Evangeleal Church of India

On 14 January 1919, the Tamil congregation of different German, Danish and Swedish Lutheran missions, joined together to form the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC). In March 1921, the constitution of the TELC was amended to include the structure of episcopacy. In 1921, a Swedish missionary Rev. Dr. Ernst Heuman, was ordained as the first bishop of the TELC. The bishop of TELC holds the title Bishop of Tranquebar. In 1956, Dr. R B Manickam became the first Indian to be ordained as the bishop of TELC.[3]