Month: February 2015

KOTTAYAM: The Malankara Orthodox Church alleged that the Patriarch has ridiculed the Judiciary by visiting Piravom Church. The Patriarch was led to the feuded Churches, despite the Court order banning the entry of Bishops. “He could have been misled by the followers. Yet, he, being a foreign spiritual leader, challenged the law of the land. This has put out the enthusiasm for reconciliation,” the Catholicos said.

A similar opinion was aired by the Metropolitan of the Kandanadu East diocese Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius two days ago. He said the Patriarch’s visit to Piravom Church was not in the program schedule approved by the state government. By arranging such a program later, the state has also shown partiality. The Orthodox Church will present an official response on the affair at a Holy Synod to be convened on February 23.

The Patriarch constituted a panel to hold mediation talks between the two churches during his first ecclesiastical visit to India last week. The decision was welcomed by the supreme head of the Malankara Orthodox Church also. However, now HH Baselios Marthoma Paulose II, Catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Church, had said that certain actions by the Patriarch had disturbed the mediation attempts.

The Orthodox Church alleged that there are certain people within the other Church with vested interests, though the Patriarch yearned for peace between both.

Kottayam: In the pluralistic context of India, Theological Education should help creating a new humanity which impart social justice and virtues that give sanctity to life, says Catholicos
Baselios Marthoma Paulose II, the head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.

He reflected this in the commemoration speech of the Convocation of the Senate of Serampore University in the Orthodox Seminary, Kottayam.

From the words of the Catholicos:
“The original vision of Serampore of the founding fathers Carey, Marshman and Ward combined theory and practice in an admirable manner. For them, knowledge was to be at the service of the masses. They did not limit it and research we do should ultimately be in the service of the pastoral care of our people. We have the original model in the ministry of Jesus Christ our lord, whose teachings and acts of healing, his prayer and meditation, his suffering, death and resurrection were all for the sake of this “world that God so loved”.

Our motherland India is likely seeing a major change in the self- understanding of our country. The secular character of our country which recognized the value of all religious beliefs and diverse spiritualities and the constitutional freedom of religious belief, conscience and hence on, seem to be challenged by communal forces. I believe the tiny population of Christians in India of less than 2.5% is not a menace to anybody. On the contrary, Christians are supposed to be at the service of the nation out of genuine love and compassion for the people, not for quantitative growth or power-building of their churches. We are together in the Household of God and nobody can threaten to send us out of our own house.

A genuine friendship and collaboration is required among the Seminaries in the Serampore family for our joint Christian witness in the present setting. The church should return to the original Indian identity and authenticity of our faith in Christ Jesus and to our commitment to justice and compassion of the kingdom of God. There are so much inequality and injustice in our society, particularly the centuries old suffering of Dalits, Adivasis and women and all those poor who are socially and economically marginalized in a globalized economy. Empowering these people is a major task on our hands. But we need to enlist the genuine collaboration of our neighbors of other faiths in carrying out this task of building a new humanity and new nation.”

KOCHI: Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem-II, the supreme head of the Syrian Orthodox Church, will arrive in Kerala on February 7 for an 11-day-long Apostolic Visit to India. This is the first apostolic visit of Patriarch Aphrem to India after taking up the position of the supreme head of the Orthodox Church in March 2014.

During the nine-day trip in Kerala includes visitations to various churches under his jurisdiction, delivering blessing message at ‘Maramon convention’ and meeting with State Government officials.

On February 16, he will leave for Chennai, for the installation of a Church at Anna Nagar. From Chennai, the Patriarch will proceed to Delhi to see the President of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

A delegation, comprising six metropolitans, will accompany the Patriarch during his trip to India.

At a press conference, asked whether there would be any conciliation talks with the Malankara Orthodox Church, Mar Gregorios of Jacobite church and secretary of the Synod said, “no such plan has been scheduled so far. It is learnt that the Catholicos of Malankara Orthodox Church has sent a letter to the Patriarch seeking an initiative for conciliation. We have not received any official communication. Sill we consider it as a welcome move.”

Letter from HH the Catholicos