it can accommodate 5000 people.

It is said that this Church was born out of a famine that struck Medak for three years before 1914. At that time a dedicated English missionary from England, Rev. Charles Walker Posnett was posted as the Reverend of Medak. Hundreds of families approached the Reverend for food and blessings. Their pathetic condition moved the Reverend and he provided them with enough food. And as an act of thanks to God who helped him provide sustenance for the starving people of Medak, he proposed building a Church. The grateful inhabitants of Medak instantly accepted the proposal. Thus with the labour of love from those simple peasants, the Church rose. The construction of the Church commenced in 1914 and it took ten years to complete the construction. It was consecrated in 1924 during Christmas. The Church has an impressive style of vaulting and large painted stained glass windows, the most fascinating feature of the Church. These stained glass windows are like a picture book of the Bible. The pictures are bright and glow vibrant and lifelike when the Sun is out. The colour spectrum produced by these windows is beautiful and beyond description. These three windows in the Church are created by Sir Frank O. Salisbury in his London Studio over a very long period. Each window is made up of several bits of painted glass, which are glued into a single piece and then delicately set into the stone windows. The window to the North offers a canopy to the altar; it depicts the scene of the ascension of Jesus, towering above the altar, dwarfing everything else as Jesus appears ascending to heaven. The other two windows decorating the East and West façade depict the scenes of the birth of Jesus and his crucifixion. The mosaic floor in the Church is very impressive; it consists of six different coloured tiles from England laid skillfully in a very attractive manner.

You can see many Hindu customs in practice here, like entering the premises barefoot, the offering of coconuts and hair (tonsuring) in return for the favours bestowed by the Lord. I consider it a very important, historic and a beautiful place to visit and pray, especially if you are close by; in and around Hyderabad.