There are many churches that fall in the category of Evangelical Churches, their differentiating attribute is that they do not have ordained priests, bishops, etc. as in the case with Episcopal Churches, and instead they have pastors, ministers, etc.  Some of the major Evangelical churches in Kerala are the Pentecostals, the Brethren, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Assemblies of God, the Mennonite Churches, the Hindustan Covenant Churches, the Salvation Army, etc.  Many of them are affiliated to the Evangelical Fellowship of India. They all are in one way or the other Protestant churches. 

Protestantism was a movement initiated by Martin Luther (1483-1546) who was a Roman Catholic Monk.  He received priesthood in 1507 and soon started teaching Theology at Wittenberg.  He was a person of deep spirituality by with strong inner conflicts.  While reflecting on the teachings of the New Testament he received an illumination that transferred his whole life. “Justice of God of which the Bible speaks is not a condemning justice, but - unlike human justice – is totally beneficient and liberating.  The inner peace Luther had sought for so long could not be the product of his own work or personal efforts to become just (holy, perfect) but could only come as a gift from God.  The inner liberation (‘justification’) had to be received gratefully, not achieved. The great slogan of the Protestant Reformation was thus born :’Sola Fides’ or  ‘Justification only by Faith, not by works’.

Luther was very critical about the teaching and practices of the Roman Catholic Church that do not agree with the Bible, especially the sale of indulgences, prayers for the death, etc.  Luther made a draft of his 95 Point Theses which he nailed on the door of the Church of Wittenberg., looking at faith and practice from the authority of word of God as found in the Scriptures as against the human authority within the Church. According to Luther every Christian has the Spirit of God within him and is able to read and interpret God’s words written in the Bible as it applies to his or her life. Luther protested the imposition of Roman ways on the whole Church and rejected the authority of the Pope, thus opening up the way for national and local churches.

Protestantism gave a new phase to the Christian tradition. The emphasis was on personal faith and personal responsibility rather than saving power of the Church or its Sacraments. Protestantism stressed the central role of the Laity in the Church.  It gave rise to a great number and variety of churches all over the world. John Calvin (1509-1564) was a French theologian who was attracted to the work of Luther. He adopted a more rigid from of Protestantism, while the Northern European Churches generally adhered to the Lutheran tradition; those in Switzerland, France and Holland prevailed with Calvinism.  In England with the separation of King Henry VIII from the Roman Church, Protestantism was somewhere in the middle of Lutheranism and Calvinism. They finally preferred to be called Anglicans. Thus was born the Church of England and its influences in missionary activities elsewhere including India which led to the spread of the Anglican Church in India. In India the Anglican influence was there in the development of the CSI, the CNI (the Church of North India), and the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Kerala.

Having separated from the R.C. Church the various Protestant churches organized themselves into national churches, each with particular theological orientations.  While some preferred to follow the model of Orthodox churches, some preferred to function as “free churches” as Non-conformists. In England the church included Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, and Quakers. All of these have their adherents in India also. 

By its tradition of personal interpretations of the Bible and a general suspicion about Church authority, Protestantism tends to be divided.  The 20th century saw many new churches in India . The multiplicity of the Churches, in India (as well as the world all over) has led to attempts at unifying them according to the original wish of Jesus Christ that his disciples “would be one” (Jn. 17:11) . Thus, ecumenical movements began to take shape. The World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in1910, the establishment of the World Council of Churches in1948, the National Missionary Council of India in 1914, the National Council of Churches in India formed in 1979 is the outcome.  The founding of the CSI (in 1947) and the CNI in 1970 are also great achievements in ecumenism.  In. 2004 the CSI, CNI and the Mar Thoma Syrian Church have formally constituted the Common Church of India (CCI).