Sometimes things at OCMS seem to fall providentially into place. This September, we had the joy of celebrating Karuna’s successful viva while she was still in Oxford and able to join us for one more Chapel service. It offered a special opportunity not only to mark the completion of her long PhD journey, but also to hear her speak about the remarkable growth of Christianity in Nepal and the devastating tragedy now unfolding there. Celebration and lament were brought together within a reflection on Romans 8:18–27, under the title When Creation Groans.
The scholar was Karuna Sharma, whose PhD journey began some years ago and now reaches its end as she moves from OCMS scholar to OCMS alumna. She is not the first in her family to walk this road. Her father is an OCMS alumnus, having completed his PhD nearly 20 years ago, while her brother Kiren is currently working towards completing his own PhD with OCMS. For the family, and for OCMS, it is a particular joy to see another generation following in those footsteps.
Karuna’s research examines intercaste marriage among Nepali Christians. Caste has shaped Nepali society for generations, and its influence does not disappear at the church door. Though born and raised in Nepal, Karuna has said that the PhD has deepened her understanding of the caste system, and of her own culture, in ways she had not expected. Her work gives the church in Nepal something it needs and has had very little of: rigorous theological scholarship rooted in its own context. She is the first female Nepali Langham Scholar, and among Nepali Christian women may well be the first to complete a PhD in this field.
In Chapel she began with history. Christianity in Nepal is very young. The country was closed to outside influence until the early 1950s, and the church’s rapid growth dates from 1951. Nepal remained officially a Hindu kingdom until 2007, when it became a secular state, but Christians still face real difficulties. Churches and Bible colleges cannot be registered as religious institutions, and anti-conversion legislation restricts speaking about faith. Karuna noted that this response follows the church’s growth: the number of Christians rose sharply in a single decade, and the authorities noticed.
Then she turned to the present. Nepal’s geography makes it vulnerable to landslides, floods and earthquakes; the most serious recent disaster, the 2015 earthquake, killed more than 9,000 people. The current floods have already claimed around 1,450 lives, with some 6,000 people still missing. As we looked at photographs of the devastation, Karuna spoke about what is happening on the ground and about her own conversations with people affected. Paul’s words in Romans 8 speak of a creation groaning as it waits for redemption, and of the Spirit who prays with us when we have no words of our own. Hearing her, it was hard to hear them any other way.
Karuna is not only a scholar; she teaches at [name of seminary], one of the first seminaries in Nepal, where her students come from many different regions. As she has put it, when she teaches them she is influencing not just individuals but the communities and churches they will return to. Women make up roughly 70% of Nepali congregations, and many of her students are women who are still told that training female leaders is a poor investment. Her presence in the classroom is itself part of her answer.
We give thanks for Karuna’s achievement, and we ask you to hold Nepal in prayer: those who have lost family and homes, those still searching for the missing, and the churches responding to the need.
Karuna speaks more about her research, her experience as a Nepali Christian woman and her hopes for theological education in Nepal in this short video produced by Langham Partnership. Her journey was also celebrated at a Nepalese Evening hosted by Langham in Oxford, which brought together friends and supporters for an evening of Nepali culture, scholarship and faith.
Congratulations, Dr Karuna Sharma. We are proud to call you an OCMS alumna.