FOCUS January 2019

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FOCUS January 2019 Vol. 7 No: 1

The Doctrine of Incarnation: A Liturgical Appraisal, Revd Dr. Jameson K. Pallikunnil – Page 15

Cover Photo: Theme: Religious Laws, Practices and Liberation

A Publication of Diaspora FOCUS Second Christian Reformation, Acharya John Sachidanand – Page 18

Editorial, Religious Laws, Practices and Liberation, Revd Dr. Valson Thampu, Trivandrum - Page 3

The Need for a New Vision is Real and Pressing - Part 2, Revd Dr. Valson Thampu, Trivandrum – Page 19

Religious Laws: Bane or Blessing, Dr. Zac Varghese, London – Page 6

Same Sex Marriage Declared Legal by U. S Supreme Court – How it May Affect Mar Thoma Church? Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas – Page 21

Liberative Praxis of Ministerial Calling, Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam – Page 9

Reflection on New Year Resolutions, Rev. Dr. Valson Thampu, Trivandrum - Page 24

The Parliament of World's Religions Meets Again, Dr. Abraham Karickam – Page 11

Tide of Liberal Values and Ebb of Reformation Principles in the Mar Thoma Church: Socio-Religious-Cultural Backlashes, Revd Dr. R. C. Thomas - Page 28

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EDITORIAL Religious Laws, Practices and Liberation You shall know, Jesus said, a tree by its fruits. One might attempt a tentative and apologetic parody these divine words and say that a publication can be known by the issues it addresses and the spiritual freedom with which they are addressed. If you are not convinced, consider the plight of journalism in India.

The Indian media, print and electronic, is obsessed with marginal issues, mostly treated in an angular fashion.

They are required to be so, as it now seems. Journalism, which was not long ago deemed the sentinel of democracy, has become an obliging handmaiden to elite and corporate interests. The media is busy honeymooning with the establishment. The shepherd is if we may borrow a metaphor from Jesus - banqueting with the wolves, demolishing chunks after chunks of mutton, presumably in the interest of the sheep. No one consults sheep on this question. So, the show goes on.

FOCUS, in contrast, has endeavoured to be alert to the shifting seasons in Christendom. Issues central to pursuing our Christian vocation are addressed, ensuring that the reflections reflect the depth of these issues. The authors enjoy total freedom to express themselves.

FOCUS does not push a denominational theology or patronize a particular tradition. The guiding principle is fidelity to the way of Jesus Christ as reflected in the Word.

The over-arching theme of the present issue of FOCUS is ‘religious laws, practices and liberation’. In view of the theological stature of our eminent contributors it would be presumptuous of me to attempt anything more than a perfunctory introduction of the theme in this editorial. To introduce a theme is merely to sketch the broad outlines.

There is universal consensus that freedom is of the essence of spirituality. Many a theologian of standing in fact affirms that freedom is even antecedent to creation itself. They use the illustration of creation, which must have been an exercise in divine freedom. I cite this merely to mark the extreme importance of freedom in the biblical view of life and human destiny. Jesus came, besides, to set the captives free (Lk.4: 18). Even in the Old Testament un-freedom is deemed tantamount to death - the death of the human, as against the death of the body.

So, freedom is God’s gift to humankind, incorporated into the very DNA of creation. It enjoys the pride of place in God’s concern for human beings. Human unfreedom is a contradiction of who God is; for the human condition, insofar as man is created in the image and likeness of God, mirrors or caricatures the Person of God.

Religion is, in this light, meant to be a nursery of freedom.

Such a provision is needed because of the paradoxical dynamic of freedom. Freedom, if it is unfettered, is liable to turn into its opposite. Most theologians addressing the thorny theme of theodicy, at the centre of which is the challenge of making sense of evil in a scheme of things created by a just, compassionate and all-powerful God, locate its seed in freedom. Evil is bound to arise in the exercise of freedom. Human beings are free - as the drama in the Garden of Eden illustrates - to abuse freedom and embrace death-orientation.

Religion is envisaged to be an aid to human freedom; freedom understood in its positive significance. The mark of a free human being is her ability to express her godly best, which is possible only through a passionate partnership with God. Mere absence of the bars of prison, or even constricting circumstances, does not denote freedom. A barren tree is not a symbol of freedom. Only a tree that produces good fruit is. Freedom needs to be authenticated with fruitfulness. Jesus says the vine branches can be fruitful only if they abide in the vine, which is the Son of Man. The freedom to be fully and fruitfully human is contingent on the freedom to abide in the will of God. So, in theory, religion is the best that has happened to our species.

But religion has two dimensions: the subjective and the objective. Established religion - as Max Weber, the sociologist, and Kierkegaard and Berdyaev, among philosophers, have pointed out - involves the ‘objectification’ of spiritual resources. Objectification -or material embodiment - is a medium of inevitable distortion. Yet, a spiritual tradition cannot exist and survive from generation to generation in mere individual subjectivity. So long as God is understood as “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob”, subjectivity might suffice. But a global religion, even if it is based on the Kingdom of God, tends to be institutionalized.

But institutionalization involves the process of erecting things of the spirit on material and physical foundations and superstructures. It establishes a link - as St. Augustine would say - between the City of God and the city of man. The city of man cannot function without laws, customs, traditions, ceremonies and set practices.

Membership in the city of man, therefore, demands conformity. In fact, the more efficiently the city of man is organized the more rabidly it demands absolute conformity and punishes unconformity. In the city of man, it is treason to be radical. The city of man deems it a priority to condition its members into habitual conformity.

In the City of God, in contrast, radical and responsible unconformity to the city of man may well be a sign of humility before God. Given the inherent passion that human beings have for freedom, conditioning individuals to unfreedom is no

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small undertaking. The best of human ingenuity has to be invested into it. Hence the improvisation of laws to which the best intellectual resources in a society are devoted.

The function of law is to safeguard what is euphemistically called ‘common interests’. In practice, this means the interests of the elite. In the religious context, the religious elite - the Pharisees, Sadducees and their countless counterparts everywhere - become the God-appointed defenders of God and religion. More often than not, they save religion by killing God. That, at least, is the Gospel story; and it’s no good pretending to be ignorant of it.

‘doctrine of Jesus Christ’. Its practices contravened the doctrine of Christ. (cf. “My Religion” and “The Kingdom of God is Within You”).

The tension at the heart of established religion is between these two factors - the Law of God and the law of man.

The painful predicament of an earnest believer is: who shall I obey? Fortunately, Peter and John have provided a hint towards resolving this dilemma.

“Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God. For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts of the Apostles 4:19).

It is a somewhat disturbing fact that the early apostles established a link between obedience to God and radical disobedience to the authority of man.

This signals the supersession of the authority of God by man-made laws and practices. The contradiction at the heart of this scenario, which we fail to see for what it is because our eyes are blinded by scales of conformity, is that in order to be pious - the stereotypical good Christian- we must forsake our spiritual freedom to ‘seek and find’ (Mtt.7: 7) which Jesus said we should do. The basic spiritual discipline of seeking the will of God and abiding by it is replaced by adhering to canon laws and denominational prescriptions.

So, a tension develops over a period of time between the spiritual core of a religious tradition and its socially objectified religious correlative. Obeying God, going by biblical evidence, has always had a heretical implication from the perspective of the religious establishment. It is not an accident that Jesus was tried and judicially murdered as a heretic. This is not a matter of a depravity peculiar to the Jews. Rather, this illustrates a problem at the heart of religion qua religion. This is the quintessential ‘religious’ problem.

If we are to weigh the religious training we have received against the discipline of discipleship on the one hand and our duties and obligations towards the denominations we belong to, the picture becomes clearer. This was the problem that tormented Tolstoy most. The Russian Orthodox Church – of which he was in the early years of his spiritual journey an ardent member – was obsessed with its tradition, doctrines and practices. It neglected the

This should in no wise be misunderstood as indiscriminate legitimization of contumacy. Laws, customs and traditions have their value. But they have their value only in their places. When conforming to them becomes tantamount to neglecting the will of God, they begin to militate against human welfare. The problem here is not exactly that the authority of God is slighted, which is the way it is ordinarily understood. The problem is that it is seriously inimical to human stature and wellbeing. Mere conformity to set rules and practices makes us, at best, harmless creatures. The spiritual goal is to make us ‘children of God’. Man-made laws, even divinely ordained laws as wielded by unregenerate man, could be inimical to this purpose when organized religion begins to function as an end in itself, as Judaism did at the time of Jesus.

The most passionate outcry against the enslaving effect of religious conformity was issued by Jesus himself. I doubt if there has ever been a sterner and more frontal denunciation of the oppressive character of religion than what we find in the 23rd chapter of St. Matthew. What Jesus minds most is the enslavement of the people, the tendency on the part of the animators of religion to use them as tools and means.

To me, the litmus test of the spiritual authenticity of a religion is what Jesus applied to himself. “It is good for you that I go away.” None before him, and none since him, has ever said this. It is so very unusual that it sounds almost sarcastic! No, it is not. Jesus says it in earnest.

And it is important that we are clear on this count.

Consider a familiar example. Why is a student promoted from standard 1 to standard 2? It happens because he has outgrown standard 1. So, the redundancy of standard 1 is the proof of the intellectual growth of the student.

Religious establishments, on the contrary, make a virtue

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of perpetuating the ‘dependence’ of the faithful on them.

This can be done only by obstructing their pilgrimage to spiritual maturity. Adherence to mere practices and rituals -especially when divorced from the teachings of Jesus serves the cause of perpetuating the status quo at the cost of anchoring believers in spiritual stagnation. The mark of a godly congregation is that its members grow continually towards spiritual maturity. The seeming ‘danger’ in this is that if they so grow, they could outgrow their dependence on the particular congregation and denomination. There is a positive correlation between individual spiritual empowerment and the incremental redundancy of the church. The mark of a good teacher, a competent guru, is that his disciples grow out of their dependence on him. The more they do so, the more they respect him.

This is not a logic that recommends itself to those driven by institutional interests. Jesus’ teaching that those who wish to follow him must deny themselves (Mtt.16: 24) should apply to churches as well. It is when churches and denominations lack the spiritual strength of self-denial that they bring about a tragic conflict between obedience to God and adherence to religious laws and traditions.

The problem is not primarily with laws; it is with the outlook of those who impose these laws on others, mostly driven by considerations of power and profit, even if this happens at times habitually and even unintentionally.

I close with yet another key issue in this context. Should complying with religious laws and practices be an external obligation, like paying tithes and subscriptions?

The inherent oppressiveness of law is aggravated manifold by conjoining it with institutional compulsion.

The only way this can be mitigated is by making compliance or adherence a free, voluntary and joyful option. The laws and practices should be such that believers find it a happy privilege to comply with them.

Well, you could expostulate that this is an impossible ideal. Of course, it is. But spirituality is a realm of the ideal. Its demands are daunting. Those who create a contrary impression for whatever reasons – the impression that discipleship to Jesus is like a walk in the park, or a dream-excursion along the broad and easy way – are the false prophets that Jesus said we should be beware of.

As a rule, reliance on rules and regulations increases proportionately as the spiritual core becomes neglected and de-activated. A church that sidelines the authority of Jesus becomes tyrannical in its imposition of rules and regulations. The spirit in which the so-called discipline is imposed approximates itself to the diabolic! A healthy corrective to this is the teaching of Jesus, “Man is not made for the Sabbath; the Sabbath is made for man” (Mk. 2:28).

Perhaps I should close with the words of Paul – For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (Gal. 5:1).

Revd Dr. Valson Thampu, Trivandrum Member, FOCUS Editorial Board

http://www.issuu.com/diasporafocus http://www.scribd.com/diasporafocus Disclaimer: Diaspora FOCUS is a non-profit organization registered in United States, originally formed in late Nineties in London for the Diaspora Marthomites. Now it is an independent lay-movement of the Diaspora laity of the Syrian Christians; and as such Focus is not an official publication of any denominations. It is an ecumenical journal to focus attention more sharply on issues to help churches and other faith communities to examine their own commitment to loving their neighbors and God, justice, and peace. Opinions expressed in any article or statements are of the individuals and are not to be deemed as an endorsement of the view expressed therein by Diaspora FOCUS. Thanks.

Web Site: www.facebook.com/groups/mtfocus E-Mail: mtfocusgroup@gmail.com

Merry Christmas & a Blessed New Year

Christmas must be an embodiment of the sacrifice and obedience to God. Our celebrations should reflect the pain and sufferings of others, and then only it would become real celebration. God is the master carpenter who created the whole world. Are we still searching the Christ in the manger or the crucified Christ on the cross?

His birth and death should challenge the way we live and should enable us to transform ourselves, and the life of others around us. The resurrected Christ’s presence in our lives should enable us to face the challenges of the world.

FOCUS Editorial Board wishes our readers and their families a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

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Religious Laws: Bane or Blessing Dr. Zac Varghese, London I recently attended a parish committee meeting minutes after a Holy Communion Service; this was after five years of ‘purpose-oriented absence’, which prompted me to ask the question again whether rules and regulations can become a hindrance to our spiritual growth. Fellowship with other people of faith is important for our spiritual nurturing. This is to encourage each member of the parish to be an active Disciple of Christ in all their life, not just while listening to a Sunday sermon or participating in the Eucharist. Stanley Jones, one the greatest missionaryevangelists of the 20th century, said: “Bad theology puts the people in bondage whereas good theology sets us free. I wanted to set people free.” Setting people free is God’s mission. The articles in this issue of the FOCUS are to find liberation from restrictive formulaic prescription of one ‘green-bottled panacea’ for all situations of life. There is freedom in Christ for all those who seek it and accept it under the grace of God. We need to learn to be a Christian in parish committee meetings and other human encounters as well, instead of attacking and hurting people’s feelings and sensitivities.

Being with other Christians can be helpful, God has placed us in a community of believers called the Church, to listen, to advise us, direct us, provide us spiritual food and provide loving fellowship. There is no solitary Christian. However, being with so-called ‘SundayChristians’ can be very unsettling, people can be stubborn and insensitive with fixed ideas and rules of conduct. Therefore, parish fellowship can be both a bane and a blessing.

The question is how much of our inner spiritual life matches with our day to day interaction with others? How do we take our Sunday life and pious behaviour, to outside the walls of the church and into secular living with people of other orientations? Are we satisfied in leading a double life, one for Sunday and another for weekdays?

Jesus condemned the attitudes of Scribes and Pharisees for their lack of congruence, and mindless observances of sabbatical laws for others to see, without real consideration for the genuine needs of people around them. Their hypocrisy and outer play-acting hid inner lives of ‘greed and self-indulgence’, and ‘wickedness’.

Religious hypocrites use religion for their own advantage, and Jesus condemned such behaviour in the harshest terms in Matthews’ Gospel (Mt. 23). Their duplicity is evident in their obsession with external ritual purity, yet, like some people, their hearts are filled with wrong desires. Avoiding contamination was vital in first-century Judaism. However, for Jesus, purity of heart is what matters. These leaders are so bad that he describes them as the walking dead: outwardly righteous, but, really, they are spiritually dead. It is so easy for us to become like these Pharisees and scribes and to appear to do all the right things according to the constitution of the church while being twisted and hard-hearted inside. Or we can live a double life – all textbook-Christian on a Sunday, but our outward righteousness hiding our real state. Such hypocrisy is dangerous and it will prevent others from understanding what the gospel is all about. In such situations these people are not helpful, but are a hindrance and a stumbling block. Real Christianity comes from hearts given over to living out of love and mercy. We need to dwell on God’s Word, ask him to expose our hypocrisy and seek forgiveness. All laws are not bad; they are there to help us to grow into maturity and to enjoy the blissful freedom in Christ. St. James, wrote: “ But the man who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continue to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it––he will be blessed in what he does” (James 1: 25). We need then to ask God to refresh our hearts by his Spirit, so that we live a Christ-like life 24/7. In following Jesus we are offered the chance for deep change and genuine inner transformation: “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). We should ask Jesus to transform us and to help us to live a life of congruence.

As a foremost physician of souls, Pope Francis has diagnosed a large number of maladies that affect our spiritual life. At a morning mass homily at Casa Santa Marta on 22nd December 2014, Pope Francis identified fifteen conditions that affect the spiritual journey of ministers of the church both the ordained and laity. The Holy Father is an amazing observer of human behaviour and I do not think that he has left anything out. He is able to do this because of his Kenosis and utter humility. Let us thank God for this amazing leader of the Church at this critical period.

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1. The disease of thinking that we are immortal, immune and downright indispensable.

2. Maintaining a ‘Martha Complex’ of excessive busyness.

3. Hard- heartedness of a stony attitude of lacking empathy.

4. Excessive planning and functionalism; and obsessive rigidity and attitude to fine details.

5. Poor coordination due to lack of communion with others.

6. Rivalry and vain glory 7. ‘Spiritual Alzheimer’s disease. It is a dementia of losing the memory of our personal salvation, forgetting our Damascus road moments.

8. Sunday-Monday Syndrome of existential schizophrenia; this is the disease of living a double life.

9. Gossips, grumbling and back-biting.

10. Idolizing superiors for the sake of seeking favours and gaining advantages. Such people are victims of opportunism.

They serve thinking only of what they can get and not what they should give.

11. Indifference to others. This is where each individual thinks only of him or herself and loses the common human touch.

12. Pretences of seriousness and piety; outward insincere expressions.

13. Accumulating unnecessary things for the sake of having plenty around 14. Forming cliques or closed circles.

15. Power complexes by displaying wealth and intellect.

It is easy to find how we are located in this extensive list and therefore kneel down to pray so that our actions and attitudes do not became a bane to the community, but a blessing.

It was in the fourth century when Christianity was becoming the official religion of Rome while the priesthood was becoming infatuated with the new-found power structure that was encapsulating it, John Chrysostom – the Archbishop of Constantinople – spoke against those who abused the offices of the Church for power and influence. The recent court cases and arrests of priests because of their misbehaviour in the sacred ‘confessionals’ and such indicate that not so much has changed in 1700 years. In criticising those who would misuse the priesthood, he defends the sacred office of the priesthood itself from attack. He says, “For men of understanding do not say that the sword is to blame for murder, nor wine for drunkenness, nor strength for outrage, nor courage for foolhardiness, but they lay the blame on those who make an improper use of the

gifts which have been bestowed upon them by God.” It becomes clear that Chrysostom holds an incredibly high view of the priesthood and the spirit of the law, but warns against misusing the power bestowed upon them by the Holy Spirit. The hands that have the power to bless us also have power to abuse us and curse us.

Leo Tolstoy, towards the later part of his life, focused and fashioned his whole endeavours on the teaching of Jesus, stripped of what he regarded as the Church’s distortions, dogmas and rituals. For such radical thinking he was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church. He advised his readers to avoid the distortions of Jesus’ teaching by the Church. He said, “It is only necessary to study the teaching of Jesus in its proper form, as it has come down to us in the words and deeds which are recorded as his own. With the readers of the kind that I have addressed, my book will go to show that Christianity is not only a mixture of things sublime and things base; that it is not only not a superstition, but that, on the contrary, it is the most convincing presentment of metaphysics and morals, the purest and most complete doctrine of life, and the highest light which the human mind has ever reached; a doctrine from which all the noblest activities of humanity in politics, science, poetry, and philosophy instinctively derive themselves.”1 Dietrich Bonhoeffer raised the following questions about Christianity form Tegel Prison in Germany during the Second World War: “Did the very language of spiritual inwardness, of evangelism, of apologetics, and of churchly authority that marked Western Christianity from its very beginning still make any sense? Was it the task of believers to somehow refill the vessels of a failed Christendom project that had been thoroughly corrupted by political evil with lost or forgotten meaning? Or were believers now called to bear witness to Christ in a secular age in radically new ways, and not as a ‘religious’ person at all? Did ‘religion’ itself need to be left behind as a historical stage, a human construct and sociological phenomenon, that was in no sense synonymous with the presence of the living Christ in the world and in history?

But if so, what should such a ‘religionless Christianity’ even begin to look like?”2 Bonhoeffer challenges us to think about the power dynamics of the Church and its institution and the way they are disfiguring the image of Christ and his teachings.

Religious laws often clash with the human urge for liberation, dignity and equality. These laws clash with the struggles for the liberation of marginalized groups such as 1 Leo Tolstoy, ‘The Gospel in Brief’, University of Nebraska

ISBN No. 0-8032-9432-8, page 32.

2 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ‘Letters and papers from Prison, an Abridged Edition’, SCM Press, London, 1953.

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women and voiceless people who live in the margins of society. In Luke’s Gospel (Lk. 7: 1-10) we read the story of a Roman Centurion seeking help from Jesus for his sick slave through his Jewish intermediaries. Here we see a Roman military commander, a Gentile, crossing boundaries of his pagan religion and reaching out to Jewish elders to approach Jesus Christ to help his servant. God’s love and compassion has no boundaries.

We see the same pattern in Jesus’ dealing with the SyroPhoenician woman and the Samaritan woman (Mk.7: 2430; Jn. 4: 1-42). Jesus was crossing man-made boundaries of religion for the sake of a genuine human need and for establishing God’s kingdom and its values.

Jesus broke Sabbath laws to address human needs and told them: “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean’, but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean’” (Mt. 12: 11). He emphasised further that “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath . . . So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mk. 2: 23-27). Jesus summarised his verdict on this subject by saying: “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of God” (Mt.5: 29). Religious laws can be a bane or blessings, but our life should be a quest for justice, relationship, spirituality and truth, which should bring blessings to many.

Mark Scarlata made the following comments about religious laws: “Law without Divine presence can calcify into rigid legalism and divine presence without law can blur into obscure mysticism. To abide with YHWH Israel must remain obedient to maintain holiness and live according to their covenant responsibility”3. God’s law flow from his holiness, to be obedient to his commandments means is to grow into his holiness. The law emanated from God’s grace and holiness to help us his children to walk in holiness. In St. John’s Gospel we read: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1: 17).

Therefore, Jesus, St. Paul, John Chrysostom, Leo Tolstoy, Bonhoeffer, Pope Francis and many others over a period of two thousand years spoke against the way some ministers of religion and the officials of the Church use religious laws and privileges to seek power and in the process destroy the ‘fragrance of life’ in Christ (II Cor. 2: 16). There is freedom in Christ under the grace of God. St. Paul spoke against the peddlers of word of God for profit: “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God” (II Cor. 2: 17).

Pearls of Wisdom Series: No.9 We must give our love to God alone

Diadochus of Phtoice* [This meditation, from the ancient of times, is thought to be appropriate when we consider the theme: ‘Religious laws, Practices and Liberation’. “. . . Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and he relents from sending calamity” (Joel 2:13).]

No one can love God if he is full of self-love. Anyone who really loves God mortifies his self-love for the sake of the superabundant treasures of grace that come from loving God. Once he has done this, such a man seeks God’s glory, never his own. The man given over to self-love seeks his own glory, but the man who loves God has the glory of his Maker at heart.

Indeed the hallmark of a soul alive to the love of God is the delight it takes in its own abasement and its constant pursuit of God’s glory by obedient to his every command. Fro because his great majesty, glory belongs properly to God, but if he hopes to be admitted to God’s friendship, it befits man to be humble. If we love God in this way and rejoice, like St. John the Baptist, in the glory of the Lord, then we begin to say unceasingly: He must be exalted, I must be humbled.

I know someone who is so filled with the love of God – although he grieves because of his love falls short of his desire to love – that his soul is entirely taken up with this burning desire for God to be glorified in him, and for his own total effacement. That man has not the slightest feeling of importance, even when he receives praise: the desire for abasement is so strong in him that the idea of standing on his dignity never crosses his mind.

He celebrates the Liturgy as priests are bound to do, but so unswerving is he in his love for God that the abyss of this love swallows up all thought of his rank. His spirit of humility makes him quite oblivious of what could been an occasion of vainglory, and his consequent desire for self-abasement prevents him from seeing himself as anything, but and unprofitable servant, unfitted for his dignity. We should take such a man as our model, and fly every honour and distinction for the sake of the superabundant treasures of grace that comes from loving him who has loved us so much.

The man who loves God in the depths of his heart has himself been loved by God, for the love anyone has for God depends upon how far his spiritual awareness enables him to perceive God’s love for him. Once he has perceived it, his desire to live in the light of God’s presence is so intense that it seems to penetrate his very bones; he loses all consciousness of himself, and is entirely transformed by the love of God. Such an man in this life and at the same time not in it, for although he still lives in his body, he is constantly being taken out of himself in spirit by the love that carries him towards God. Henceforward he is united to God by the irresistible desire of a heart on fire with love, and for the sake of love for God, he abandons his self-love forever. For if we have taken leave of our senses, says the Apostle, it is for the love of God: if we are in our right mind, it is for your sake.

•

Taken from “A Word in Season’ edited by Henry Ashworth (1974), The Talbot Press, Dublin.

3 Mark Scarlata, ‘The Abiding Presence’, SCM Press, London,

20018, page 148.

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Liberative Praxis of Ministerial Calling Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam 1. Remembering the past: Needless to say that our attitude to anything makes either chaos or cosmos. In this digital age, we are being moved by multimedia communication systems imparting information rather than knowledge. The digital gadgets like Internet, E-Mail, and WhatsApp, Face book, Instagram and Robotic technology have tremendously influenced our thinking patterns and practices.

Emergence of Robot priests and Robot hosts are also a fact of the era. We are even moving to a paperless system of education, to digital boards. Yes, each of the modern technological advancement has its own place to support and supplement ministerial formation for good or bad. We need to cultivate the power of discrimination to accept or reject ‘liberative tools’ in technology. But we should never live with a throw away culture. St. Paul makes a plea to Timothy to keep alive the faith, “. . . which first lived in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice . . .” (2Tim.1: 5- 6). We need to remind ourselves that the shape and shade of Christian ministry has a past of its own and its carries a label of fruitful tradition. The Thubadon (The Great Intercession) prayers in the Eucharistic liturgy remind us of this legacy.

Remembering the past is illuminating the present; remembering the present is illuminating the future.

The discourse of Jesus in Mark 7: 1-21 is very important for the ministers to heed to, particularly verses 8 and 9.

In our religious thinking of today, we have moved from the consolidation of religious perspectives to their comprehension. This paradigm shift in mission carries a liberation motif in mission. Interfaith dialogue has now moved to a stage of interpreting Christ in relation to other religions and ideologies. This leads us to speak more of transformative discipleship rather than religious conversion. The missiological text in St. Mt. 28:19 is to be interpreted accordingly. So also are the other mission charges in Lk. 9 &10 and Mt.10 in the light of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7).

As theological educators, ministers, should remind themselves what St. Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 9: 19 - 23 and particularly in Rom.12: 2: “Do conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by renewing your mind minds. Then you will be able to test what God’s will is––his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

The late Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius Suffragan Metropolitan used to quote a noble saying: “The inspiration of humanity is the roll call of its great men.” In Hebrews 13:7, we are being exhorted: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the

word of God, consider the outcome of their life; and imitate their faith.” To imitate, to initiate and to innovate men and women of wisdom are divine imperatives for us to unravel the history of the past.

2. The self- understanding of a minister: The Shape and Shade of ministerial calling implies the being and the becoming of the Church and their mandatory obligations on its ministers for all times.

Christian ministers have a particular role to act as channels of grace in each context. They are not being considered as cult protectors.

The WCC mission documents often speak of “a pilgrimage towards. . . ” implying that we need to move towards a goal with all the people on the earth. In each pilgrimage we bring glory to the One God who is the creator of all. St. Paul’s understanding of his ministerial offices such as co-worker (Sunergos-1Cor .3: 9), servant (diakonos-2 Cor. 6: 4), steward (oikonomos-1Cor. 4: 2), apostle (apostolosRom.1: 1), slave (doulos-Rom.1: 1), and servant (huperetes-1Cor. 4: 1) do affirm this. The first 3 titles speak of Paul’s relationship with God and the remaining ones his relationship with Christ. The self- awareness of being called and sent by God to continue the mission of Christ in the world with the power of the Spirit is a liberative process towards the New Humanity in Christ.

“Those who are in the ministry of the Church irrespective of their offices, functions and status should bear in mind that they are called to act as agents of change.”

3. Challenges in Ministerial calling: The Christian ministers should acquire the ability to interpret the signs of the times and to respond to the context relevantly. In Christian praxis one should know that irrelevance is sin. Someone has rightly said, “When

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we focus on problems, we will have more problems.

When we focus on possibilities, we will have more opportunities.” The new perspective of wider ecumenism is a liberative process in mission and it has to deal with several possibilities of the contemporary society. In the mission context of the Church today, the four pillars of wider ecumenism have to be borne in mind in fulfilling the ministerial task. They are: i) unity of the Churches; ii) unity and renewal of humankind; iii) unity of faiths; IV) integrity of creation. It is absolutely necessary to affirm that there is only one world, which is God’s world, and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the redeemer and reconciler of all things. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, which prepares the world for the challenge of Christ in each generation. There is always a challenge from above to transcend man-made boundaries in each generation for the glory of God. A movement from the unauthentic stumbling blocks to the authentic ones is indeed a liberation process of ‘in risking Christ for Christ’s sake’. In this, we may have to do away with religious practices of yesteryears. The ministerial task is to respond creatively and rationally so as to protest and to protect upholding the prophetic and pastoral sign of the Kingdom of God. Christian response should embrace the whole of God’s created order. The ecological ministry of the Church should not be neglected. We believe that an ecological future is integrally related to the destiny of all across any divide.

Ecological paradigm shift in ministry is a liberative process and it is an affirmation of Christian faith. The encyclical by Pope Francis under the title Laudato Si (I Praise) is a timely intervention by the Church in the social space.

4. The authentic imperatives for mission: The enlargement of vision is a ministerial calling; it is a divine mandate for all of us in the pluralistic world. In Is. 54: 2 we read: “Enlarge the place of your tent . . . lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes . . . (cf.1 Chron.4:10). They are indeed prophetic and pastoral mandates for today for a relevant ministry. I would recommend the book, Nithya Snehakudaram by the late Dr. Geevarghese Mar Osthathios Metropolitan (CSS2009) for an in-depth understanding and appreciation of the above concern. We need to ask a few missiological questions to maintain the honour and the dignity of Christen ministry. Doing things right is not the Christian option, but doing the right thing is. Such an attitude is revolutionary and it cuts to the roots of the conspiracy of silence. In this respect we need to remember the prophetic words of George Orwell: “In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” We must learn how to break the conspiracy of silence. As someone has rightly said: “If you do not stand for something, you will fall for anything.” In a radical obedience to God, the faithful is expected to fulfill mission in Christ’s way. The

subversive spirituality of Christ should come alive when we move towards the New Jerusalem on earth.

Let me state five testing principles for a liberative praxis in mission: I) Do we remember that we are called by God as his coworkers, upholding the values of the Kingdom and act as channels of grace and agents of change? ii) Do we carry a preferential option for the marginalized in our ministry? iii) Do we stand for the saving truths of justification by faith at the cross roads of life? iv) Do we recognize that ecological responsibility is a matter of faith? vi) Do we affirm without a ray of doubt that plurality is integral to Reality?

For theological educators, ministerial calling is meant to collaborate with God in reversing the order of bondage as we read in the Magnificat (LK.1: 46 - 55) and in the Nazareth Manifesto (Lk, 4: 18 - 19). Dr. M. M. Thomas has rightly said: “Obedience to unjust powers is disobedience to God.” The “Transcendent satyagraha of Jesus” on earth raises umpteen questions before the Church to continue the liberative praxis of mission with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion: As ministers, Christian calling is to translate the rich heritage inherited from the past into living traditions of today and for the posterity. To what extent we should carry the religious practices of an earlier era are a big question to be answered. The different orders of ministry uphold the spiritual truth that the ministerial calling is meant to serve the whole world upholding the glory of love and justice. In this respect the Christian ministry becomes a pastoral and a prophetic vocation, which has several implications towards transformative discipleship in the contemporary society.

Editor’s Note: Revd. Dr. M. J. Joseph is the former professor & principal of Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam & also former Director of the Ecumenical Christian Centre, Bangalore. He was a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches. Currently he is the convener of the Ecological Commission of Mar Thoma Church.

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The Parliament of World's Religions Meets Again!

Dr. Abraham Karickam On Ist of November 2018, the Parliament of World’s Religions transpired at Toronto, Canada. Ten thousand religious leaders from all parts of the world participated at the weeklong encounters. It was in 1893 that the World Parliament was organized for the first time. Swami Vivekananda was the centre of attraction there. His participation unravelled a fascinating story, which has to be dealt with separately.

The occasion for celebration in 1893 was the fourth centenary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the American continent. Four thousand delegates attended at that time, mostly from America. It took one hundred years again to convene a similar conference in Chicago again in 1993 and now it occurs at regular intervals.

The ‘Promise of Inclusion, the Power of Love’ was the central theme this year. My presentation was on ‘Equipping Teachers and Schools for Interfaith Education’. There were a series of presentations on different topics by various leaders during the week.

How many years we need to fully reverse our idea about God? When the Parliament of World’s Religions met at Chicago in 1893, the Canterbury Archbishop refused to attend, objecting that the very meeting of such a Parliament implied the equality of all religions. But Cardinal Gibbons, leader of the American Catholics presided over one of the sessions, which was remarkable.

After 125 years today, will anyone decline an opportunity to sit together and pray? It is very interesting to study the evolution of interfaith encounters. It was the second Vatican Council (1962) that began to address the issue of ‘Salvation’ seriously. In 1971 the World Council of Churches (WCC) founded its department for Interfaith Dialogue. Vatican and the WCC organized a series of dialogue meetings around the globe and today interfaith dialogue is an integral component in the syllabi of all Seminaries.

At a later stage the King of Jordan championed the cause interfaith harmony and persuaded the UN to celebrate Interfaith Harmony Week every year from 1st to 7th February. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia came forward to establish the King Abdullah International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue (KAICIID) at Vienna in 2012. UAE is holding the first ever world Tolerance Summit in Dubai in November, 2018.

In my dialogical pilgrimage, I have come across all kinds of arguments for and against dialogue. Today I am convinced that dialogue is the only authentic ministry towards establishing the Kingdom of God. Since the 1893 event of the first Parliament of World’s Religions at Chicago, five more sessions were held so far (Chicago – 1993, South Africa – 1999, Barcelona – 2004, Melbourne – 2009 and Salt Lake City – 2015). It was Swami Vivekananda’s entry in 1893 at Chicago that made the Parliament glorious. He was instrumental in opening a channel between the philosophers of the East and the West.

The whole Universe ‘conspired’ in making his journey possible.

Swami was a nomadic sage in his thirties, searching for his real mission in life. Though many of his friends advised him to go to the Parliament, he was reluctant, but his deep introspection and meditation at the sea rock in Kanyakumari was a turning point. Here he accepted the divine call to embark upon a journey to the West. He and his friends begged to raise money for the tickets. Passing Colombo, Singapore, Japan and Vancouver, at last he reached Chicago in July. To his surprise he learned that the Parliament would meet only in September.

Not knowing where to go, without any money in hands, he just wandered. It was Swami himself who later said, “Your good thoughts and actions will be there to protect you with the wings of thousand angels.” This is exactly what happened in the ensuing months. That is a miraculous story. In the end, after meeting several luminaries, he made it to the Parliament and rest is history. When Swami said to Professor J .H. Wright of Harvard University that he did not have any credentials to attend the Parliament, Prof. Wright replied like this: “To ask you Swamiji for credentials is like asking the sun to state its right to shine.”

That was Vivekananda. Today the Parliament of World of Religions is itself a wonder; an event without any comparison.

On the first of November, When Americans were celebrating Halloween Day, When Kerala was celebrating Kerala Day, and it was my privilege to be in Toronto to participate in the 7th Parliament of World's Religions at the Metro Centre there. 125 years ago, Swami Vivekananda started his journey from the Southern tip of India. I, too, started from the Southern tip of India. He called Kerala mad, living in a lunatic asylum, as people were fighting in the name of religions, even in those days.

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The same insanity was ruling Kerala when I started, as a big fight was going on in the name of religious rituals related to Sabarimala, which actually should be our pillar of unity, as the temple and Ayaappa are for all. Four thousand people attended the first Parliament in Chicago.

Ten thousand people were to converge here, in spite of climate being bit cold with nine degrees. It was cold outside, but special warmth filled the hearts of those ten thousand peace lovers who travelled from all directions of the globe, to proclaim the unity and integrity of creations.

Delegates from 220 Faith Traditions attended from all corners of the world. The Parliament of the World's Religions was created "to cultivate harmony among the world's religions and spiritual communities and foster their engagement in the world and its guiding institutions, in order to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world."

The weeklong program began with spiritual opening ceremonies by the host First Nations at the Olympic Park.

A water ceremony by women walkers and sacred fire by the indigenous communities attracted all. It culminated in the gorgeous opening in the main hall, where the First Nation brothers and sisters greeted all with amazing traditional drumming, songs and dances.

Leaders from all spiritual traditions addressed the assembly. Numerous parallel sessions and plenaries were held in different stages. More interactions took place outside the meeting spaces, where Faith Communities encountered their fellow pilgrims from everywhere.

The global interfaith community was born in Chicago 125 years ago with the first Parliament held alongside the World's Columbian Exhibition. It is here that the beauty of other religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Baha'i became visible to the West. It took another 100 years for the religions to meet again in the same Chicago.

The contribution of this city to world peace is to be declared from mountaintops. If it were 4,000 people who gathered in 1893, in 1993 it became 8,000. His Holiness the Dalai Lama was the chief guest there and the Assembly deliberated on global ethics.

Six years later in 1999, it was Nelson Mandela's South Africa that greeted the World's Religions, but participants were only 7,000. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President Mandela proclaimed about the transformative role of religion and spirituality. It was in collaboration with UNESCO that the next Parliament was convened in the city of Barcelona in Spain, which discussed ‘Pathways to Peace’. Iranian Nobel Laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi and Dr. Jane Goodall, author of “Harvest for Hope", were at the centre. 9,000 peace lovers flocked there.

Environmental issues were addressed by the Melbourne Parliament in 2009 and President Jimmy Carter and Sri Sri Ravi Sankar were the leaders. It was here that the Australian Government came forward with a national apology to the aboriginal groups. 7,000 was the attendance. War and Violence, Climate Change, Women Issues and Income inequality were discussed at length in Salt Lake City in the United States in 2018 when the Parliament met for the 6th time. Attendance was over ten thousand.

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When a few of the fanatics are generating a lot of terror and fear around the world, peace lovers are hopeful that the day is not far when the world admits that peace cannot be compromised for any other entity.

On 6th November, the world celebrated Diwali, the Festival of Lights. In Toronto, Canada, we were celebrating the festival of religions at that time. Is there a greater joy than seeing 220 Faith Communities coming together to proclaim to the world that we are one? We have to clearly understand that there are not many Today, anywhere in the world, fighting in the name of religions and Faiths. That time is gone with the chilly winds of old. And, if there are still a few handful of our brothers and sisters creating troubles anywhere in the name of Religions, they must know that they are only very few, and will realise enmity will be wiped out from the earth very soon, and that too, is the benevolent wish of the Mother Earth. She cannot bear destruction too long.

discrimination at all.

Here at Toronto, the Sikh Community was serving food to all participants of the Parliament of World’s Religions. There were ten thousand delegates this year and food was no problem, as there was langar.

Every inch of the work is done by volunteers, both men and women. Service is their mission.

In URI we have a Multi Region cooperation Circle named ‘Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons’, its Chairman is none other than our founder. Bishop Bill Swing. This is the only multi region CC in which I am a member. There was a session at the Parliament, where the Bishop invited like-minded people to join the network to strive for the total eradication of all nuclear weapons.

The session started with the very attractive and meaningful nuclear prayer.

The prominent figures featured in the video are:

Diwali reminds us of the home coming of Sri Rama, after fourteen years of exile in the forest, when people greeted him and his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana and all others, with lights all over the streets in the country.

People were celebrating victory of the good over evil.

When a mother became hungry of power, she wanted her son to be on the throne and the real heir to the throne had to be sent far away into the deep forest. This is exactly what happens everywhere. When someone wants to usurp the throne, poor and innocent lot will have to vanish into oblivion. This is also what happened to the First Nation peoples all over the world, in the past.

We owe an apology.

• The Honourable William J. Perry, former Secretary of Defence under President Clinton • The Honourable George P. Shultz, former Secretary of State under President Reagan • Dr. Sidney Drell, Professor Emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator • Ambassador James E. Goodby, former Nuclear Arms Negotiator with the U.S.S.R.

Strategic

Here in Toronto, the people of all nations and all religions declare that we have to be one in creating a just world, a peaceful world. All the guns have to be silenced. All the nuclear weapons have to be eliminated. Children of the globe are unhappy sleeping with 14,995 nuclear weapons by their sides, not knowing when these would fly. Here we have learned to listen to the cry of children, and let not that be a cry in the wilderness.

• Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr., former Senior U.S. Diplomat

So let us celebrate many more Diwalis with all its warmth and colours. It reminds us of the beginning of a new era, when mistakes are corrected and the real right is established. May the religions of the world live in peace. May the nations of the globe rejoice.

• The Right Rev. William E. Swing, former Episcopal Bishop of California, and President and Founder of the United Religions Initiative.

There is a saying: As long as there is the Sikh Community, no one will starve. LANGAR is the common word, which means community kitchen. Wherever there is a Gurudwara, they will be serving food always to people irrespective of caste, creed, colour or religion.

Everyone has to cover the head and sit on the floor. No

• Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute • Monica Willard, United Religions Representative to the United Nations

Initiative

I would invite all of you to see this video which is available in the URI website (www. uri.org ). Search for the ' Nuclear Prayer' and the full version is only eight minutes. This prayer calls for action. Today we have a stockpile of around 15,000 nuclear warheads. An approximate number will be the following: Russia- 6850, United States of America- 6550, France –

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300, China- 280, UK – 215, Pakistan- 150, India-130, Israel- 80, North Korea -20.

Our prayer is for the total elimination and deactivation of these weapons and it is possible. If our younger generation can feel the passion of these elderly people, it will be possible. Please understand that we had a stockpile of around 68,000 active weapons in 1985 and we have come up to this level. If so, that time is not far when our children learn only from history books and war museums, about the good old nuclear weapons. Our thanks to all these great luminaries who are leading the way.

The biggest Festival of Religions has come to a close at Toronto. It will definitely have a positive influence in shaping the future of humanity. The highlights can be summarised as the following: 1. Bringing together 10,000 people from all parts of the world, which belong to 220 Faith communities, is in itself a miracle. Seventh Assembly made it possible.

Such a Herculean task was made very simple, which shows the organisational skill of the officers and every volunteer who strived for it.

3. Celebrating diversity and pluralism in all its authenticity is the primary objective of all such events and it was at its supreme best here. Hundreds of varieties of flowers make a beautiful garden. Here was God's plenty.

3. Hundreds of sessions went on without any confusion. The planning and homework were meticulous and the superb facilities of the Metro Convention Centre made a big difference in itself.

4. Suppose twentyfive students are in one class. Same teacher, same lesson, but when the students write answers for the same question, we get twentyfive different answers. When 220 communities of Faith come together, we get 220 versions of God, even if it is a negation of God. Every student can claim his/ her answer as the best, no problem, but the reality will be different. Here no one claimed any superiority. Every one rejoiced in differences. If the world understands this truth, it will go a long way in establishing the Kingdom of God upon this planet.

5. All sessions and plenaries were unique in their respective locale. The passion with which people attend every event is something to be admired.

6. Youth, women, indigenous communities and differently-abled people were all given opportunities at various levels, which is admirable.

7. Attitude to Mother Earth was at the centre of all

discussions in different plenaries. If the world doesn't take a u- turn in its attitude, it will be too late to learn when nature revolts.

8. It is here that like-minded people learn that they are not alone in their passionate pursuits. It is a matter of great consolation for all those who sacrifice their lives for greater callings.

9. As I have written earlier, the Sikh Community displays their marvellous hospitality in feeding thousands free. Their discipline and sacrificial attitude is without comparison anywhere else. Scripture is not something to be recited in the comfort zone of solitude. When the Book compels us to action, then it becomes meaningful.

10. The danger of nuclear weapons was another topic that caught the attention of all. It is mere madness to simply sleep with 15,000 warheads that threaten the very existence of creation. Man/Woman have no right to re-draft the cosmic design. Wiping out humanity can never be a sane intervention. If we don't discern the right direction, we don't know how the creator will intervene.

Infallibility is not human nature. There may be flaws, but why should we worry about flimsy matters, when we have so much to rejoice. So all went home with hope, to be as active as ever, may be more active, with renewed energy. Let me conclude with a few lines from Tagore's Gitanjali, which I had been teaching my M.A students for many years, which still reverberates in my soul: “The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day.

I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument.

The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set; only there is the agony of wishing in my heart.

The blossom has not opened; only the wind is sighing by. . . " Let there be strong winds. Let there be no delay in the blossoming of a new spring, a spring that transforms all hearts and minds.

Dr. Abraham is involved in interfaith activities for past 20 years, he serves as URI-India's South Zone Coordinator and President of Interfaith Students Movements in South India. He is the author of 15 books. His recent books include: Concept of Salvation in the Upanishads; the Bible and the Qur'an; and Intertextuality of the Holy Books.

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The Doctrine of Incarnation: A Liturgical Appraisal Revd Dr. Jameson K. Pallikunnil The Church is a community of faithful, which is entrusted with the responsibility to share the good news of Christ through its very life. This community is nourished and strengthened by the table of the Word and table of the Body of Christ. Christian Faith is proclaimed in society through lifestyle. It is an expression of self. The search for this identity is manifested in the relationship between God and human beings within the setting of liturgy. Holy Qurbana is the proclamation and celebration of the salvific act of Christ in which incarnation is an indispensable part of this plan. Faithful people realize it through participating in the Liturgy. A celebrated faith is proclaimed and proclamation aims at gathering people for celebration. This article mainly highlights incarnational aspects embedded in the Eucharistic liturgy of the Mar Thoma Church.

The Doctrine of Incarnation The doctrine of incarnation is central to the faith of the Christian community. This precise theological term refers to a divine being taking on humanity. In the incarnation, God acts in and through the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. The incarnation of Christ encapsulates the Father sending the Son, Jesus, to live among us - Immanuel. It is a radical, self-expression of divine love towards humanity.

The incarnation is part of God’s unique redemptive plan of salvation at work in Christ.4 The triune God came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ and comes into the very lives of the Church through His Spirit. The incarnation of Christ is the embodiment of God in person.

It was necessary for the second person of the Trinity Jesus Christ - to assume human flesh to communicate the message of salvation through his salvific act. Through the incarnation, the truth of God entered into the lives and thoughts of people. In the New Testament, the Gospel of

John is the first place that exposes the incarnation and its role within the Missio Dei. St. John 1:1-18 unfolds the mysterious nature of the pre-existence of Christ in creation. As John 1:14a says, “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” The Father had sent Jesus into the world. God's act of becoming incarnate in Christ is unique. It calls the Church to follow Jesus Christ. St. Paul reveals the kenotic nature of Jesus Christ, for the purpose of highlighting the notion of imitating the action of becoming incarnate. (Phil. 2: 5-7) Incarnational Emphasis in the Eucharistic Liturgy – The Anaphora of St. James.

The incarnation of Christ is a prominent theme in the liturgy of the Mar Thoma Church. The Church affirms her faith in the incarnation of Christ through the celebration of the Eucharist. Throughout the liturgy, especially in the promeion, the Church commemorates the incarnational nature of Jesus Christ and appeals for his grace and mercy.5 For instance, in the preparatory service, the promeion deals with the theme of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. This promeion reflects the very nature of God such as “a saving, redeeming, and life-giving God.”6 He is the One who budded forth from the virgin womb (his incarnation), who quickens the dead by his voice, is worthy of praise, honour, and adoration at all times.7 The placing of bread on the paten symbolises that the faithful themselves offer to God. When the priest mixes the wine with the water in the chalice, the Church affirms her faith in the divinity and the humanity of Jesus Christ.

The incarnation of Jesus as fully divine and fully human is emphasised and recalled. The two natures of Christ are symbolically presented in the mixing of the cup. Each event in the life of Christ, including incarnation, is salvific and pointing towards the redemption wrought by Christ.8 In this second part of the preparatory service, there is another sedra prayer,9 which enumerates the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. Here, Christ is addressed as the creator and designer of the whole creation.

Considering the Ante - Communion Service or Public Celebration of the Holy Qurbana, that commences with a liturgical hymn. This liturgical hymn expounds the holiness of God and it highlights the need for the purity of hearts and minds of the faithful to offer a holy sacrifice.

After drawing back the veil (curtain) of the madbaha, the 5 Titus II, Qurbana Thaksa, 120-134.

6 Titus II, Qurbana Thaksa, 9.

7 Kuttiyil, Eucharist (Qurbana), 65.

4 Christopher Wright, The Mission of God (Nottingham: Inter-

Varsity, 2006), 385.

8 Kuttiyil, Eucharist (Qurbana), 60.

9

Titus II, Qurbana Thaksa, 9.

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celebrant pleads for the blessings of Jesus Christ. The drawing of the curtain symbolises the full revelation of God through Jesus Christ. In this prayer, the Church recalls the memory of St. Mary (mother of Jesus) and John the Baptist, and their role in the salvation history of Jesus. It was Mary’s response to God, which has caused the incarnation of Christ. John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus, who prepared the way for the ministry of Jesus and baptised him before his public ministry. Both of these figures were the nearest witnesses of the incarnation of Christ. In this short prayer, the incarnation of Jesus Christ is recalled. The Church remembers the birth and baptism of Jesus and beseeches Christ to have mercy on them. Through this prayer, at the very beginning of the public celebration of Holy Qurbana, the salvific event of Christ is brought to the attention of the believers. The responsary (Manitho) after eqbo, attributed to Mar Severus of Antioch (465-538 CE), is rich in theological content. In this response, the person of Christ and his entire dispensation are chronologically presented, i.e. the nature of Jesus, the purpose of his incarnation, and the entire salvific act of Christ. The incarnation of Jesus, his crucifixion and death, unfold before the believers. This is considered as the proclamation and the affirmation of the faith of the Church in the Christ-event.

In the anaphora, after the prayer of the Kiss of Peace and before the first blessing, there is a liturgical act called “Sosappa Aghosham”- elevation of the veil - from the mysteries in which the celebrant removes the veil placed over the paten and chalice. This act is an explicit example of the symbolic representation of the incarnation of Christ.10 Sosappa is used to cover the bread and wine the holy body and blood of Jesus Christ. It is the divine mystery. This divine mystery is hidden, and unveiling the sacred mysteries symbolize that the hidden things are now being revealed. Incarnation is the revelation of divine mystery. Hence, St. John says “no one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (Jn.1:18). The covering of the mysteries symbolizes the time before the incarnation of the Word, who was concealed and hidden from humanity and uncovering the mysteries indicates the time after his incarnation, in which he was revealed and known to humankind.11 The first rooshma in the Holy Qurbana indicates another aspect of the incarnation. The attributes of God such as love, grace and communion are remembered and the gifts and abiding presence of the Triune God is being wished to the faithful. These virtues are personal feelings. By attributing these qualities to the Trinity, the rooshma demonstrates the incarnation in an effective way to the congregation.12

Incarnation means being one with humanity. The Words of Institution in the liturgy are a classic example of Jesus being one with humanity. After this, the consecration of the bread is followed. The Words of Institution with the prayer “when the sinless One of His own will, choose to suffer death for us sinners, He took bread in His holy hands…” This denotes the ultimate identification of Christ with humanity through His death. By its very nature death denotes an inherent weakness in creation. Through dying on the cross, Jesus Christ identified with the weak nature of the world and humanity and revealed his complete human nature.

He incarnated into the most trivial experience of humanity - death. The prayer of “anamnesis” is a culmination point of the incarnation of Jesus. “O Lord, we remember your death, burial, resurrection and your ascension into heaven.”13 The incarnation is not just identification. In incarnation there is transcendence in humanity’s life situation. In epiclesis, humanity is united with the very nature of Jesus Christ.

The invocation of the Holy Spirit to sanctify the bread and wine indicates this transcendence. Through the sanctification of bread and wine, which is an offering of the faithful, the community of the faithful is sanctified and is identified with Jesus Christ. Here the humanity is lifted up to the divinity of Christ. This process of theosis is the divinization of humanity. Humanity does not become God. Instead, the humanity is no more the sinful humanity, but the one that is identified with the divine humanity of Christ. This divine humanity is part of the Trinity. There is a downward movement and an upward movement in incarnation. The God who stooped down and became human did not end up there. The prayers before distributing the holy elements accompanying the act of ascending and descending from the steps of the thronos signify the theosis experience of the People of God. The downward moment signifies the Christ’s incarnation and ascending the step denotes the divinization of humanity through Christ.

The incarnation is not an effort of the self, but it is possible only by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not our own incarnation, but the Holy Spirit who makes Christ present in us and beyond us.

In the concluding thanksgiving prayer, the celebrant reminds all that the faithful enter into a communion with the Holy Spirit. Living in the presence of Christ means embracing the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised the Father would send (Jn.14:16). It is to understand that God is with every disciple until the end of the age (Mt.28:20). The incarnated Christ now dwells in the lives of believers.

Incarnation and Mission Incarnation is the very heart and nature of the Christian mission. The mission of the Church is to incarnate in every human situation. God identifies himself with

10 Titus II, Qurbana Thaksa, 23.

11 Varghese, Bar Salibi, 98.

12

Varghese, “Missional Vision in the Liturgy of St. James,” 21.

13 Titus II, Qurbana Thaksa, 25.

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humanity in its fullness, thus making humanity a part of divine Godhead. Therefore, the incarnation invites the congregation into a mission, that is, to present Jesus into every trivial human situation and to transform it. This is a challenge of the mission in the liturgy. The mission of the Church is to reflect the uniqueness of Jesus’ redemptive life through its self-emptying witness and life.

Incarnational model of mission means that just as God became fully human in the person of Jesus Christ, the followers of Christ become fully at home in their own particular space and time. It calls for an intimate, incarnational identification with people in a particular culture where the Church communicates the Gospel. The Church is often defined as the extension of Christ’s incarnation. The Church is equipped with the Holy Spirit to represent Christ to the world. The faithful embody the Gospel which means that they have Christ living in them, and therefore. Their lives express incarnational mission.

Conclusion The focus of the Eucharist liturgy is the incarnational nature of Christ and his salvific act for the redemption of whole creation. Since the Church employs the incarnational model in its mission activities, their renders Church considerably more relevant in the transformation of society. Hence, an emphasis on the incarnational pattern of mission has to be reiterated in the Church. The mission theology of the Mar Thoma Church is firmly grounded on the concept of mission as ecclesial proclamation of the economy of salvation in the present context. The Mar Thoma Church adopted an incarnation pattern in mission, in which the goal of mission is neither proselytism nor widening the boundaries of the Church; rather, the mission is witnessing to the reign of God by identifying with the marginalized and providing opportunities for them to grow as human beings. The incarnation of God through Jesus Christ invites the Church “to become living members of Christ’s earthly community and to begin a life of service to others.”14 The Church’s mission, therefore, is to witness the message of “incarnation-identification” of God with the people and world realities.

Bibliography 1. Anastasios, Archbishop. Mission in Christ’s Way. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2010.

2. Bar Salibi, Dionysius. Commentary on Eucharist. Baby Varghese, trans. Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 1998.

3. Bevans, Stephen B, and Roger P. Schroeder. Prophetic Dialogue: Reflections on Christian Mission Today. New York, Maryknoll: Orbis, 2011.

4. Bosch, David J. Transforming Missions: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Missions. New York: Orbis, 1992.

5. Kuttiyil, George Mathew. Eucharist (Qurbana): The Celebration of the Economy of Salvation (Madabranutha) Kottayam: Oriental Institute of Religious Studies, 1999.

14

Bosch, Transforming Missions, 10-11.

6. Varghese, Eapen. “Missional Vision in the Liturgy of St. James.” In St. James Liturgy: A Liturgical Study, edited by Shaiju P. John. Thiruvalla: Christava Sahitya Samithi, 2013.

7. Wright, Christopher. The Mission of God. Nottingham: InterVarsity, 2006.

Rev. Dr. Jameson K. Pallikunnil, is an ordained minister of Mar Thoma Syrian Church, who holds two post graduate degrees in Sociology and Liturgical Theology and was bestowed with Ph.D. from St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Ireland. Achen is the author of the books “The Eucharistic Liturgy: A Liturgical Foundation for Mission in the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church” published in 2017 and also “Mission and Liturgy: Contest, Convergence and Congruence with Special Reference to the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church.”

FOCUS The Editorial Board of the FOCUS has decided to introduce a new initiative of ‘Ask FOCUS' to enable its readers and wellwishers to interact with issues-specificity with FOCUS about the biblical and theological themes addressed in this journal. We request your active participation in this new interactive feature focused especially, though not exclusively, on the youth.

You could begin with sending us your thoughts and queries about the themes and insights offered through the FOCUS issues. It would help if you would be brief and limit your queries to, ideally, about 50 to 100 words. We are, however, somewhat flexible about the word-limit. Even so, brevity is the envisaged golden rule. You may send your thoughts by e-mail to Rev. Valson Thampu (you could address him as Valson) at his e-mail address vthampu@gmail.com The editorial board reserves the freedom to edit the submissions and also to reject any which is contrary to the editorial policies and mission of FOCUS. You may access all the previous issues of FOCUS online magazine by visiting any of the two web sites below and reading the thematic articles in each issue.

We guarantee that your privacy will be protected and that your name will be published only with your prior permission; otherwise, your views/statement will be published under the caption: A Reader’s View. We hope that our readers and wellwishers would make use of this new initiative and take part actively in the mission and purpose of FOCUS. www.issuu.com/diasporafocus www.scribd.com/diasporafocus

Editorial Board

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Second Christian Reformation Acharya John Sachidanand ‘Christianity’ is a world religion that professes faith in a God of infinite love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness as revealed to humankind by Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in this one true God and a living and loving relationship with Lord Jesus Christ who is the ‘Son of this living God’ (Mt 16: 16) constitute the source of eternal life (Jn. 17: 3).

the Roman Catholic Church. Money, power and pleasure are controlling the Church leaders in the modern world. There are also many conflicts, even violent conflicts, among the various Christian Churches based on these temporal issues.

Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Master, invited his disciples to have faith in the one true God who is the ‘Heavenly Parent’ of all humankind and in himself who is ‘sent’ by this God (Jn. 14: 1). He is the light of the world (Jn. 8: 12) and ‘the way, the truth and the life’ in humanity’s quest for God (Jn. 14: 6) and for the meaning and purpose of life in this world and thereafter.

The Second Reformation Movement will have to be based on Christ and his cross. It has to begin from India with the Indian Church. India is the only country in human history to win its political freedom following the path of the cross. ‘Satyagraha’ of Mahatma Gandhi was nothing but a practical application of the cross of Christ in a socio-political struggle.

Christianity as a world religion and the many denominational Christian Churches in the world constituting the ‘Christendom’ today are only the various expressions of this Christian faith bound with space and time, and with different languages, cultures and traditions of humankind.

1.

First Christian Reformation

The first Christian Reformation was initiated by Martin Luther in 16 century when the Church was steeped in immorality, greed for money, abuse of power, priestly domination, superstitions and exploitation of the laity. Martin Luther challenged the Church on many of its teachings drawing his strength from the ‘Word of God’. ‘Return to Bible’ was the slogan and source of this first Christian Reformation. ‘Protestantism’ and ‘Protestant Churches’ have their origin in this Reformation Movement initiated by Martin Luther that is also referred to as ‘European Reformation Movement’. Christianity was intellectualized and rationalized through this first Reformation Movement.

3.

A return to Christ

‘Return to Christ’ will have to be the source and motto of the Second Reformation Movement. This will also lead to unity and cooperation among the various denominational Churches in the world. Christian faith will regain its pristine glory enriched by the spiritual treasures of India. It will acquire an ‘Indian face’.

The European Reformation Movement intellectualized and rationalized the Christian faith. But the Indian Reformation Movement will have to spiritualize and vitalize the Christian faith with the power and wisdom of God in Christ and his cross. This will be India’s contribution to the Christian faith.

th

Western civilization and industrial development have been greatly influenced and molded by this first Christian Reformation. With the growth of European colonialism, both Catholicism and Protestantism also spread to all other parts of the world. As a result, Christianity today has become ‘Christendom’ consisting of many denominational Churches spread all over the world. The Roman Catholic Church continues to remain the oldest and largest of these denominational Churches within the Christendom.

2.

Second Christian Reformation

The time appears to be ripe for another Reformation Movement.

This ‘Second Reformation Movement’ has to involve all denominational Churches of the Christendom. Of course, it has to begin with and from the Catholic Church.

Most of the Christian Churches in the world today seem to have lost their spiritual vitality and moral strength. The Roman Catholic Church appears to be very much burdened with sexual immorality and financial scandals. Consumerism and materialism have crept into almost all Churches, more so into

4.

Kerala – ‘Dharmakshetra & Kurukshetra’ of Second Christian Reformation

Kerala, the cradle of Christianity in India, is a living example of the spiritual apathy and moral decay that have afflicted the Christian Churches in the modern world. This small yet most literate and politically conscious state in India houses the headquarters of many denominational Churches in India. Hence, the Second Christian Reformation Movement will have to begin with the Christian Churches in Kerala.

Among the various Christian Churches in this cradle of Christianity, the Syro-Malabar Church appears to be in a greater need for the Second Reformation. Will the Disciples of Christ in Kerala have the courage and creative dynamism of the Holy Spirit to bring about such a Second Christian Reformation? The Lord has sent out 72 disciples to prepare the grounds for him (Lk 10: 1). Can there be a ‘Spiritual Task Force’ of 72 disciples of Lord Jesus Christ in India who can take up this divine mission of the millennium?

Acharya John Sachidanand (Swami Sachidananda Bharathi) is a former Indian Air Force Squadron Leader turned disciple of Lord Jesus Christ after an encounter with death in an air accident and the subsequent encounters with the living Spirit of Christ. He became a promoter of peace and reconciliation in the multi-religious context of India.

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THE NEED FOR A NEW VISION IS REAL AND PRESSING -Part 2 Revd Dr. Valson Thampu, Trivandrum [Part-1 of this article was published in the 2018, October, issue of the FOCUS: (2018, Vol. 6 No: 4, p 26, 27).]

In the interest of clarity, let’s consider a few instances. If you are a ‘born again’ Christian, you greet others with “Praise the Lord!” and say a thousand ‘sthothrams’ and ‘halleluiahs’ in the course of a prayer. You are also found in rarified fellowships. There was a time when “Praise the Lord” meant something more than a speech formula and ‘sthothrams’ expressed spiritual bliss. Now they amount to tongue-exercises. They have become ends in themselves; just as cassocks and girdles, stoles and chasubles and cathedrals have. All these no longer point to anything beyond themselves.

Now on to even more serious matters . . .

When the natural is divorced from the supernatural - or, the body is delinked from the spirit - the body becomes mere flesh. (Paul calls its carnal flesh.) The human person becomes vulnerable to the invasive power of carnality. St. Paul, while listing the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ includes selfcontrol as an essential aspect. Self-control is alien to the body, understood as mere flesh. In such a condition, the very idea of self-control looks foolish; as indeed it does to the inheritors of the Freudian tradition - not well understood anyway - with its sole emphasis (as it is made out to be) on ‘impulse-release’. Human psyche is like a pressure cooker. Sexual energy, which alone drives the world (!), builds up within. If it is not given timely release like the release of the steam - the human pressure cooker bursts!

This is a classic instance of the logic of the body dominating the whole of life. Or, this is body-thinking at its best. We need to reckon the reality that, no matter what the church preaches, this is the understanding that prevails at the popular level today. It was not so even half a century ago. Today priests too are at the popular level.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, save the vestments, that distinguishes them from others. It is downright dishonest to pretend to the contrary. Jesus’ idea of living by the power of the Spirit -not a shirt on his back, not a penny to his name - seems, as Tolstoy once said, a ‘pleasant bit of nonsense’ to the bold citizens of the present age.

So, go and tell anyone who is a responsible church officer that the church must deny itself, and abjure income through corrupt methods, embrace simplicity of life, or set an example in practice that will impact the world; they will not laugh you out of court. They will only smirk and ensure that you are blacklisted. This is not hearsay, by the way!

I have taken a stand on sexual abuses in the church and the abuse of confession by priests. But I am, I must confess, rather double-minded about it. I cannot blame the priests and bishops in a simplistic and one-sided fashion. My considered opinion - personal conviction, if you like- is that given the existing scheme of things -the complete ascendancy of the material over the metaphysical, the physical over the spiritual - these things are bound to happen. Smartness lies in ensuring that you are not ‘caught out’.

I was an enigma -hope you won’t think that I am blowing my own trumpet- in the National Commission. The Chairman -a retired high court judge - told me, “You are unfit to be a member of a Commission.” He was bamboozled. Wanted to know how I managed to get myself appointed. What I invested in it. His perplexity was of a piece with what I have described in preceding paragraphs. There is something called ‘the way of the world’. While in Rome, do as the Romans do. That is called tact. Have some tact; else they will do you in. I was made to pay dearly in the National Commission.

I was made to pay even more dearly by the Church of North India when I was the principal of St. Stephen’s. I have described my experiences in my memoir titled On a Stormy Course, which can be ordered on Amazon. In I refer to this not to promote my book, but to avoid having to repeat a tale already told in detail with utmost candor.

The point is that when I was sought to be eliminated from the office and the bishop in Delhi entered into unthinkable conspiracies with the most corrupt elements within and outside of St. Stephen’s College, it did not surprise me one bit. I expected it. Not that it was easy for me to endure what I had to. But the fact that I knew it was inevitable from the outset helped me to endure the ordeal.

Let’s return to the new vision needed for our times. But, before that, a few more words by way of specific explanation.

Our age is in love with the ‘new’. But I doubt if the understanding we have of the ‘new’ is really very helpful or appropriate. The ‘new’ is almost a fashion with us. The ‘new’ as a fashion is no more than a craving of the flesh.

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There is, however, a ‘new’, which is spiritual. That is implied in the idea of repentance.

Jesus began his public ministry preaching repentance.

Repentance is a home-coming to God. God is the Eternal New. When God says, “Behold, I shall make all things new” (Rev. 21:5), He has a specific and spiritual idea of the new. If God is the unchanging Essence of Life – the same yesterday, today and forever – then the ‘new’ which is spiritually valid cannot be understood as the shifting fashions that wax and wane in the world. God alone is perennially new. All other seeming manifestations of the ‘new’ become old and irrelevant.

Once again, we have to return to the spiritual-physical combine. The idea and craving of the flesh for the ‘new’ is bound to be contrary to the spiritual idea of the ‘new’. It is quite sufficient, for example, to unfurl the new in church life today, to build a new church or to renovate the old one, or to improvise a new liturgy. This makes perfect sense within its context and it is not difficult to get a whole congregation excited about it. But the fact that there is another ‘new’, which cannot be achieved by money power, gets overlooked. We are now so used to it.

A new vision will not be born simply by wishing it. Not even by praying for it in a magical sort of way. We have to prepare ourselves for the new vision. This calls for radical repentance. We must be willing to shift from the old foundations to which we are habituated and addicted.

The foremost stumbling block to the new vision is our reluctance to take leave of the old. We have been conditioned to NOT look beyond it. We have been persuaded to believe that it is impious and heretical to do so.

The tragedy is that this cripples a whole people. Flesh cannot grasp the things of the Spirit. Spiritual ideas will suffer inevitable distortion, as a result, when they are taken over and re-made by carnal hands. The Eucharist, which symbolizes the mystery of the new life, becomes a mere church prerogative and an authentication of denominational affiliation. So, the Catholic idea that the

Mass is open only to Catholics is an unspiritual idea, structured on the special rights of Roman citizens. Even the idea that communion with the Risen Christ is legitimate only to confirmed members of a denominational church is a milder variant of the same. We are so used to it and hence have grown to think of it as the norm. But it caricatures Jesus who said, “Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden…” He did not prescribe eligibility conditions other than a person’s need to find his or her rest in him.

So, the new vision that we need today, especially given the brutal ascendancy of the material over the Spirit as signaled in materialism and consumerism, is the restoration of the lordship of Jesus. Jesus is the way. But it is not a denominational way. The way is the way ‘to be’, because he is also the truth and the life, both of which involve a specific relationship between the body and the spirit, the physical and the metaphysical.

Jesus embodied his new vision as the Kingdom of God. What did this signify?

The Jews had equated the godly with the racial, typical of a worldly and physical way of seeing spiritual vocations.

They sought to imprison God within a geographical enclave. The God of Creation became an exclusive Jewish God. The necessary and exclusive association of the Creator with a sliver of land is a dangerous and dishonest thing. Even today we suffer from its demonic consequences.

Jesus understood the perversion, which degraded Judaism into a death-dealing force. So, he de-linked the spiritual from geographical confinement. The Kingdom of God has no territories. What is universal cannot be parochially local. It will have a local presence, but it is the presence of the universal in the local. Spirituality, within the existing scheme of things, is only a fleeting and partial reflection of the divine within the natural. So, it has to be approached with utmost care, circumspection, vigilance and humility.

The hallmark of the Kingdom of God is the ascendancy of the Spirit. That is the significance of Jesus’ baptism.

Again, true to form, we have turned it into an initiation ceremony, ticketing a baby for denominational membership! Baptism is nothing if not the restoration of the God-ordained relationship between matter and spirit.

This is the seed of the new vision. So long as the flesh remains in charge, as is the case now, a new vision may be talked about. Ghosts of the old will be reintroduced in new attire. But even as the new vision is being prayed for, we will do all we can to prevent its birth. It is like St. Augustine writing in The City of God, that people will preach peace and prepare for war at the same time. That is the way of the world.

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Same Sex Marriage Declared Legal by U. S. Supreme Court – How it May Affect Mar Thoma Church?

Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas Fourteen States in United States of America by law still continued to ban same-sex marriage even after U. S Supreme Court ruled against it on June 26, 2013 by a 5-4 majority, resulting in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Therefore, State laws banning same sex marriage are no longer legal in America; the US Supreme Court ruled again by 5-4 on June 26, 2015 in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Essentially, the majority Justices believe the First Amendment gives religious groups and people "proper protection" to "continue to advocate" their beliefs on traditional marriage. But the dissenters are more skeptical, and concerned that "people of faith can take no comfort" in the ruling. "Many who deem same-sex marriage to be wrong reach that conclusion based on decent and honorable religious or philosophical premises," acknowledges Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority; he continues, "and neither they nor their beliefs are disparaged here."

He explains that while that "sincere, personal opposition" cannot be "enacted law and public policy" without harming gay couples and violating the Fourteenth Amendment, he favors a continued "open and searching debate" between those who favor and oppose same-sex marriage. "It must be emphasized that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned," writes Kennedy in a paragraph that will likely become the focus of scrutiny by church-state experts in the days to come.

they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths," he continues, "and to their own deep aspirations to continue the family structure they have long revered." Chief Justice John Roberts is less confident. In his dissent, he argues that today’s decision "creates serious questions about religious liberty."

"Many good and decent people oppose same-sex marriage as a tenet of faith, and their freedom to exercise religion is—unlike the right imagined by the majority— actually spelled out in the Constitution," he writes.

"Respect for sincere religious conviction has led voters and legislators in every State that has adopted same-sex marriage democratically to include accommodations for dissenting religious practice."

What is First Amendment to U. S Constitution?

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The First Amendment guarantees freedoms concerning religious expression, assembly, and the right to petition. It forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others and also restricting an individual’s religious practices. It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely. It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government.

In their dissent opinion to the U. S Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, Justices Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Antonio Scalia, and Clarence Thomas expressed their concerns about religious Americans’ right to oppose to same sex marriage. Standing outside Supreme Court following the Obergefell decision, Russell Moore, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said, “We need to be the people who know how to articulate a Christian vision of sexuality that will be increasingly countercultural from this point on.”

"The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as

Justices Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas point out, this decision will almost certainly kick off a series of legal challenges related to religious liberty. The justices focus on three issues in particular, some of which have already created legal and political tussles: gay adoption; the taxexempt status of religious organizations that wish to

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discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; and the obligation of private churches and individuals to recognize and perform same-sex marriages. In his own dissent, Justice Samuel Alito argues that the ruling will make it "impossible" for further religious exemptions to be created. In his own dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas argues, "The majority’s decision threatens the religious liberty our Nation has long sought to protect." "It appears all but inevitable that [civil marriage and religious marriage] will come into conflict, particularly as individuals and churches are confronted with demands to participate in and endorse civil marriages between samesex couples," Thomas writes.

Roberts specifically calls out is the tax status of religious organizations that wish to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. This was a question that came up during oral arguments for Obergefell: Alito raised a 1983 case involving the evangelical Christian Bob Jones University, which had refused to allow interracial dating on its campus. The Court ruled that the school could not be tax exempt if it maintained its ban; the University accepted the consequences, not changing its policy until 2000. Based on the above precedent decision of the U. S. Supreme Court, if the court ruled in favor of gay marriage, “would the same apply to a University or college if it opposed same-sex marriage?” Alito had asked Solicitor General, Donald Verrilli, who was arguing on behalf of the government in favor of gay marriage. “It is going to be an issue,” Verrilli answered. The question, now, is what will happen to the many religious organizations that don’t support homosexuality, let alone gay marriage.

If a church refuses to perform same sex marriage, is it going to lose the tax exemption status it enjoyed all these years?

Priests have to seek guidance from its leaders whether to perform or not to perform a same sex marriage. Mar Thoma Church along with all other Christian denominations in the world except a few churches recognizes that marriage is a sacrament instituted by God by uniting Adam and Eve. Justice Thomas wrote in his dissent opinion, “It appears all but inevitable that the two will come into conflict, particularly as individuals and churches are confronted with demands to participate in and endorse civil marriages between same-sex couples.” Everyone agrees that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects clergy from being required to officiate at marriages for same-sex couples and churches from being forced to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry in their sanctuaries. Mar Thoma church and other Churches are still do not need to perform same sex marriage for its members or others in its sanctuaries, even though U. S. Supreme Court ruled that same sex marriage is legal.

Mar Thoma Church’s constitution is very clear in this regard – Sabha Constitution Clause 368 quoting Gen. 1:27; 2:18, 24 – which says: “God created man in His own image; He created them male and female. Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make suitable mate to

help him.” Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and will cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. In the light of the words of the Scripture, our Sabha Constitution clearly says: “Marriage is inherent in the purpose of creation, and it is a very sacred life-long relationship between a man and a woman.

Our constitution Clause 371 details the conditions that need to be satisfied in order to enter into Christian marriage relationship acceptable by the church. The same clause provides that if a man and woman happen to maintain a relationship of husband and wife, though without a legal marriage, such persons will not be considered as satisfying the qualifying conditions, prescribed by the church. This is important since in some States in the U. S. A including Texas recognize people living together as husband and wife under the common law principles. This trend is being followed in India also under the label ‘living together’, which is not at all recognized by the church. Similarly, civil marriage entered into between a man and woman is not recognized by the Church as Christian marriage. The parties who entered into civil marriage are not allowed to be members of the church unless they apply for regularizing their marriage under Clause 381.

As far as Mar Thoma Church is concerned there is no need for any alarm at present due to the U. S Supreme Court decision legalizing same sex marriages in all 50 States in the U. S. A. Our priests can very well refuse to solemnize same sex marriage requests made by our members or others both under the Sabha Constitution and also under the First Amendment to the U. S Constitution which protects and guarantees freedom of religion and also forbids Congress from restricting an individual’s religious practices. Also, our sanctuaries will not be forced to accommodate to anyone to perform same sex marriages. All other fears expressed by members both in private forum and public forum and also by letters and e-mails to church leaders do not have any basis at all.

The Mar Thoma Church believes and teaches that Christian marriage is designed and instituted by God, through the Holy Scripture, for life-long relationship between man and wife.

Mar Thoma Church believes and teaches that marriage is not simply a contract between the couple, but it is a divine relationship between the couple and God. That is the reason why Mar Thoma Church does not favor divorces except on specific grounds stated in the Preamble on page 108. But at the end of the Preamble, it states, “In the light of the changed circumstances, the church considers it desirable that its responsibilities in matrimonial matters be performed in consonance with the laws in force in various countries.

Here you may see a contrast between church’s positions to be more specific - that church does not recognize civil marriage less same sex marriage even though it is the law in force especially in the U. S. A., by the recent U. S Supreme Court decision approving same sex marriage. But on the other hand church recognizes the divorce granted by courts in various countries under the laws in force. Church also allows such divorced persons to re-marry under its faith and

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doctrine with the recommendation of the Legal Affairs Committee.

One Solitary Life

Anglican Church in England and Episcopal Church in the United States have recognized the same sex marriage and they have even same sex people as priests and even Bishops. Under Clause 370 of Sabha Constitution, Mar Thoma Church recognizes only those who subscribe to the faith and doctrine, consistent with its faith and doctrine and have not taken a stand against the same as Christians. This clause authorizes the Episcopal Synod to declare specified churches and groups as subscribing to right Christian doctrine. It is high time for the Episcopal Synod of Mar Thoma Church to declare under Clause 370 that Mar Thoma Church does not recognize those churches, which approves same sex marriage and also appoints gays and lesbians as priests and Bishops, subscribing to right Christian doctrine.

Its faith, practices and constitution banns its clergy from performing same-sex marriages and forbids churches from hosting such ceremonies. Many of the mainline churches in the United States came out with their opposition to the ruling by saying that our commitment to the biblical truth does not depend upon judicial affirmation by the Supreme Court of this or any other nation.” The U. S Supreme Court ruling does not interfere with or touch church teachings or practice or force the church to perform same sex marriage. Clergy of any tradition including the clergy of the Mar Thoma Church still have the legal right to decline to perform a same sex marriage. “The First Amendment ensures that religions, those who adhere to religious doctrines and others have protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths,” the dissent opinion noted.

Hence, there is absolutely no need for any fear or concern for our church or its people that our priests will be asked to perform same sex marriages or our sanctuaries need to be opened to perform same sex marriages by others. Both the U. S Constitution First Amendment and our Sabha Constitution protect our priests and our parishes from demands to perform same sex marriages or from providing our sanctuaries to perform such marriages. The Mar Thoma Church does not even need to publicly declare its position like other mainline churches in the United States or elsewhere, since our Sabha Constitution clearly defines that marriage is between a man and a woman. Our Sabha Constitution under Declaration Clause on page 1 declares that the Bible consisting of 66 books is the basis of our doctrine and faith. Clause 368 of our Sabha Constitution provides that marriage is between man and women and not otherwise and the purpose is to have children born during the marital relationships and the couples should bring up their children in dependence and discipline of God. Lal Varghese, Esq., is practicing in U. S Immigration law for 30 years in Dallas. He is the legal counsel and member of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Diocese of North America & Europe of the Mar Thoma Church. He is also one of the co-editors of the book ‘Expanses of Grace.

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.

He grew up in another obscure village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then, for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never had a family or owned a home.

He never set foot inside a big city.

He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born.

He never wrote a book, or held an office.

He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness.

While He was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends deserted Him. Hew as turned over to His enemies, and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had His coat. When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure for much of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as this man.

May the life, the love, and the presence of Jesus bless your home through out the New Year.

(Author anonymous)

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REFLECTIONS ON NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS Revd Dr. Valson Thampu, Trivandrum As a rule, it is about what we experience routinely - that is to say most frequently - that we think the least. One such category is New Year resolutions. I doubt if there is anyone, among the readers of FOCUS, who hasn’t made such resolutions. And I am pretty sure there isn’t any, among the hundred thousand readers of FOCUS, who has clearly succeeded in holding fast to the resolutions thus made. This frailty applies to the present author as well. So, I write on this subject with a touch of personal intimacy and urgency.

There is yet another issue in this regard that merits our attention. And that pertains to the spiritual dynamic of making resolutions.

Why do we make such resolutions? Why do we fail to redeem them so predictably?

Let us recall the words of Jesus. He who endures to the end, Jesus said, will be saved. What did he possibly mean by this?

I wonder if the readers would agree with me if I say that the motive for making New Year resolutions is tinged with anxiety.

Of course, anxiety of a conscious kind does not explain, in full, why we make these resolutions. But anxiety certainly permeates the air in which they are made. Why is it important that we recognize this?

The infantile attitude to life is dominated by ‘immediacy’. This is something too well known to warrant explanation or argument.

The craving for instant gratification - the inability to wait or to abide- is a sign of immaturity. In philosophical and spiritual thought, immediacy is deemed a sign of weakness and instability. Those who insist on the immediate gratification of their desires are (a) ruled by the pleasure-seeking disposition and are deficient in self-mastery and (b) they are bound to be weak-willed. This makes them unfit to make and redeem resolutions. They are merely expressing wishes when they think they are making resolutions.

Anxiety points of an intuition, or an apprehension, in us that we may not be wholly up to the challenges that time - now perceived as New Year - would throw at us. Future is a domain of the unknown. The unknown breeds anxiety in us for the reason that what is not known is not amenable to our control.

What is beyond our control activates anxiety.

The problem with anxiety is that it brings about besieged state of mind. We are not fully ourselves in a state of anxiety. In such a state, we are dominated and directed by wish, not will. As a rule, wish pertains to what is external to our control. Will relates to what is internal to us. We ‘wish’ that the crop this year prove plentiful, that we may be spared the painful twists and turns of life, and so on. As against this, we ‘will’ to put our house in order, to manage our time more purposefully, to give priority to certain otherwise neglected aspect of our responsibilities, and so on.

Normally, ‘taking a resolution’ belongs to the domain of will. To resolve is to choose to act in a definite sort of way. Seen in this light, New Year resolutions are a strange category. They pertain to the future, taken in a magical or mystical sort of context. We are used to thinking of the New Year as a gift from God. Now, a ‘gift’ is wholly outside our reach of control. It originates beyond us and comes on the wings of arbitrariness. Arbitrariness, in the sense that gifts are not earned but received. The focus is wholly on the will of the giver, not on the merit of the receiver, who is in a state of anxiety till the gift is delivered.

If this is logically valid, then it turns out that New Year resolutions - as we are in the habit of making them - are not exactly ‘resolutions’, but mere wishes. Our will is not in control in respect of these resolutions, though the issues or topics about which these resolutions are made may, well exist within the jurisdiction of our will. Accurately put, the substance of these resolutions is what we wish for ourselves, not what we will for ourselves. This is as good as saying that there is an element of self-deception, albeit unwitting, in making New Year resolutions.

How exactly are these resolutions - that are, as we have seen, not really ‘resolutions’ but wishes - made? In what personal state do we make them? Are we, at the time of making these seeming resolutions, really in a state fit to make ‘resolutions?

Or, who can make, and hold on to, resolutions.

Immediacy, as the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard pointed out, are of two kinds - un-refined and refined immediacies. All physical cravings -alcohol, casual sex, various forms of addictions, magical wish-fulfilment, etc., - belong to the unrefined category. Planning, say, a pleasure trip, with minute attention paid to details so as to maximize the enjoyment to be extracted from it, is an example of refined immediacy.

Willing, which is akin to resolving, pertains to changing oneself; whereas ‘wishing’ pertains to circumstances and people around us changing to our advantage. Changing oneself is perhaps the most difficult undertaking for human beings. It really stands in no prospect of succeeding unless the self is aided in this process. Since ‘will’ is almost wholly internal to a human being, no other person or system - including the church- can help the individual in this respect directly. God alone can.

A ‘resolution,’ in its spiritual sense, is understood best as an experience or adventure in which the individual encounters God in a state of openness to changing oneself. Anything less than this is a social encounter, not a spiritual one. The hallmark of the spiritual is transformation. And that has a necessary reference to human will. In a state of fallenness, we are paralyzed in our will.

Sin leads to a state of slavery because it cripples our will, creating an inward state of unfreedom. In a state of will paralysis, one can only ‘wish’, not ‘will’.

Recall, for an illustration, the predicament of the man - the invalid- who waited for 38 years at the Bethesda pool for healing. He did not understand his state aright. The key problem with him, as it is indeed with most of us, is that his will is paralyzed, which he does not understand as such, which is also typical. The way our will is, has a lot to do also with how we understand. (You cannot teach a reluctant learner.)

The

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paralysis of will crates illusions of personal impotence, which urges and forces a person to look for ‘external’ aids and props.

The outlook of the invalid beside Bethesda is a classic illustration of this. He explains his plight entirely with reference to external circumstances, “I have no one to help me in the nick of time”. Jesus knows this to be superfluous. He heals this man in his will. So, he doesn’t have to be carried. He is able now to carry the bed on which he used to be carried.

Our New Year resolutions fail - they are so very predictable in this respect - because God is not in our resolution-making process. We make such resolutions only because it is the ‘done thing’. It is customary to make such resolutions. It is a good thing any way, and it can do no harm. They, why not?

The quality of our being - who we are - depends to a substantial extent on the choices and resolutions we make. There are two contrary models of decision-making. First, based on our good or bad intentions and trusting on our personal strength. Second, making resolutions in partnership with God. Seeking and discerning the will of God in and through the resolutions we make. Such resolutions are, therefore, not wholly personal exercises. Spiritually decision-making happens in the presence and under the authority of God. God alone endures. As the writer of Hebrews says, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.” God is, in the words of Eliot, the ‘fixed point of the turning world’. He is the foundation on which a wise man, as per Jesus’ parable, builds the mansion of his life and personality.

The result is that they expect everything about them to change.

Especially, each wishes that the other change completely and conveniently to suit one’s tastes, expectations and convenience. And when they discover that it does not happen that way - which is soon enough- friction begins. Pledges are forgotten as quickly as they are made.

All magical notions about taking New Year resolutions and wedding vows must be discarded. No ceremony or liturgy can substitute for the personal changes that individuals need to undergo. The redemption - the healing - that Jesus offers is the healing of personal will. It is also understood as liberation or setting the captives free. Freedom is the power to change oneself so as to bring out newer and better potentialities from within oneself. Spiritual liberation is, in biblical thought, synonymous with transformation.

So, it is not that we are programmed to fail in keeping our New Year resolutions. It is that we are in no state to make ‘resolutions’. We think we are resolving; whereas we are merely wishing. And God is nowhere in the process. Consequently, nothing new is born. So, it is the same old situation, the same old stuff. The year may be new; but we are the same old wine.

Should it surprise us that our New Year resolutions crumble like piecrusts?

It is necessary that today we must reflect not only on the New Year resolutions we make and break. It is even more imperative that we reflect on the wedding vows that we take. Why do they keep so poorly? Why are divorces exploding in our midst?

Unfortunately, the church takes too much for granted. It is assumed by all concerned that just because a wedding takes place in a church, as per the liturgy and traditions of a particular denomination, the married life that ensues the wedding will be Christian. Far from it, as empirical data continue to urge us to recognize.

Let us consider, for a brief while, the pledges the bride and the groom take. Are they really resolutions? The hallmark of a resolution is, as we have seen, that God is a party to it. The wedding liturgy assumes this to be the case. But do the couple really believe and experience this? The proof that God is indeed a party to a resolution or vow is that it causes something new to come into existence. This is the essence of the biblical idea of husband-wife relationship; the two becoming, in the words of Genesis, “one-flesh”. As a result of the wedding vows, taken in the presence and udder the authority of God, a new reality has to come into being. That can happen only if indeed God is a party to the pledges the couple take. Nothing short of this merits to be called ‘vows’ or ‘resolutions’ or ‘commitments’.

A resolution, if indeed it is one, effects changes in the individual who takes it, as we have seen already. This must have a refence to his or her will. What excludes the state of the will is a mere wish. In a situation in which God is an un-participating and hypothetical presence, the individuals concerned will not have the strength to undergo the change they need to experience.

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Tolstoy’s ‘The Gospel in Brief’ Dr. Zac Varghese, London History is nothing but stories and life is unimaginable without stories. The Bible is full of stories about God and his interaction with human beings through the ages. It is a love story, a story of God’s unconditional love for the world and its beings that he created. The New Testament describes stories about Jesus and his short life, in this world, 2,000 years ago.

It is good to remember how the stories about Jesus and his teaching have been transmitted to us. Initially, it was oral transmission of people who had a direct personal, physical and spiritual, interaction with Jesus. Then it was transmitted under varying circumstances to meet a particular purpose of a person or persons who transmitted these stories. License and freedom have been taken in expressing Jesus’ saying during this transmission under the guise, as Tolstoy puts it: “To maintain a particular dogma is a divine revelation, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is in the highest degree of presumption and folly. The highest presumption, because there is nothing more arrogant than for a man to say, ‘What I tell you, God himself says through my mouth.’ . . .

But in this way reason all the Churches; . . .” It is with this realization and with total humility that we should read the end verses in Revelation: “I warn everyone who betrays the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share of the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book” (Rev. 22: 18,19).

The four Gospel writers took stories about Jesus and presented in four different ways and addressed different constituents. Matthew had Jewish community in his mind and Luke had Gentiles in his periscope, but John gave emphasis to the spiritual aspects of Jesus’ story and Jesus’s intimate relationship with God, His Father.

Church Fathers, Church hierarchies, theologians and host of others took these basic stories used in many different ways to suit their purposes. However, we all need a story to live by in order to make sense of the temporality of life in this world and think of a world beyond. Devoid of an authentic story, our life turns out to be random collections of unrelated events.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), one of the world’s greatest storytellers devoted later part of his life for writing on religious and social themes. These writings challenged the practices of the Russian Orthodox Church, he wrote ‘The Gospel in Brief’ during this period of his life. He gives his reasons for writing about Jesus without the thrills and frills of Jesus’ birth narratives and miracle stories. Tolstoy

concentrated on the essential teaching of Jesus, as he understood it. Tolstoy believed ‘the official Church doctrines interfered with one’s ability to live a relatively peaceful life on a daily basis without significant suffering.’

He strongly believed that the teachings of Jesus, when stripped of the distortions, dogma and rituals would be good for mankind. Thomas Jefferson who wrote the ‘Declaration of American Independence’ also wrote a shorter version of the Bible with only the essential teachings of Jesus in 1816. Therefore, it was not only Tolstoy, but others also felt that the Gospel contains nonessentials with miracle stories and such. It is this belief, which made Tolstoy to publish this amazing book on the true teachings of Jesus. Tolstoy truly believed that a sense of life becomes clear through the teachings of Jesus. He found that ‘Lord’s Prayer is nothing less than the whole teaching of Jesus and organized the book into 12 chapters using a phrase of Lords’ Prayer as its title.

Tolstoy makes the following introduction to his book:

confessions

in

the

1. “I consider Christianity is neither a pure revelation nor a phase of history, but I consider it as the only doctrine which gives meaning to life.

2. “The source of Christian teaching is the Gospels, and there I found explanations of the spirit which animates the life of all who really live.

But along with the flow of that, life-giving water I perceived much mire and slime unrightfully mingled there with; and this had prevented me, so far, from seeing the real, pure water. I found that, along with the lofty Christian teaching, are bound up the teachings of Hebraism and the Church, both of which are repugnant and foreign to the former. I thus felt myself in the position of a man to whom is given a sack of refuse, who after long struggle and wearisome labour discovers among the refuse a number of infinitely precious pearls.”

3. “I knew not light, I thought there was no sure truth in life; but when I perceived that only light enables men to live, I sought to find the sources of the light. And I found them in the Gospels, despite the false commentaries of the Churches.

And when I reached this source of light I was dazzled with its splendour, and I found there will be full answers to my questions as to purport of the lives of myself and others . . .”

I strongly recommend this book and it has been a good companion to me in the evening of my life.

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(An Obituary Tribute) Prof. Dr. A. M. Chacko: An Ideal Guru Par Excellence Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam Kuriannor Athinilkunnathil Dr. A. M. Chacko (84), former professor of Chemistry and Principal, U. C. College, Alwaye (1981-1986) has been called to his eternal abode on December 6, 2018 at Ahmedabad (Gujarat). Dr. Chacko has been under the care of his son, Mr. Prasad, at Ahemdabad. He was buried there on Dec. 8, 2018 beside his beloved wife, late Sodari. He was survived by a son and a daughter. His death is a silent grief and a pleasant memory. “The memory of the righteous is a blessing” (Prov.10: 7). Life levels all men, but death reveals the eminent”(Bernard Shaw).

Prof. Chacko held several responsible positions in the society. He has been the Director of ALEI study Center, Alwaye and the Chairman of the Governing board of the Higher Secondary School and the Public School of Christhava Mahilayalam, Alwaye. He was also the manager of the UC College for a term (2008-2012). He was a distinguished layman of the Mar Thoma Church.

His love for the Church leaders and mission concerns are quite evident in his book under the title Adara Smaranakal (Published by the CSS, 2013) A.M. Chacko Sar has been a role model for all teachers. A guru is one who dispels darkness from the minds of his students. Yes, he had a passion to remain faithful to his professional calling till the end. He believed what Albert Einstein wrote: “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school”. As an ideal teacher and principal of repute, he always had kept a high sense of spiritual values in education. True to his calling, he had a high regard for his students, as he believed what the Jewish Rabbi, Hillel pertinently, said, “My students are my glory”. Whenever he met me, he always enquired about our daughter, Sarah, who was his student for M.Sc. in Chemistry at U. C. College. I have kept a long period of friendship with Chacko Sar for over 3 decades. In an article under the title, “The Spirituality of education” written in my Festschrift volume, Dr. Chacko wrote: “My wife Sodari and I are extremely indebted to him (MJJ) for his enriching friendship and fellowship . . . The Ecumenical Christian Center has been transformed under Joseph Achen’s stewardship into a well-planned garden city beaming message of eco-spirituality” (See Upon the Wings of Wider Ecumenism”, ECC/ISPCK-2006, p.201).

Yes, Chacko Sar had an amazing capacity to establish friendship with people across any divide and to keep it alive. He believed in what Fr. Murray Rogers, the British pilgrim, wrote, “If friends are my assets, I am the richest man on earth.” In the above article, he also wrote: “The trust of spirituality in education must lead to a firm social commitment on the part of the educated . . . A vision beyond one’s border rooted in love and justice will alone create a human face for social transformation. This is the challenge before teacher and the taught.” Chacko Sar always had upheld the wisdom saying: “If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” This is a noble advice from Chacko Sar for the future generation of teachers and students.

In two of the Birth Centenary Volumes, edited by me, Chacko Sar wrote very thought provoking articles holding the mirror of education in his hands. When he took charge of the responsibility of the Principal of U. C. College, Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius Suffragan Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Church wrote to him: “You are not called to success or failure, but to be faithful” (See the article, Dhanyamaya Christheeya Sashayahinte Vakthavu” (2004, pages-316-318). He tried his best to carry the torch of U.C College tradition by his gentleman-like qualities He used to remember and imitate the noble qualities of the founders of UC College particularly late Sri K. C. Chacko. He was truly a gentleman among the teaching fraternity. A gentleman is one who breaks a bar of chocolate in his hand into four pieces giving them to three others first and then takes the one left. He used to uphold the noble values of education, as said wisely by Jiddu Krishnamurti: “In one lies the whole world . . . nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.” True to his genius, Chacko Sar adds, “the divine factor” to it for the celebration of life before death.

In an article under the title, “Down my memory Lane”, he wrote about the Founder Director of ECC, Revd Dr. M. A. Thomas, “. . . I thank God for this man of God who fought for something that money cannot buy. M. A. Thomas Achen’s vision about ECC could make ECC an exemplary ecumenical institution “(The Quest and Legacy, 2013, pages197-198). Someone has rightly said, “Life is the most difficult exam. Many fail trying to copy others, not realizing that everyone has a different question paper”. The legacy of Chacko Sar will certainly create ripples in the vast sea of life for generations to come.

Let me conclude my obituary note by a quote from Heb.12:10, found on the cover page of the biography of the late Prof.

Titus Varghese, a well-known Guru (Published by V. T. Titus, 1990): “Our earthly fathers trained us for a few years. Doing the best for us that they knew how, but God’s correction is always right and for our best good; that we may share his holiness”

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Tide of Liberal Values and Ebb of Reformation Principles in the Mar Thoma Church: Socio-Religious-Cultural Backlashes Revd Dr. R.C. Thomas Ecclesia semper reformonda (“The church is always reforming”) is not only a European dictum but also a perennial and perpetual thrust of the Malankara Syrian Mar Thoma Church in Kerala. This tendency may be qualified as Hoodosh etho (reforming the church) with which our ecclesial calendar begins.

This article is only a peep into the magnitude of the Reformation activities with particular reference to the liberal values set by European enlightenment. It tries to unveil the socio-psychic, socio- cultural and economic facades of that great mansion called the Malankara Reformation. By “liberal values” we mean the principle of rationality from the European Enlightenment event mooted through the Church Missionary Society missionaries to calibrate and decipher the truth; “Reformation Principles” implies the ideals of the Mar Thoma Church during the Reformation period hundred and eighty years ago. In this article, ‘Reformation’ refers to how the Malankara reformation imbued the present Mar Thoma Church. The language of this article may sound less ‘spiritual’ and inclining more to a secular tone. The whole thrust anchors on the fact of Reformation process that had been triggered by many non-doctrinal factors in the nineteenth century.

Travancore as Cauldron of Transformations When one spiritualizes the Malankara Reformation to its core, one is tended to circumvent the non-doctrinal factors behind the change. So a bird’s eye of the same may be jotted as follows.

St. Thomas Tradition as “False Memory “and “Second Memory” The statement that the St. Thomas tradition exists as a “False Memory” may cause misunderstanding and irritation in the minds of those who deem the ideal of ‘St. Thomas’ very high. It does not imply that the St. Thomas tradition is bluff, farce or false. This author, definitely, shares the long tradition of ‘Mar Thoma’ cherished by that community to which he belongs. The point of emphasis lies somewhere else. Here the discussion hinges on a pivotal conviction that whenever the Malankara Christians faced an identity crisis, they turned to ‘St. Thomas’, their bastion and citadel to seek their protection and survival.

‘False memory’ is a mental experience that is mistakenly taken to be a veridical representation of an event from one's personal past. In this endeavor, one does not search into veracity of the details but it is cherished to be the trump card to win the game.

Only the cumulative meanings are considered here than the minute details. i

2

What was the reason for developing the St. Thomas tradition, which was rather feeble till the fifteenth century? Passing remarks about St. Thomas were confined to certain travelogues or some typical Christian songs. The long cherished highly prized St. Thomas tradition assumed a new dimension in the fifteenth century (1498) to combat the Portuguese commercial interests. St. Thomas tradition is intertwined with the Pepper politics of the Portuguese. By the end of the Middle Ages, the European hunt was confined to a few essential things—gold and silver to strengthen the economy of the emerging nation-states 2

in Europe and pepper in the Western European houses as the best preservative to keep the dried meat for the severe winter.

At that time Mussori (near the present Paravoor/ Kodungallor) was the only Kerala seaport accessible to the West Europeans to anchor and to land. The sea routers had to depend on the eastern-bound wind formed in the Lisbon area to voyage to the east. Cochin as landing space for the travelers from Europe is a later development. The greedy Portuguese merchants in search of super quality pepper reached here under the leadership of Vasco de Gama and tried to collect pepper from Samoodiri of Calicut who in turn demanded a fair deal. As the deal shattered, the impertinent and impudent Portuguese left him and sought new pastures in the Cochin kingdom. They made the Kochi king to dance according to their tune through cash and kinds. Later, the King patronaged the Synod of Diamper in 1599 and the rest of the things are beyond the purview of this article. The famous oath of the Coonnen Cross January 03, 1653 was a challenge to the ecclesiastical hegemony of Rome and bombarding commercial interest of the Portuguese. On a defensive note the Nazarenes of Travancore had to claim the St. Thomas tradition in contrast to the St. Peter on the onslaught of the Portuguese commercial interest. After the Coonnen Cross oath the Syrian Christians declared that they were no longer the followers of St. Peter.

History rolled on. The Malankara Christians had to depend on the higher echelons of the Orthodox Church in Syria for their ecclesiastical validity. Unfortunately they also owed allegiance to St. Peter by highlighting him and sidetracking St. Thomas in liturgical prayers. When the Malankara Reformation took place the reformed party revived the St Thomas tradition and determined their ecclesiastical destiny in relation to St. Thomas as ‘False Memory’. The word “Mar Thoma” simply means St. Thomas (Mar Thoma) one of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. The reformed party was the first community in the world to claim the name of St. Thomas the Apostle as their own name.

For that matter, they were the first church to define ecclesial identity in the name of an apostle whatsoever. Thus, all the Syrian communities in Kerala had been forced to revive the “false memory” of St. Thomas in the midst of an identity crisis.

Till then, no church had the audacity to grab and garb the name “Mar Thoma” as their own. It was only very recently the two warring factions of the Orthodox churches in Kerala added “Mar Thoma” to the title of their Catholicos. This magical name had, no doubt, increased the cultural capital of the Mar Thoma group by flying ahead of all other communities to capitalize the name “St. Thomas” to their own advantage. Or, in the words of Dominik LaCapra one may say that the Marthomites played to the gallery by applying “Second Memory” in relation to the tradition of St. Thomas. the reasons for this change are searched into in the following paragraphs.

3

“False Memory or “Second memory” need not be necessarily understood as a disowning theory with defamatory tone. In fact, it is an assertive theory making use of a social psychology theory.

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Rationalization through English education

Revival of the Literacy Faculty

The Mar Thoma Community increased their cultural capital through systematic application of certain liberal principles. This was not mean, deliberate, planning ahead for cultural capital.

Not at all. Their rising to the occasion led to it. Any community with its thick crust of traditions and practices needs an outside force to drill it. This principle is applicable to the Malankara church of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, as its leadership was rotten and the pew was less enlightened. The inertia of the Malankara church during the nineteenth century was diffused by the dynamics of the CMS missionaries. These English missionaries who arrived in Travancore were the products of nineteenth century Oxford, Cambridge University liberal education. They were intensively influenced by the ideals and ideas of William Wilberforce. Many of these missionaries who arrived as viceroys, educationalists and missionaries were related to the Clapham Sect. Their enlightenment rationality maintained that whatever is alien to human rationality and whatever cannot be proved should be rejected. Many of the practices in the Malankara church had become practices seemly without any rationality and the intense missionary mind rejected them. They could not visualize any mystery aspect in worship and the liturgical life. Tradition was caricatured as something abominable. To this author, it seems that if the missionaries were little more prudent in extricating TRADITION from traditions and if the Malankara leadership had ever remained less morons the schism in the Malankara church could have been avoided.

The Malankara Reformation changed the medium of liturgical language from Syriac to Malayalam, which was a revolutionary step. What is language? It is more than letters and words. It plays a great role in shaping the individual and a community.

Language is a powerful tool to shape the individual by reviving the frontal lobe, the part of the brain that controls important cognitive skills in humans, such as emotional expression, problem solving, memory, language, judgment, and sexual behaviors. It is, in essence, the “control panel” of our personality.

4

The Protestant Ethics The Protestant ethics of the Clapham saints was excellent and whether their theological understanding was congenial to the Eastern theological spirit is dubious and a fact to be accepted with a pinch of salt. Brevity curtails a detailed discussion on the topic. To cut it short, let us say the Marthomites imbibed and inherited the enlightenment rationality alien to them.

What is the Protestant ethics? This concept derives out of the ideas of the famous German sociologist, Max Weber (18641920). Studying various Calvinistic sects in the US and Europe, he came to this conclusion which may be paraphrased as follows. When one confesses his/her sins and accepts Jesus Christ as Lord, one’s place in heaven is reserved. The one who is assured of this fact is compelled to do something for the Lord and tries to please that Lord. How is it possible? If I were a drunkard, I decide to be a teetotaler, if I were irregular in the church services now I become an active member in my parish.

That is, a crucial decision turns my hitherto ethics upside down.

My thrift spending has vanished and it is no more. My vocation is to be a witness for the Lord. An orderliness alien to my personality pervades me. For example, I have never begun my day with prayer and reading the Bible. Now according to new discipline my daily life begins with the reading of the Bible and family prayer. Father and mother sit together and sing popular Christian hymns, which always remind us of our sins and salvation through Jesus Christ. Singing together has a magical power of cementing the members together. A family of discord and discontent now sings hymns in unison. An inexplicable serenity used to pervade the reformed homes even in the midst of scarcity, poverty and economic backwardness. This protestant ethics pervades the Mar Thoma psyche.

5

6

Let us see the Malankara Reformation as a resuscitation of the human language faculty as the traditional way of primary school education was replaced by the English education pattern.

Language is arbitrary, non-instinctive at the same time conventional. Let us take the example of a table. In Malayalam we call it “Mesah’. As a member of a family from my very childhood onwards I hear the word ‘Mesah’ for table. If I confuse, Mesah (Table) as Kasera (Chair), I will be corrected by elders to call it ‘Mesah”. It means that language is arbitrary that I cannot say Kasera (Chair) for Mesah. According to each occasion one has to use the correct word at that right time. One cannot use language as one likes. I may inherit many features such as colour of the skin, eyes etc., from my parents. But I have not inherited language faculty and proficiency en bloc as such from them. I can attain proficiency in language only through my daily right discourse in a given community. My use of words and ideas should happen in relation to a given community. Moreover, language is systematic. It means that one has to follow certain grammatical rules when one speaks.

For example, if I say ‘a’ is this table’ does not convey anything.

This cacophony turns meaningful when I say ‘This is a table’. It is logical as it follows certain grammatical rules. As a child, I practiced it before learning any formal grammatical rule. Later, I may become a language expert on the basis of the foundation, I have already shaped in my mind. Language makes a psychological link between fact and expression. Language is the medium that ignites the human mind. The words one listens to can open new possibilities. This is what had happened in the Reformation. One who is not convinced of this fact should read The Use of Literacy by Richard Hoggard (1957).

One of the revolutionary things, which happened during the Malankara Reformation was the change of medium of worship from Syriac to Malayalam, the mother tongue. Before the Reformation in the Malankara church the medium of worship was Syriac. The Peshitta, the Bible in Syriac language, was accessible only to the Malpans (seminary teachers). The Bible was available in Malayalam for the first time by 1811. A wide vista of spiritual revival was opened for the church through the availability of the Malayalam Bible: formation of popular hymns, the Bible expositions etc. Though everybody could not read, the availability of the Bible opened a wide avenue for thinking not only for the clergy but also for the lay people. Prayers in Syriac language were understood only by the priests. Many in the worshipping community including the clergy, repeated the liturgy like parrots without understanding the nuance of the language. It meant that no communication took place between what one heard in the church and the reality around. The function of language was minimized or nullified before the Reformation. Daily life and worship seemed to be disassociated.

Language enlarged the literacy efficiency of the community and

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thereby their spiritual growth was assured. It was during this time many popular hymns were written in Malayalam and sung by the reformed community. Those who could read assembled as small groups in the neighborhood on every Sunday before the church worship. They began with singing these newly formulated Malayalam hymns. One cannot but underline the formation of hymns and the availability of the Malayalam Bible.

Their content was out and out biblical. In these groups called Vayana kuttaangal (Fellowships) the biblical portions were read and those who could afford the Bible brought it with them and one enlightened person read Psalms, Old Testament lessons and the New Testament portions. One biblical passage was interpreted to edify people.

Later, these Vayanakuttangal developed into prayer groups. These gatherings cemented the social relationship and mutual bonds. Many were illiterate but a few could read and write. Whether literate or illiterate, their minds could be ignited through reading.

Person-in-Community Consciousness One of the leading contributions of Reformation is the definition of “Person”/ in relation to ‘the community’. Before the Reformation the role of the individual was not defined in relation to community. Individual was only a spoke in the rotating giant wheel called society. It was taken for granted that all baptized members are members of the church. But in the Reformation his/her role was redefined in relation to the community and this question was raised. “What is your relation with Jesus Christ?”

It was another way of defining one’s role in community.

Vocation of a believer was defined. For example, the Reformation told me that as a father I have a responsibility towards my children; as a husband to my wife; as a neighbor to my brothers and sisters; as a shepherd to my flock. All the present organizations in the present Mar Thoma church proclaimed this truth. They were established before 1935: Suvisesha Sanghom (1889); Sunday Samajam (1905); Sevika Sanghom (1918); Voluntary Evangelistic Association (1924); Yuvajana Sahkyam (1934). All these organizations were attempts to define person––on the basis of age, gender––in relation to the faith community and they emphasized the personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The members of each organization were challenged to serve God and to lead others to the foot of the cross. “Lighted to lighten”, “Bring every child to Jesus”, Every Marthomites is an evangelist” etc. are the typical evergreen Mar Thoma slogans and catch words defining the person in relation to the community.

Role of Women The Malankara Reformation reminds about the fact that a society with a topsy-turvy nature can be brought to normalcy through the role of women. There is every chance the feminists may spring upon this author and they may come at loggerheads with this writer in reiterating that this is another way of domesticating women, not at all. This writer is not sure whether his interpretation can be a ubiquitous principle but it is very true with this community in Kerala. The Mar Thoma church, reformed community, had lost every church building and related property through the Royal Court verdict (1889) and the connivance of the other fraction. All the financial backings were drained off.

The rest of the society took this reformed group for a ride and no social capital could be claimed. In this crumbling the women camp, especially the housewives of the reformed community played a crucial role through micro financing. Their role does not

seem to be well acknowledged. The Mar Thoma church remains as Mar Thoma church today only because of what our ammachis and valiyammachis (mothers and grandmothers) have done. Their evangelistic fervor and unquestioned and untinged fidelity to the community motivated them for evolving some innovative methods. Their pioneering micro-finance methods and financial alternatives in the families through small enterprises loudly declared the truth that small is not only beautiful but creative also. It is not quantity that matters but the unflinching loyalty and commitment to the cause. Money raised through selling of eggs, raising of chicks and chilly, sale of milk and milk products, coconuts etc., may sound silly today. Much before Harland David Sandershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Sanders

- cite_note-1

(the KFC man) our mothers could face the situation. This is not mere playing to the gallery of Mar Thoma women but re-reading of their history. ‘pidiyari’ (separation of little rice (75grams) before every meal and collected in a separate pot pidiyarikaalm to be given to the church at the end of every month) ‘Kettuthengu’, ‘Swemethadanam’ etc. are the unique Mar Thoma innovations, which may be classified and claimed under the Intellectual Property Rights.

Frugality was another trait practiced at home. It was practiced not only in material resources but also in words and body languages. Expressions were minimized.

Consequences of Reformation Of the various after effects of the Reformation only two factors are highlighted here. (i)

Nexus of Mission-Migration- Wealth

The Mar Thoma people were the first among the Syrian Christians to migrate. Why? The socio-economic factors may be pointed out by an economist that they had no landed property and as a means of survival they had to go out. This author is not competent to elucidate it. But as a student of theology he has some convictions. His contention is from the premise of mission. As a Mar Thoma person one used to hear that you should go to Sihora, Tibet, Nepal to be a witness for Christ. “going out” concept was drilled into the Mar Thoma psyche from the pulpit in the churches, Maramon Convention and other occasions.

One got educated and the job market in the former Travancore government did not prefer Christians to be employed in jobs to receive ‘the kasu of Padmanabhan’. The only way was to go out of Kerala.

The first migration took place to Singapore and Malaysia. It is said that one K. C. George from Ayroor migrated to Singapore in 1915. Later, during 1960 many migrated to Kaduna area in Nigeria, Ethiopia as schoolteachers. Many reached Mumbai, and steel cities such as Rourkela, Bhilai, Durgapur, Bhopal.

During the World War II many men joined the British army. After 1960, many young women were trained as medical nurses and they reached many northern cities, Mumbai and other Indian cities. After 1970, the changed US Foreign Policy facilitated the arrival of women to the USA as nurses. Simultaneously, the Gulf area also became accessible to nurses and skilled laborers. To cut it short, this migration increased the financial capital of the Marthomites and thereby their social and cultural capital. This

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author in his book, Mar Thoma Prayanam: Saraswathivandavum

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7

Lakshikadashavum has elucidated the relation among education, migration and financial capital.

(ii)

Notes:

Gathering of Cultural Capital:

During the Reformation times the tempo of the Mar Thoma Church remained at a low ebb. It meant that their social and cultural capital was only minimum. Its members played a low profile in the social life. The best example is leaving the church buildings and related properties even though some of the court verdicts were in favor of them. They did not continue the litigations since the bargaining power was kept to the minimum.

What will be their attitude if a similar event happens today? Will they say to the other party: “You take the property; We don’t go for any litigation”. Dubious!!

It is a fact that till 1975 the sister churches in Kerala took the Mar Thoma church for a ride. Today no body calls them by the nickname “Maru Thoma”. Our Orthodox school classmates in Puthencavu high school during 1960s used to tell us the same to us. They meant “Move away” with a pun on the phrase ‘Mar Thoma’. The climate has changed now and the presence of the Mar Thoma Metropolitan can be seen in all public functions ranging from the inauguration of a petty shop to that of a gold souk. In the marriage market, the Mar Thoma candidates remain on a higher demand. Today, the accumulation of wealth has attached a new tag of cultural capital for them. As wealth increases social acceptance also records a hike.

Conclusion: The Reformation period was a qualitative time in the history of the Malankara Mar Thoma church. Unprecedent factors redefined the role and task of the church. The psychological back up was provided by a few enlightenment insights. It was the light of the gospel that ignited the mind of people to face the challenges of life. Their openness to the Western liberal values opened a wide vista of possibilities. Their borrowing did not lead to another servility and they began to practice ‘the 3-s principles’ of Self-supporting, self-determining and selfmanagement.

Still, the Reformation principles have to reverberate and replete in its sinuses. Now they seem to play to the galleries of the Reformation period and valorize the achievements of their ancestors. As new challenges strangle them a mere nostalgia of a glorious past will not fetch something anew. They have to prove their mettle not by repeating the past but facing new situations in the diaspora milieu to create some de novo factors.

WISH THE READERS A HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND BLESSED NEW YEAR!!

Revd. R. C. Thomas is an ordained a priest in the Mar Thoma Church and formerly director of Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius Orientation & Research Centre, Manganam & Professor of Theology at the Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam and author of several books.

This is only a tip of the study in the area of psychology mooted by Bartlett, Carmichael, Hogan and Walter and applied to the historical studies. Sir Frederic Charles Bartlett FRS (1886 – 1969) was a British psychologist and the first professor of experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge. See his Psychology and Primitive Culture (1923), Remembering (1932), "War of the Ghosts". Terry C. Daniel, “Nature of the Effect of Verbal Labels on Recognition Memory For Form 1, University of New Mexico Journal of Experimental Psychology” 1972, Vol. 96, No. 1, 152-157. Henry L. Roediger III,( Department of Psychology Rice University), and Kathleen B. McDermott (Department of Psychology Rice University, “Creating False Memories Remembering Words Not Presented in Lists”, Journal of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Memory and Cognition, July 1995, Vol.21, No.4, 803-814; The best example of “False memory” is the story of the apple that fell on the head of Sir Isaac Newton who triggered the Law of Gravity. The parrot like repetition of this incident is characteristic even of a scientific community. This is a fact is being readopted without examining its veracity. One is not interested in the fact of which weather condition, time of falling, ripe or not ripe apple etc.

The puffed up, embellished sagas about the origin of each family in the Kudaumbayogams in Kerala is another classic example of the False Memory syndrome.

2 From: International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001, section on “False Memories”, (Amsterdam, 5254-5239.

3 A.R. Disney, Twilight of the Pepper Empire: Portuguese Trade in Southwest India in the Early Seventeenth Century, (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press), 1978; Jesse Hysell, “The Politics of Pepper: Deciphering a Venetian-Mamluk Gift Exchange” in Perspectives on History is the newsmagazine of the American Historical Association. Dtd. Jul 6, 2016 3 Richard Hoggart wrote his The Uses of Literacy: aspects of Working Class (London: Penguin, 1957,) when Britain was undergoing huge social change, In the midst of the cataclysmic changes he asked the following questions. When a society becomes more affluent, does it lose other values? Are the skills that education and literacy gave millions wasted on consuming pop culture? Do the media coerce us into a world of the superficial and the material - or can they be a force for good?

Hoggart gives a fascinating insight into the close-knit values of Northern England's vanishing working-class communities, and weaves this together with his views on the arrival of a new, homogenous 'mass' USinfluenced culture. His headline-grabbing bestseller opened up a whole new path in cultural study. It remains an essential commentary on class, poverty and the media. He has observed the resistance of subjugated and marginalized groups and their socio-economic practices. He proposes that in order to combat any hegemonic cultures one needs new social value systems and new language.

4 The Clapham Saints were a group of Church of England social reformers based in Clapham, London, at the beginning of the 19th century (active 1780s–1840s). The historian Stephen Michael Tomkins defined them as "a network of friends and families in England, with William Wilberforce as its center of gravity, who were powerfully bound together by their shared moral and spiritual values, by their religious mission and social activism, by their love for each other, and by marriage". see the Clapham Movement in Ann M. Burton, "British Evangelicals, Economic Warfare and the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1794–1810." Anglican and Episcopal History 65#2 (1996): 197– 225, in JSTOR; Gathro, John "William Wilberforce and His Circle of Friends", CS Lewis Institute. Retrieved on December 17, 2018; Boyd Hilton, A Mad, Bad, Dangerous People? England 1783–1846 (2006), 175; David Spring, "The Clapham Sect: Some Social and Political Aspects." Victorian Studies 5#1 (1961): 35–48.

5 Hoggard, Richard, The Use of Literacy, (London: Penguin), 1957.

6 Domink LaCapra, History and Memory after Auschwitz, (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998) 7 Rajan C Thomas, Mar Thoma Prayanam: Saraswathi vandanavum Lakshi kadashavum, (Teerthadaka Publications: Tiruvalla), 2005.

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