FOCUS January 2021

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FOCUS January 2021 Vol. 9 (1)

Cover Photo by Canva: The New Normal not only from the Pulpit but also from Pews and Isles (We are all in this together), Cover Design by Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas

Contents 1. The New Normal: Editorial by Dr. Zac Varghese, London, Page 3 2. The End of an Era: Reflections on the Mar Thoma Legacy on the death of Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan Rt. Revd Dr. John Fenwick, Bishop Primus of Free of England, Page 11 3. The Eucharistic Experience in Virtual Space, Fr. Thomas Punnapadam, SDB, Page 17 4. COVID 19 Pandemic: Faith Musings: Revd Dr. Prakash K. George, Kottayam, Page 19 5. Living Rooms Becoming Sanctuaries – The New Normal from Pulpit and Pews: Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas, Page 21 6. The New Normal or Better than Normal: George Thomas, Copenhagen, Page 24 7. Family: A Place of Faith Formation (Christ Centered Family): P. T. Mathew, Dallas, Page 26 8. Church and the Sex Scandal: Responsibility of Clergy and Laity: Prof. Plammoottil V. Cherian, Chicago, Page 27 9. Aspects of Loneliness, Dr. George Mathew, London, Page 30 10. The Dimensions of the Human Spirit: Revd Dr. K. V. Mathew, Kottayam, Page 32 11. Soul Pepair: Dr. Zac Varghese, London, Page 33 12. Funeral Service of Most Revd Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan: Page 39 Photo Courtesy: SDImaging, Thiruvalla and Revd Roshen V. Mathews, Trinity MTC, Houston 13. Installation of Most Revd Dr. Theodosius Mar Thoma Metropolitan: Page 40 Photo Courtesy: Gloria News Media and Revd Binoy J. Thomas, Mumbai Diocese of Mar Thoma Church

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EDITORIAL

Christianity to practicing God’s kingdom values; it is the ‘Liturgy after the Liturgy’.

‘The New Normal’

In Loving memory of Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan: The 18th October 2020 was a sad day for all of us: critics, admirers, loyal members of the Mar Thoma Church, people of other faiths and wider ecumenical community. The late Metropolitan was admired and respected by people inside and outside the Mar Thoma church for his spirituality, compassion, charitable work, amazingly outstanding administrative abilities and the total person that he was. It is with great sadness we said farewell to this good and faithful servant of God.

‘The New Normal’ emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic is not inscribed on a tablet of stone; it is the sum total of continually evolving ideas of many parts born out of our painful experiences of this pandemic under the grace of God. Although we are facing the New Year under the shadow of many problems and uncertainties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, we wish our contributors and readers with absolute hope and faith ‘in Christ’ a very happy and blessed New Year.

Our Lord and our God who sustained us all these years through our varied experiences will help us to overcome our present difficulties. In such times, it is comforting to read, “. . . so that in me you may have peace. In this world you have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33).

This long editorial has three important aims: firstly, to thank God for the life and the ministry of the late Most Revd Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan; secondly, to introduce the general theme of the current edition of the FOCUS, which is ‘The New Normal: not only from Pulpit, but also from Pews and Isles’; thirdly, to welcome and felicitate the 22nd Mar Thoma Metropolitan, the Most Revd Dr. Theodosius Mar Thoma Metropolitan.

At the very outset, I want to make it absolutely clear that the main theme of this issue of the FOCUS is it not to join the bandwagon to attack priests and churches. But to think together, both clergy and laity, on how we could face the current difficulties and realities facing the Christendom as a whole and to highlight the urgent need for clergy and laity to work together to bring forth much needed adjustments and reformation on all aspect of Christian ministry and mission.

Seven years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic, Rt. Revd Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius prophetically highlighted the essence of the theme of the current issue of this journal in a book, ‘churching the Diaspora, Discipling the Families’.

Thirumeni wrote, “. . . The church, clergy and laity, are to be seriously engaged in innovating effective shepherding in the digital world, as we look at Pastors and pastoral ministry, in the context of New Generation Christians. The Good shepherd Jesus Christ is still asking us to ‘feed the sheep’.”

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Thirumeni reached out to all sections of the community, the poor, the rich, the left and right of the political spectrum and the wider ecumenical community. As we mourn the death of this beloved servant of God, let us thank God for his 90 years with us to share our burdens and our joy.

Members of Thirumeni’s illustrious family played important roles during the reformation of the Mar Thoma Church in 18th Century.

Abraham Malpan known as the Martin Luther of India, and the first four Metropolitans for a period of hundred and two years, from 1842 to 1944, came from our Metropolitan’s family. This is an amazing legacy and responsibility to bear and Metropolitan Thirumeni was very conscious of his historical ancestral linkage, traditions and responsibility. Thirumeni’s ordination as Revd P. T. Joseph was on 18 October 1957. When some people argue vehemently against the traditions of the Mar Thoma Church, let us remember how Jaroslav Pelikan defined tradition: “Tradition is the living faith of the dead and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” It is traditionalism, which gives a bad name to tradition. Thirumeni unashamedly valued tradition. th

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When we seek ‘The New normal’ for worshipping God, it is good to listen to what Jesus said to the Samaritan Woman: “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. . . God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:21-24). The New Normal is a movement from knowing about God through intellectual pursuits to experiencing God in our personal circumstances and life situations of others in society; it is a movement from orthodoxy to orthopraxis; it is a movement from convenient

Let us thank God for giving Thirumeni the divine delegation to be a messenger of the Gospels, determination and courage to do God’s mission over the last 63 years, of which 18 years was as a minister, 45 years as a bishop, and the last 13 years as our beloved Metropolitan. It is an amazing coincidence and miracle that he passed away on the same date on October 18th that he was ordained as a priest in 1957.

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Rt. Rev. Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius, ‘Churching the Diaspora, Discipling, the families, CSS Tiruvlla, 2013, page 75.

He was a master craftsman, when dealing with current issues he always found suitable biblical reference points and narratives; Jaroslav Pelikan, The Vindication of Tradition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), page 65.

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this is indeed a very effective way of tackling issues, including political and religious, with a modern and historical perspective.

Thirumeni’s monthly letters in the Tharaka were prime examples of this ability; Thirumeni was always in touch with all aspect of our life in India and elsewhere. This is why the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, paid glorious tribute to him on his 90 birthday.

societies in which we live. This is indeed the global witnessing potential of the Mar Thoma diaspora communities. Hopefully this is the guidance that Thirumeni left for us and that is indeed the legacy of Thirumeni for the Mar Thoma diaspora communities.

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Thirumeni’s ecumenical record is phenomenal; he was the president of the Kerala Council of Churches, National Council of Churches, CASA, and intimately involved in many other national and international organisations including the WCC. Thirumeni also played a very significant role for the relief of tsunami, victims of floods in Kerala and also for the earthquake victims in Maharashtra and other places. He has built many educational institutions, nursing schools, caring homes for old people and hospitals. Therefore, his ministry reached all areas of life and also he was recently involved in transgender awareness and rehabilitation programmes. Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph described him as a ‘karma yogi’.

Thirumeni’s contributions to the Mar Thoma diaspora were enormous and prophetic. Thirumeni encouraged and helped us to bring together lay leaders, almost ninety of them, from all parts of the world for three FOCUS seminars from 1999 to 2003 at Santhigiri Ashram, Alwaye. He and all our other bishops stayed with the group during these five-day seminars to workout policies for the growth of the Mar Thoma diaspora communities. We also had the blessings from Alexander Metropolitan Thirumeni and Chrysostom Thirumeni. This was an unforgettable experience for those who were there.

The founding editors of this journal are indebted to Thirumeni for his mentorship for the publication of this journal in 2013.

Future historians of the Mar Thoma Church will undoubtedly look back on the twentieth century and the first two decades of the 21st century as a great period in the transformation of the Mar Thoma Church into a global Church. Irenaeus Thirumeni’s contributions to this transformation were enormous. However, I do not think that many members of the Mar Thoma Church in Kerala appreciate or understand this new status endowed on the Mar Thoma Church by God’s amazing grace and our responsibilities emerging from it for the world mission. Bringing people to God and bringing people to brotherhood with one another through witnessing is our mission, the mission of God (Missio Dei). The dispersion and scattering of the members of the church to the various parts of the world may indeed be providential; this may help us to answer the question, why are we placed in different regions of the world? Thirumeni continually asked us to remember this question and answer this question with fidelity to the purpose with which we are called and sent. Chrysostom Thirumeni was also concerned about this question and he asked at the FOCUS seminar in 2001 the question: “Will the diaspora community ever become a local community?” This is a task now left to our younger generations in our diaspora regions to answer.

However, how should we answer this question about our integration with local communities and what guidance can we give? Whoever or wherever we are, our spiritual journey can only start at the foot of the cross and this is the mother of all our common beginnings. Therefore, the remembrance of our common beginnings would help us to become ‘outward signs of an inward grace’ and this will certainly help us to transform the

Although we have grown individually and can be very proud of our individual diasporic experiences and achievements, we do not have any real collective feeling for Mar Thoma diaspora communities in various regions of the world for authentic witness. Arundathi Roy in ‘God of Small Things’ wrote: “Though you couldn’t see the river from the house any more, like a seashell always has a sea-sense, the Ayemenum house still had a river-sense, a rushing, rolling, fish swimming sense.” In a similar vein, Thirumeni’s sense of history and the stories that he told us relating to reformation, migration, and settlement would help us, our diaspora communities around the world, to maintain that important ‘Mar Thoma- sense’ which we should pass on to subsequent generations. This ‘Mar Thoma – sense’ is what Thirumeni taught us relentlessly.

Thirumeni was the custodian of traditions, customs and mores, without which he thought we would become rootless and superfluous, he thought. Thirumeni had a sense of history and did not forget the small and large events that shaped the Church. He had an amazing ‘presence’, which is difficult to describe, but we experienced it on various memorable occasions such as Jubilee celebrations or at Maramon Convention or in the presence of various dignitaries such as, politicians, ecumenists, sociologist and heads of churches.

Thirumeni was the embodiment of the Mar Thoma Church; he had an indefinable ‘Mar Thomas-sense and Presence’.

Thirumeni also had a sense of ownership of the Church, which he zealously safeguarded. He was indeed the 21st Mar Thoma Metropolitan in every sense of the word. He knew and felt the struggles of the post reformation Marthomites, to preserve their faith and the compulsion to be with the Church and also in dignity, serenity and style. Yes, indeed, he had a God-given ‘Presence’. Let us gratefully preserve his memory and may his memory be a blessing for the church and the wider community.

The New Normal: not only from Pulpits, but also from Pews and Isles.

Let me turn to the second aim of the editorial. It is over nine months since we entered into lockdown and other restrictions across the world to isolate ourselves from getting infected with the Coronavirus. We have embarked on a new way of life, including our worshipping patterns. God has provided us many technological means for establishing creative ministries across the world for worship, pastoral care and community outreach.

We have travelled along a road, which we never travelled before this pandemic and it is clear that the end is not in sight. We are hopefully waiting for an effective vaccine, but in the meantime all of us should take extraordinary care individually and collectively to prevent further waves of outbreaks. As the pandemic is not over we must show love and empathy to all by doing what we can in following governmental instructions to minimise the spread of infection; this also includes the restricted new communal worshipping practices. It is one of the areas in which we need to find a new normal, particularly in taking part in

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the Holy Communion and the way in which holy elements, consecrated bread and wine, are given to communicants.

Scott Peck in his book, ‘The Road Less Travelled’ says: “Once we truly know that life is difficult––once we truly understand and accept it––then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult is no longer matters.” He goes on to develop the idea that discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems. He also identifies four tools for developing this discipline for solving suffering and pain; these are delaying gratification, accepting responsibility, dedication to truth and balancing.

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possess the capacity not only to express our anger but also not to express it. Moreover, we must possess the capacity to express our anger in different ways. At times, for instance, it is necessary to express it only after much deliberation and selfevaluation.” This will be very helpful in avoiding ‘a holier than thou attitude’ in our approaches to others and their leadership styles in all areas of human activities including that of the Church.

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Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and happiness of life in such a way as to enhance the happiness by getting over the pain first, outliving it, and then continue to live to make a sense of life.

Responsibility: We must also accept responsibility for a problem before we can solve it. We cannot transfer the problem to the shoulders of others, on to the leaders of churches or governments and continue to blame them. By our actions or inactions, by our indifference or inertia, we must have contributed to some extent in creating the problem initially, which is causing us concern and pain now. It has been said that no problem can be solved until an individual takes the responsibility for solving it. When a newspaper posed the question: ‘What’s wrong with the World?’ in response, G. K. Chesterton wrote: “Dear Sirs: I am.” Problems can only be solved until an individual or a group assumes responsibility for solving it. This is the essence of the theme of this issue of the FOCUS: ‘The New Normal, Not only from Pulpit, but also from Pews and Isles.’ There is a saying, which speaks to all of us for every situation and crisis: “If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.”

Dedication to Truth: The third tool of discipline for overcoming pain and solving a problem is dedication to truth. Suddenly the social media has changed our conception of truth. It is often difficult to distinguish fake news from genuine truth. Now individuals define truth in the way its fits their own thinking and projections of their selfhood and personality. Pilate was confused when he faced the majesty, composure and the presence of Jesus; he asked the question: “What is truth?” (Jn 18: 38). The word ‘truth’ equates with something that is real, honest, something that really exists. Truth is reality and this reality is what Jesus is; in Jesus we observe the fullness of man in absolute perfection; Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:7). Jesus also told us; “If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8: 31-32).

Balancing is the fourth element in having a disciplined life for solving life’s problems. We need to achieve a delicate balance amongst conflicting needs, goals, duties, responsibilities and so on. This balancing is a very difficult discipline to achieve; for this we need to negotiate curves and corners of our lives, we must continually give up parts of ourselves. This giving up is the most painful experience according to Scott Peck. “To function successfully in our complex world it is necessary for us to 3

M. Scott Peck, ‘The Road Less Travelled’, Anchor Press Ltd, Essex, ISBN 7126 1819 8, 1978, page 15.

‘A holier than thou attitude’ is an arrogant behaviour displayed through sophisticated words and philosophical utterances when people consider themselves more righteous or more moral and ethical than other people based on their own intellectual standards, judgements and achievements in life. Such people begin to think of themselves as sitting on the mountaintop and looking down on people who differ from them. This is a way of sucking energy from others for survival and popularity. St. Paul dealt with this attitude in his letter to Romans in Chapter 14. He instructs his followers: “Therefore, let us stop passing judgement on one another. 1nstead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling-block or obstacles in your brother’s way” (Rom 14:13). Humility will help us to maintain the balancing act of developing the discipline for solving problems of life. Let the above four elements help us to develop the New Normal for solving the pain and suffering from loneliness and alienations from the members of our immediate family, faith community and wider society.

Partnership between clergy and laity: Another area where we need to find a ‘New Normal’ is developing a real, meaningful and workable partnership between clergy and laity. Instead of blaming each other we should help each other and become partners in God’s mission in healing this fractured world. This is what is really meant by the theme of this issue of the FOCUS. Today churches are faced with many serious problems; this is not in itself a new challenge. However, in previous times lay people were really concerned about the grave issues of their times, which threatened the survival of their churches and were able to help to solve those problems amicably in partnership with clergy and bishops in utter humility and prayer. Today we 4

M. Scott Peck, ‘The Road Less Travelled’, Anchor Press Ltd, Essex, ISBN 7126 1819 8, 1978, page 65.

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notice a real lack of concern and a growth of indifference in laity to the ways in which churches are managed at parish level, diocese and the central level. This indifference is the most dangerous crisis facing all churches at present. The tragedy is that no one is bothered about it, and it always someone else’s fault. This lack of concern on the part of laity and a blaming culture, by few, has spread as a cancer into all vital areas of the life of the church, breaking discipline at every level. Some may say this is not a correct perception because there are always few people around who are willing to go to litigation for sorting out church-related problems and teaching a lesson about probity and governance. Who are being taught a lesson in these instances? Are we inflicting a deep wound ourselves – to the body of the Church, the body of Christ? Litigation and the social media are not the answer to our problems; we need an old style repentance, revival, reconciliation, regeneration and ongoing reformation in our churches. Crisis is often a good stimulus and opportunity for revision and correction.

This is not to blame clergy or bishops for this inertia, but I do want to point out that it is laity who is allowing this to happen in our churches. In spite of the fact that lay people are posted and positioned in various organisational structures of churches, transparency in their decision making, accountability and governance are not apparent. Unfortunately, lay people in positions of leadership, authority and influence think that they are doing a great job for community, but in effect they are destroying our heritage and our faith communities slowly and steadily. I do not think that we have reached the line of no return, there is still time for a correction, so please do not give up!

I am writing this with over sixty years of a dual involvement with the Mar Thoma Church and the Church of England, I have always felt that our historically and proudly preserved Mar Thoma identity is something that constantly needs to be opened, examined, studied, challenged, enlarged, reformed and enriched in conversations and interactions with laity and clergy throughout the diaspora regions of our church. We should do this in partnership with our clergy. This is exactly what we tried to do in the FOCUS seminars to which I alluded earlier. I thank God for this publication, as it is one of the outcomes of those seminars.

Laity has a God-given responsibility to their churches and the wider community, not to some interest groups. It is time to wake up and realise that ours is not a virtual community. But our community is real, our families are real, our children are real and our spiritual commitments are important for our faith journey.

Take for example the involvement of the vicar of a Mar Thoma parish in a diaspora region, he is there for just three years, the first year is spent for knowing people, the second year is spent on carrying out the directives from the diocese and the third year is spent for saying goodbye to people for whom he came to provide a pastoral ministry. I have labelled this type ministry before as ‘Hello Goodbye Ministry’. Take the example of the elevated position of a Diocesan bishop, he is in a Diocese for seven years and he forgets the care and concern for the Diocese the moment he leaves the Diocese. He becomes the shepherd of another fold and engages himself in removing some of the old structures and creating new ones to print his image.

Who has a vision and burden for the whole church? None of this is the fault of the individuals concerned; they are all wonderful

and honourable men. Somehow the system or the coat is not tailored to fit the size, the shape and the character of the community. The system is wrong because of the indifference and inertia of laity because laity is not concerned in building a joint up ‘Pastoral Care Team’ in each and every parish of the church for providing much needed continuity. We do not have a continuity of pastoral care. Our concerns and inputs shift with the shifting tides, modes and movement of our clergy. Our community is suffering because of this. No one has cared to study this so far, but we must study this problem to find a workable solution. This is what is intended by the theme: ‘not only from pulpit, but also from pews and isles’. This is not to ask laity to take the role preaching on Sunday worship services and shift the dependence from clergy to laity; it is about working together; we are all in this together. This is also the message of the COVID-19.

John Stott, who was a Church of England priest, a famous author and preacher at All Soul’s, Langham Place, London. He was a very saintly person who brought many people to Christ through his Christ-centred living and ministry. He was a pastor of pastors. He once with great pain said, “Rehabilitate the noble word ‘pastors’ who are shepherds of Christ’s sheep, called to tender and protect them.” He as a ‘watchman’ and a prophet, saw dangers looming; he saw priesthood moving from ‘a calling or a vocation’ to a profession. Therefore, rehabilitation is an urgent need because of the scandals of all shapes and size reported from all parts of the world. No one can stand outside these allegations and pretend that it is not about their church. We are all involved in this somehow and it is indeed our urgent need to repent, pray, and introduce total corrective measures––lock, stock and barrel. It is this need which prompted the editorial board of the FOCUS to select ‘Priest and Ministry’ as the theme for the October issue of the FOCUS in 2018 (Vol. 6 part 4)) and also in January 2020 under the theme, ‘The Christian Priesthood and Ministry in Crisis’ (Vol 8 part1).

The thought of becoming a ‘kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ brought with it the need for separation from what they thought was profane from holy. We see this very clearly in the attitudes of the Pharisees in Jesus’ time. The parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ contained explicit reference to the priest and the Levite who in their pursuit of holiness fail to offer help to the wounded man. Jesus’ life and priesthood challenged the understanding of Israel as a nation with its closed boundaries of holiness. Jesus broke those red lines of demarcation and strict observance of holiness; Jesus moved with sinners and cripples.

For Jesus, holiness was not a matter of separation, but he practiced inclusion and table fellowship with sinners and outcasts. Jesus clearly indicated that it is the sick that needs a doctor: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt 9: 13). Therefore, we see a sea change in the idea of holiness and priesthood in Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus does not live in isolation in a holy sanctuary; instead, he becomes our ‘Immanuel’.

In the place of holiness obtained through separating oneself from sinful people, we see in Jesus sanctification obtaining through accepting the outsiders, and being with them in their situations. In Jesus’ ministerial relationship with the marginalised communities and sinners, God proclaimed Jesus to be a high priest in the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5: 8-10). It is in this compassionate solidarity with victims of injustice and the marginalised one becomes a priest for God’s ministry. Bringing

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people closer to God is the God-given mission of priest; it is for removing all boundaries of exclusion between people. The priestly kingship implied in the order of Melchizedek is a caring kingship. In Jesus we observe a servant king, a union of priesthood and kingship. The symbolic footwashing in St. John’s Gospel (Chapter 13) and the new commandment of love and Eucharist are parts of the servant ministry that an ordained priest is expected to emulate. Priests who preside over the Eucharist are invited by Jesus to live the life of the Eucharist of taking God’s gifts of body and blood, giving thanks for them, consecrating the bread and the wine and sharing them with others. At the moment of Christ’s death on the cross the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. It is symbolic of the need for altar and pew to come together and pulpits should come down to pews. Our bodies have the potentials to become temples of God and our hearts its altars. Now in the Church of England, the Eucharist is celebrated on an altar facing towards the congregation and the priest sanding behind the altar facing the congregation. These are only symbolic gestures; it is our responsibility to make it real.

Pope Francis often speaks of a people-oriented pastoral Church that focuses on the needs of others rather than the one that is preoccupied with institutional issues and prestige. Therefore, the mission of the Church is not building walls, but breaking them down to create an inclusive community. We need pastors for churches without walls. It is good to listen to Pope Francis: "Do I, have at least one poor person as a friend? The poor are the treasure of the Church. Wearing the label 'Christian' or 'Catholic' is not enough to belong to Jesus. We need to speak the same language as Jesus: that of love. Let us love not with words but with deeds. Instead of feeling annoyed when they knock on our doors, let us welcome their cry for help as a summons to go out of ourselves, to welcome them with God's own loving gaze. How beautiful it would be if the poor could occupy in our hearts the place they have in the heart of God!” One of the active images of the priest is that of ‘a man of God for others and for all seasons’. In this role, the priest is called to lead a self-giving life after the model of Jesus Christ, a kenotic Good Shepherd.

For St. Paul, his apostolic ministry was servanthood and not an office of power and privilege. Paul copied his ministry in relation to the lifestyle and patterns of Jesus. It meant that the Gospel of God shaped Paul’s own thinking and attitude towards his priestly ministry (Rom 1: 1). He knew that his calling as the bringer of God’s message of love and salvation was through the grace of God. He also knew that the message he carried in his life is more important than he as the bearer of that message. He became a humble, but powerful medium for the message through the mediation of the Holy Spirit. Ordained and lay ministers need to be transformed to become servant ministers and become bearers of the message. It is very important not to distort the message in anyway by the lifestyle of the messenger.

The message is more important than the medium.

If lay people are bold in claiming their ‘royal priesthood, are they serious about their God-given responsibilities associated with this priesthood? Do they see God as one who understands their needs and is ready to help them? We should be able to listen to the ‘still small voice of God’; we often drown that voice with our discontent, rebellion and complaint. Therefore, we need to learn to be quiet before God: “Be still and know that I am God”.

Cardinal Manning said that the problem of Judas was his over-

familiarity with the holiness of Jesus; this can indeed be a problem in the mere ritualization of our worship; we have become too familiar with our worshipping ‘traditionalism’ and often miss the presence of God in our worship. Worship has become a performance spectacle and somehow, we fail to see the presence of God in our worship and the face of God in our fellow worshippers as opposed to the experience of Jacob when he met Esau, “For to see your face is like seeing the face of God” (Gen 33:10). We have lost this experience and may God help us to find this vision and experience again.

Priests with prophetic vision and trust in an infinite God, worship a God who holds the future of humanity in His hands. Prophets seek to understand God by reading the signs of the times and discerning the will of God. We need partnership with ordained and lay priesthood for God’s mission for bringing God’s future to the present. The time has come to move altar and pulpit to pews; we must remove walls of separation and at the same time keep the fear and the mystery associated with the sacraments.

“Sacraments are outward expressions of the inward flow of grace.”

The Priesthood of Laity: The royal priesthood of the laity (1Peter 1: 9) and the ordained priesthood are interrelated; each in its own way shares the priesthood of Christ. Therefore, we have a shared priesthood.

There is a need to sustain and nurture this mutual dependency and respect between laity and clergy. Laity has much to contribute since their experience within the family, professional, secular and religious life is the very attitudes and convictions necessary for Christian witness and mission. In many churches, there is a degree of neglect in providing pastoral care; existing models are not adequate and hence we need to find a ‘new normal’. Addressing this issue, Theodosius Thirumeni wrote: “Ecclesial imaginations must have the vulnerable as the central focus and it should be targeted towards the defenceless and the marginalized.” The increase in loneliness and mental illness emerging from the pandemic require greater awareness, attention and care. Therefore, we need to develop voluntary ‘Pastoral Care Teams (PCTs)’ in each and every parish to provide a partnership in mission with clergy. Lay people need to wake up and assume their God-given responsibility in building our communities by caring for the spiritual needs of the present and future generations in partnership with ordained priests. This is so important now and after the resolution of the pandemic.

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Many mainline churches including the Roman Catholics are beginning to realise that the Church in the 21st century would be a lay-centred Church. Therefore, a change in strategy is needed for moving away from the assumption that faith-related matters to be left entirely to professionals, clergy or professional missionaries. It is time to turn away from that old view to the realisation that in the communities that we now live, all of us are missionaries of Christ. Priesthood of all believers is an important concept, which gives us an authentic responsibility for expressing God’s unconditional love in our daily living. One of the wonderful aspects of God’s graciousness towards us is that God raises us up to become co-workers with Him in a rescue mission for healing this broken world. It means that a layperson

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Geevarghese Mar Theodosius Suffragan Metropolitan, ‘Church and the New Normal’, CSS, Tiruvalla, 2020, page 21.

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is a missionary, reaching out to others and adding his or her effort to this ongoing work of holding and healing. Part of our Christian responsibility is to ‘bear witness’ and to ‘walk our faith’ in the world or to become the fifth gospel in the process for the world to read. We are the real gospel that people read. There are many different ways of doing this depending on our gifts and temperament, the people we are with, the circumstance of the occasion and so on.

The commonly available model of pastoral ministry for local and immigrant churches is more concerned with caring for the sheep that are safe inside the fold than with searching for the lost. The end result of this is the development of ghetto parishes for looking after the interest of the same groups. Each of the four gospel ends with Christ’s command to spread the Good News to the ends of the world. To enable us for this mission, we have God’s assurance that He will be with us in the power of His Spirit. We are what we are today in different parts of the world because of people who have obeyed that command and believed in that promise. St. John’s Gospel takes us deeper into the mystery of the mission, when the risen Christ says to the apostles: “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” This is to assert, those who belong to Christ are united with Him in His promise of bringing God’s peace to the world. Therefore, mission is at the very heart of our Christian identity. It means the sharing of the Christian faith through the interactions of everyday life – in the family, among neighbours and among people we work with. Laity is our greatest strength, but many of them need to be helped to gain greater confidence about sharing their faith and providing pastoral care. We need confidence in sharing God’s creative vision of seeing the oak tree in the acorn and the butterfly in the caterpillar; this is indeed our God-given spiritual potential and it is in our spiritual DNA. Through our utter humility, weaknesses, impediments and the overarching God’s grace others should be able to see Christ in us and read us as God’s letters to the world.

What does this mean during and the post-COVID-19 Pandemic landscape? The people as members of a ‘Pastoral Care Team’ exercising that ministry have one fundamental task which breaks down into a number of different responsibilities.

The fundamental task is that of announcing by word and action in the middle of a community; it is about knowing what that community is, and where it is in relation to other communities and faith groups. Priests and laity are therefore in the business of immersing in Christ's action of caring for the needy. In all this, we can perhaps see why and how the Eucharist is the central identifying act of the Church. This self-giving ‘liturgy after the liturgy’ should become the lifestyle of priests and parishioners.

For this to happen in the ministerial life, according to Archbishop Ramsey , the priest has to be a watchman, an interpreter and a weaver. These three functions make an ordained minister.

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Hopefully, we may get a good COVID-19 vaccine in the near future, but how do we know it is effective unless it has undergone well-controlled clinical trials? In a similar vein, we may have scholarly theologians interpreting the Bible using their rhetoric skills, but have these sermons become real and relevant in the life of people sitting in pews and standing in the Isles? In

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Zac Varghese, ‘The Christian Priest Today’, ECHO, Vol 3 (2), 2016, p 22-26.

a book of essays on theological hermeneutics Charles M. Wood quotes John Calvin and says: “In knowing God, each of us also knows himself.” The two are inseparably linked and interdependent. Therefore, the real knowledge of ourselves, who we are, depends on our relationship and knowledge of God. Kierkegaard’s statement, “God is not a name but a concept” is of interest in this context. Theologians may be experts in explaining concept of God exegetically and using varied hermeneutics and other methods of biblical interpretations, but these concepts are often linked with complicated and incomprehensible words and phrases such as soteriology, atonement, eschatology, parousia, ontology, predestination, theodicy and so on and on. This oratorical approach frightens and confuses people sitting in pews. On the other hand, Leo Tolstoy said: “A concept of God is not God.” Tolstoy continued: “A concept of God is within me that I can either evoke or not evoke. It is not that I am seeking. I am seeking that, without which there cannot be life.” Therefore, a concept like ‘God is love’ and other such concepts have to be incarnated in laity for them to have an authentic experience of God; it is in this authentic experience that we live in Christ and know who are and why we are here; it is in Christ we live and as Paul said: “For 'in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17: 28).

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Pope Francis who understands the Church as the pilgrim community of people of God envisions a new way of being the Church. For him it is the Church of the people and not Church for the people . According to Kasper, the Pope argues for a “church that is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out in the streets, rather than a Church remaining shut up within its structures, while outside a starving multitude is waiting”. It is a Church outside the conventional, conservative and legalistic Church. This is indeed an aspect of the ‘New Normal’ during and in the post-Covid-19 Landscape of faith.

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When we prayerfully consider the meaning of this catchphrase ‘the New Normal’ we realise that it is about returning to a forgotten ‘old normal’ placed before us by Isaiah: “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to lose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness[a] will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness.

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be 7

Charles M. Wood, The Formation of Christian Understanding, The Westminster Press, 1981, page 31.

8 Leo Tolstoy, ‘A Confession and Other Religious Writings’, Penguin Books, 1987, page 65.

9 Zac Varghese,’ Expanses of Grace’, CSS, Tiruvalla, 2017, page 110.

10 Kasper, Pope Francis, ‘Revolution of Tenderness and Love’, page 42.

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like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, restorer of streets with swellings” (Isa 58: 6-12). ‘The New Normal’ is simply what Archbishop Tutu spoke of his experiential understanding of God: “I pray each day. I talk to Jesus, I walk with Jesus, I want to be like Jesus, and I want to learn from Jesus. Jesus and me are always together.”

The Most Revd Dr. Theodosius Mar Thoma Metropolitan The final aim of this editorial is to offer felicitations to Theodosius Thirumeni and express our thanks to God for His abundant blessings on the very sacred historical event of Theodosius Thirumeni’s installation as the 22nd Mar Thoma Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Church on 14th November 2020.

We thank God for giving Thirumeni this sacred office of the Church to continue as a very effective and faithful servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for God’s mission and ministry. This is a day of thanksgiving and celebration for number of reasons: firstly, we thank God for Thirumeni’s health; secondly, we are thanking God for the blessings that we have received through Thirumeni’s episcopal ministry for the last 31 years. Thirumeni’s actions are always guided by his faith in a master guide, hope in a promise, utter humility in receiving God’s gift, charity in pouring out to others and meeting people at the point of their needs. Thirumeni’s work with HIV/AID sufferers and finding a voice for the transgender community amongst many others are amazing examples of finding new areas for mission. I am sure that by the grace of God, Thirumeni will be an agent for introducing many new ideas into the faith community to help the community at large.

solving various issues facing the church to build the mission strategies for finding a new normal and for reformation wherever and whenever it is needed. We published a review of this book written by Revd Dr. Abraham Philip in the October issue of this Journal (Vol. 8, 4, p 35).

We are very grateful to Thirumeni for his spiritual guidance, ministry and mission. Thirumeni is well endowed with a vision, determination, optimism and sympathetic understanding for any mission under the grace of God. We pray to our Lord and our God to give the 22nd Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Church, the Most Revd Dr. Theodosius Mar Thoma Metropolitan, very good health and abundant grace to continue God’s mission for establishing the values of God’s kingdom on the earth. May his ministry help us to enjoy God’s future in the present.

On behalf of the editorial board, I thank all our contributors for their continued help over the last eight years of this publication with their valuable articles. We are looking forward to your continued help and prayers for this ministry. May God continue to bless all of us.

Dr. Zac Varghese For the Editorial Board http://www.issuu.com/diasporafocus http://www.scribd.com/diasporafocus Web Site: www.facebook.com/groups/mtfocus E-Mail: mtfousgroup@gmail.com Published by Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas for and on behalf of Diaspora FOCUS 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.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO FOCUS WELL WISHERS AND READERS

We need a God-centred vision in defining the ‘new normal’ and solving many problems in the post-COVID-19 landscape, which Thirumeni expressed eloquently in his recent book: ‘The Church and the New Normal’. Thirumeni wrote: “The Church should be willing to give proper attention and recognition to the priesthood of all believers and be willing to listen to the wisdom of the Church’s chosen leaders as well as people who are talented and experienced.”11 We thank God for Thirumeni’s vision in bringing clergy and laity together for 11

Geevarghese Mar Theodosius Suffragan Metropolitan, ‘Church and the New Normal’, CSS, Tiruvalla, 2020, page 96.

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Reflection on the 70th Birthday of Mar Philoxenos 5th December 2020, the Mar Thoma Community world-wide thanked God and celebrated the 70th birthday of Rt. Revd Dr. Isaac Mar Philoxenos. On behalf of the FOCUS fraternity, I offer prayer and good wishes to Mar Philoxenos Thirumeni. May God continue to bless Thirumeni with good health and help with his ministry for establishing the values of God’s kingdom. I believe Mar Philoxenos Thirumeni is continuing the ecumenical journey of the Mar Thoma Church in the WCC and other world-wide Christian organizations.

Philoxenos Thirumeni’s involvement with the WCC, NCCI, NCC (USA), ECC, Serampore University etc., helped others to understand more about the Mar Thoma Church and her ecumenical journey, leading towards transformation. The establishment and the existence of the Mar Thoma Church is the result of a journey aimed at the transformation of her faithful believers. The Mar Thoma Church is proud of her laity, clergy and bishops who led the Church in their continued faith journey, and at the same time keeping its rich heritage, faith and practices. A twenty-seven years journey as an Episcopa of a Church is not easy, but Mar Philoxenos competed it successfully and elegantly under the grace and providence of God. On

Mar Philoxenos is a very loving and gentle Bishop of the Mar Thoma Church. There is always a gentle and quiet spirit within Philoxenos Thirumeni, which is of great worth in God’s sight. Gentleness is one of the fruits of the spirit described in Galatians 5:22-23, a characteristic that always present in the ministry of Philoxenos Thirumeni. Thirumeni always aim to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness in his actions and words. Philoxenos Thirumeni was able to accomplish several beautiful things for the Church, Navajeevan Center in Mumbai, Dharma Jyothi Vidyapeeth in Faridabad, Retreat Center in Munnar, the extension center for Seminary in Karukachal, ‘Light to Life’ a project of the Diocese of

North America and Europe to help the poor school children in ‘Grama Jyothi’ schools in North India and very recently the Carmel Mar Thoma Center in Atlanta, a headquarters for the various mission projects and also as an education center for laity and clergy.

Philoxenos Thirumeni is very gracious in his dealings with everyone, compassionate and never shows displeasure to any one and abounding in love in all his dealings. “We must remain grateful to God for giving us various opportunities, through the ministry of Philoxenos Thirumeni, to transcend our ethnic ‘Pampa Valley culture’ and self-centred concerns to formulate a global vision for our Church. Thirumeni continues to make us realise that we have an important role to play in sustaining faith; expressing concerns for the marginalised, the needy, and for providing ideas that would make man worthy of living in this ‘blue planet’ with love, concerns and responsibilities for all createdlife forms and building God’s Kingdom on this earth.

The ecumenical journey that Thirumeni has been asking us to join in is all about developing a longing for spirituality, relationship, truth, beauty, and justice. It is a movement from what we are to what we ought to be.

A transformation and a new beginning ‘in Christ’, as a new creation, is a necessary first step for this ecumenical journey. . . May Bishop Mar Philoxenos’ servant ministry help us to move from fragmentation to integration and to live in the ‘already, but not yet reality’ of God’s Kingdom on earth” (Dr. Zac Varghese, London ‘The Ecumenical Journey Towards Transformation’ published on the 25th year of the installation as Episcopa of Mar Philoxenos, Published

by Diocese of North America and Europe, Page 206, 2018).

When Bishops are consecrated, the faithful believers chant three times “Axios, axios, axios” (Greek ἄξιος, "worthy of", "deserving of", "suitable") an acclamation adopted by the early Eastern Churches including in the Mar Thoma Church. Philoxenos Thirumeni has proved that he is not only worthy to be a Bishop, but also has been a successful ecumenical leader during his past 27 years of his ministry as a Bishop. His humble and gentle disposition to one and all, have won him many admirers in theological and ecumenical fraternity. May our Lord continue to keep Philoxenos Thirumeni under his loving care in his faith journey especially in the wider-ecumenical world to bring transformation of individuals and faith communities for the glory of God. Lal Varghese, Esq. Dallas

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The End of an Era: Reflections on the Mar Thoma Legacy on the death of Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan Rt. Revd Dr. John Fenwick, Bishop Primus of Free of England* [The following is the transcript of the talk given by Rt. Revd Dr. John Fenwick at the Zoom meeting organized by the Mar Thoma Apologetics at its 5th session on 9th December 2020] Thank you for your kind invitation to share these reflections with you.

Three preliminary comments: • My involvement with the Syrian Christians of Kerala has a strong personal element. My first contact was with the Mar Thoma congregation in the UK in the 1980s.

That led to my first visit to Kerala in November 1987. Since then, I have visited at least twelve times. I have also enjoyed much fellowship with the UK Mar Thoma community on many occasions. One fruit of all this was the participation of Joseph Mar Koorilose and Cyril Mar Basilios of Thozhiyur at my episcopal ordination in 2006. I am Anglo-Syrian by consecration and immensely proud of that. So, for me, as they say, it’s personal. And as a Christian I obviously care about the health of the Christian community in India and how faithful it is being to Our Lord’s teachings and commands.

• It is not for me, as a foreigner, to get involved in the interactions (often disputes) between the various Syrian jurisdictions in India, nor in internal debates within the Mar Thoma Church.

• I do, however, believe that an outsider and an academic can perhaps see some things more clearly than those who have always been embedded in a particular context. The role of the academic is to search out and objectively present the facts – in the hope that they will allow accurate debate so that others will make wise decisions. In what I am saying now I am trying to be as objective as possible, though these are obviously my personal reflections and opinions.

Let me start with some personal reminiscences.

When I was the guest speaker at the Mar Thoma Clergy Conference at Charral Kunnu on that first visit in 1987, I must have met the then Joseph Mar Irenaeus then, but can’t recall doing so. My first substantial meeting with him came the following year, in 1988. I was then the Assistant Secretary for Ecumenical Affairs at Lambeth Palace. It was the year of the Lambeth Conference and one of my duties was to help host the ecumenical guests. The late

Metropolitan was among them. We had several extended conversations and I remember drinking in all that he told me of the Mar Thoma Church and its rich traditions.

Since then, we met many times, both in Kerala and the UK. We were together, for example, in the madbaha at St George’s cathedral, Thozhiyur, for the consecration of Cyril Mar Basilios, Metropolitan of the Malabar Independent Syrian Church, and at St George’s, Headstone, London, for the inauguration of the Mar Thoma parish there. I think the last time I saw him was at Tiruvalla a couple of years ago. He was in temporary accommodation as Poolatheen was being rebuilt. It was a breakfast meeting and he had arranged for bacon and eggs to be provided for his English guests. He was always unfailingly gracious.

It is common when a public figure dies to describe their passing as the end of an era, but I think that in the case of the late Metropolitan it is indeed true. He was in many respects a link with the past and we are the poorer for his loss.

It would be natural for me to start with his family links with the first generations of reforming Metropolitans, but I want to say something briefly first about another aspect of Thirumeni’s life that is relevant to the issue of Mar Thoma legacy in a different way.

The perception of Anglicanism Like many of his generation the Metropolitan had a great respect and affection for the Church of England and wider Anglican family. He had studied in the UK under such teachers as Bishop Kenneth Cragg, and retained a respect for a generation of Church of England leaders who were men of scholarship and worldwide vision. If I have a gentle criticism of Thirumeni it is that I don’t think he appreciated how much the Church of England had changed by the end of his life, with liberal tendencies such as the ordination of women, tolerance of same-sex relations and a loss of confidence in the power of the Gospel to change lives.

The Church of England today is not the Church he knew in his youth and is very different to the Church that sent the Mission of Help to the Syrians of Kerala in the early 19th century. It is inconceivable that those brave CMS missionaries – Bailey, Baker and Fenn – who came to Kerala in 1816 to work in the Syrian College would have approved of same sex marriage. Yet recently the Church of England has published a report suggesting that the Church might bless the fact that two women or two men

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(even two priests) might live in a sexually active relationship together.

That example shows the stark contrast between the Church of England that came to help the Syrians and the Church of England (and other parts of the Anglican Communion) today. And I respectfully suggest that the Mar Thoma Church needs to reflect on that. Marthomites have, if I may say so, a sort of romantic attachment to the Church of England. The Anglicans helped reawaken us so we must always be grateful to the Anglicans. But what should the Mar Thoma Church do when the Anglicans betray the very principles that they brought to Travancore and Cochin two hundred years ago? For centuries the Syrian Christian community survived because it did not follow the beliefs and practices of the majority society around it. But now many Anglicans accept the beliefs and norms of the majority society (especially at the moment in the context of sexual ethics) and try and twist Christian practice to follow it. The Anglican salt is in danger of losing its flavour.

I have called this talk, ‘The end of an era’. One element of the era that has been brought to an end by Thirumeni’s death is, or ought to be, uncritical acceptance of the Anglicans. In my opinion, the Mar Thoma Church now needs to discover the courage to say to the Anglicans, ‘You brought blessing to us in the past, but now we say to you in love that we believe you are wrong.

No doubt we can return to that in our discussion!

A Living Link to earlier generations But, more importantly, in the context of the Mar Thoma Church, Thirumeni was a link to the community’s origins.

He had known his great-uncle, Titus II Mar Thoma, through whom he had a living continuity to the first generations who had shaped the Reformed Syrian community after the loss of most of the historic churches following the court case of 1889. He grew up in the family whose members had led the work of reform, reconstruction and renewed witness.

As a result of his upbringing Thirumeni never lost a sense of the Mar Thoma Church as an Eastern Church of Syrian heritage. I used to meet him regularly at the four-yearly international Syriac Conferences at the St Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute (SEERI) in Kottayam. He himself used Syriac in the liturgy and carried a sense of being the custodian of an ancient heritage. And in that he was exactly like his kinsman Palakunnathu Abraham Malpan.

Abraham Malpan’s name is obviously strongly associated with the so-called Syrian Reformation. And the concept of ‘Reformation’ has become a powerful one in the Mar Thoma mindset. But if you stand back, Abraham in fact left unchanged more than he changed. So, I want briefly to remind ourselves of him and what was going on in those early decades of the 19th century.

Palakunnath Abraham was born posthumously in May 1796 at Maramon. By the time he was two and half years old his mother had also died and he was brought up by his father’s elder brother, Thomas Malpan, whom the British traveller Mackworth met at Maramon in 1821 and described as ‘a very respectable man, much in the habit, we were told, of family prayer’. He was ordained deacon and studied Syriac under Kora Malpan (whose nephew Kayithayil Geevarghese Malpan, was to be one of Abraham’s fellow leaders in the reform movement).

Abraham was ordained kasheesha by Mar Thoma VIII when he was only 16, but does not seem to have celebrated the Qurbana until three years later at his home Church of Maramon. He had married a girl called Aleyamma, with whom he had several children, two of whom were to become bishops.

Mackworth (the British traveller) met Abraham at Maramon on 24 February 1821 and judged him, ‘a young man of abilities and esteemed among his countrymen. We had a good deal of conversation with him, on trifling as well as on religious subjects, in which he shewed natural good sense, and some knowledge of Scripture. He says he is very anxious to learn English, and means shortly to go to the College for that purpose: but as his wife has been lately confined, he is unwilling to quit her at the present moment…. This young Malpan’s name is Abraham; and the Missionaries have hopes that he will turn out a genuine Christian: he certainly seems well disposed.’

Abraham must have gone to the Seminary at Kottayam very shortly after this, for another British traveller Mill met him there in December of the same year and described him as ‘the chief Malpan Abraham’. He also fulfilled the missionaries’ hopes by imbibing a more spiritually aware understanding of his faith. He remained, however, deeply conservative in many respects. He entertained doubts about the validity of his ordination by Mar Thoma VIII and was one of the priests who offered himself for re-

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ordination by Mar Athanasios Abdul Messih during his tempestuous visit to Kerala in 1825. For this act of insubordination, he suffered a period of imprisonment. It is a strange irony that this conservative priest, deeply devoted to Antioch should have a legacy as a reformer in a church that is proud of its independence.

The Syrian Reformation As I have just said, one of the defining elements in Mar Thoma identity is ‘the Reformation’. Let me say at once that as a Christian I believe some reformation – renewal – of the Syrian community in India was necessary by the early 19th century. But for many in the Mar Thoma Church the concept of ‘Reformation’ has become the allembracing one. The only important thing that happened in the Mar Thoma Church is that it had a reformation. And to ask serious questions about the so-called Syrian Reformation is to risk being accused of being disloyal to Mar Thoma identity. That was an important element in the long-drawn-out court cases brought by K. N. Daniel against Juhanon Mar Thoma. The Metropolitan, it was alleged, was betraying the Reformation and taking the Mar Thoma Church back to ‘the Jacobite faith’. And that mindset persists at the popular level. I have often asked about a particular small practice and had the answer from Marthomites: We are not doing this thing. Orthodox people, they are doing. We are not doing this thing’.

The danger is that you get into a mindset of negative selfdefinition. You define yourself by not doing what the other group does.

What was the vision of the Syrian Reformation?

As we know, Palakunnathu Abraham Malpan left few writings. So, the answer has to be sought elsewhere. One of these sources is the Petition to the British Resident of 1836.

Following the Mavelikara Synod in 1836, Abraham Malpan and several other priests presented a ‘Memorial’ to the British Resident, now Colonel Fraser. Mar Thoma writers sometimes refer to the Memorial as ‘the Trumpet Call of the Reformation’, and concentrate on the list of twentythree abuses in need of correction, as if the British Resident were being asked to put them right himself. That is not, actually what the Petition asks.

It recites that the ‘Metrans of the name of Mar Thoma superintended the Syrian Churches … under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Antioch’, but did not always do so ‘agreeably to the customs of the Syrians, on account of the relationship that sustained between them and the Roman Catholics’. This appears to be an acknowledgment of the Pakalomattoms’ links with the Pazhayakuttukar and the legacy of latinised East Syrian

practice. The Petition then refers to Mar Thoma VIII’s reluctance to found a Seminary, and his other irregularities. These, it states, were investigated by Colonel Munro, who awarded the money from the ‘bond’ (the vatipannam) to Joseph Ramban who ‘in the meantime … was ordained Metran by a Metran residing in the Province of Calicut [while] Mar Thoma who had not governed the Churches according to custom was set aside’ and a proclamation issued in favour of ‘Joseph Metran [Mar Dionysios II Pulikottil]’. The Petition then refers to the reigns of Mar Philoxenos, Mar Dionysios III (Punnathra) and Mar Dionysios IV (Cheppat). This last, it alleges, had, on his consecration, given to Mar Philoxenos ‘a document signed by him, which states that he would conduct himself agreeable to the Scriptures and to the Canons and cause others to do so, but that he had not been diligent in the discharge of this duties’ and, after the death of Philoxenos, had ‘manifested his real disposition’. Cheppat Mar Dionysios IV is then accused of several misdemeanours, including going around the Churches acquiring money in different ways, and not keeping harmony with the missionaries. Having recited all these matters, the Petition then comes to its essential request: ‘Therefore, that no irregularity may take place in future, your Petitioners most humbly solicit that your Excellency will be pleased to set aside according to the Canons, as Col. Munro did, the present Metran who commits acts of disorder, put down his evil advisers, send for Kurilos Metran residing at Tholoor Church in the Province of Calicut, and cause him properly to administer the affairs of the Church according to the Scriptures and Canons, and thus redress the grievances of your Petitioners and the people of the Churches.’

The central request of the so-called ‘Trumpet Call of the Reformation’ is not some great Protestant manifesto, but a request for the removal of Cheppat Mar Dionysios and his replacement by Mar Koorilose III of Thozhiyur. You don’t see that stated in any of the Mar Thoma histories that I have read.

There then follows ‘A Statement of Disorders’, listing the matters of faith and practice that Mar Dionysios IV is alleged to have contravened. Three matters in particular merit comment.

1.

Firstly, the points of reference in the ‘Disorders’ are the Canons and Holy Fathers, rather than a Protestant interpretation of the Bible. The abuses include such matters as admitting people to Communion for a fee rather than after adequate preparation and repentance; delaying unction until after the sick person is unconscious; ordaining men below the canonical age; not instructing the people in the lives of the saints on their feast days; condoning images; using charcoal on Ash Wednesday

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(presumably a continuing Roman practice); and such matters. While the underlying motivation is clearly to foster a greater spiritual awareness, it is not particularly a ‘Western’ agenda.

2.

Secondly, loyalty to Antioch is asserted. The Memorial thus in fact reaffirms the basic orientation of the community recently asserted in the Mavelikara Padiyola.

Its complaint against Mar Dionysios IV is that (in addition to inferred immorality) he is not leading the Puthenkuttukar towards greater loyalty to West Syrian forms. The criticism of Romo-Syrian practices in the Memorial may derive in part from something that Abraham and others had imbibed from the missionaries – a negative attitude towards the Pazhayakuttukar. It is inevitable that he would have been influenced by their anti-Roman views and invective. It was, after all, according to the missionaries, the Church of Rome that was suppressing the ‘pure Gospel’ to which the Malpan seems genuinely to have responded. This would have reinforced his already strong loyalty towards Antioch. His submission to re-ordination

by Mar Athanasios Abdul Messih shows this, and his admiration for the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch seems to have continued to the end of his life.

3.

Thirdly, the swing to Antioch away from the Romanised Syrians almost certainly engendered a commitment to West Syrian orthography and liturgy in favour of the previously dominant East Syriac. Let me say a little bit more about this.

The Revd W.J. Richards was for thirty-five years a CMS missionary in Travancore and Cochin. On his return to the UK, he published in 1908 The Indian Christians of St. Thomas: Otherwise called the Syrian Christians of Malabar.

12 In one chapter he gives a brief account of the first translations of the Gospels into Malayalam. He describes how, in 1806, Claudius Buchanan had encouraged the translation of the Gospel of St Matthew from Syriac into Malayalam. The translation was made by a Philipos Ramban, who, as a deacon, had copied out the Syriac text himself in about 1770. Richards includes an illustration of a section of that text on page 103 of his book. The script is clearly East Syriac, not the West Syriac of Antioch. So, only approximately fifteen years before Abraham Palakunath joined the staff of the Syrian College (the Old Seminary) at Kottayam, the Rambans who were collaborating with the British missionaries were working with manuscripts in East Syriac.

12 W. J. Richards, The Indian Christians of St. Thomas: Otherwise called the Syrian Christians of Malabar. A Sketch of their History, and an Account of the Present Condition, as well as a discussion of the Legend of St Thomas, London, Bemrose & Sons, 1908, p.103.\

This agrees with what we know about the wider picture.

The Roman Catholic scholar J.P.M. Van der Ploeg wrote a survey of Syriac MSS in Kerala and other libraries. He concluded: The dissidents [i.e., non-Roman Syrians] continued to use the East Syrian script for more than one century: only after that it began to disappear, to be completely eradicated in the beginning of the second quarter of the nineteenth century; the manuscripts prove this abundantly.13 ‘The beginning of the second quarter of the nineteenth century’ is approximately 1825 to 1835. Those were precisely the years that Palakunnathu Abraham was senior Malpan at the Syrian College in Kottayam.

Some accounts attribute the spread of West Syrian usage in Kerala to Yoakim Mar Koorilose the Patriarchal envoy sent to oppose Mathews Mar Athanasios. But Yoakim Mar Koorilose did not arrive in India until 1846, by which time, according to Van der Ploeg, the transition from East Syriac to West Syriac had already happened.

There is in fact a surviving autograph text by Abraham – perhaps the only one that survives. It is in the Bodleian library in Oxford. I have handled it. It is in West Syriac.

There seems no doubt that this is what he taught at the Seminary, thus helping to ‘embed’ the West Syrian identity in Kerala. The cumulative evidence - his re-ordination, his devotion to Antioch, the shift in script – all suggest that Palakunnathu Abraham Malpan was in fact one of the primary figures responsible for the consolidation of West Syrian use in Kerala. In this respect, it looks very much as though it is not just the Mar Thoma Church, which is in his debt, but the Syrian Orthodox, Orthodox Syrian and SyroMalankara jurisdictions as well.

What was the Syrian Reformation?

Now I want to return to wider questions about the Syrian Reformation.

One of the problems with Reformations is that are often misunderstood by those who later appeal to them. Take the English Reformation for example. You often see it said in popular accounts and by church people that in the 16th century the Church in England stopped being Roman Catholic and became Protestant. But that isn’t what the leaders of the English Reformation understood themselves to be about.

For example, when Archbishop Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury wrote a treatise on the Eucharist, he called it, ‘The True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ … grounded and established by 13 J.P.M. Van der Ploeg, The Syriac Manuscripts of St

Thomas Christians, Bangalore, Dharmaram Publications, 1983, p.30.

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God’s Holy Word and approved by the Consent of the Most Ancient Doctors of the Church’. He was defending a doctrine, which he believed to be Catholic – true to the Scriptures and testified to by the Church Fathers.

In 1565 the Bishop of Salisbury, John Jewel, published and Apologia for the Church of England. This became the official explanation – parishes were required to buy a copy. In it the intention of the English Reformers is set out: ‘We are come, so near as we possibly could, to the church of the apostles and of the old catholic bishops and fathers.14 ‘We go unto the Catholic and Apostolic Church, because the Church from which we separate ourselves lacks both’.15

1841 to be consecrated as Mathews Mar Athanasios. This attachment to Antioch only begins to unravel when other elements in Kerala poison the minds of the Patriarchs against the Reformers. It only really becomes final when Patriarch Peter III himself visits India and sets up a rival hierarchy following the Mulunthuruthy Synod of 1876. A major complicating factor, of course, is the autonomy of the Christian community in Kerala – a question that is still unresolved to the present day.

The limits of a Reformation

The officially stated intention of the English Reformation was not to create a new ‘Protestant’ Church but to take the Church back to its apostolic and patristic roots by removing the accretions of recent centuries. In both England and Kerala that involved independence from the Roman Papacy.

The Syrian Reformation shared with the English Reformation a strong anti-Roman sentiment. In the Indian context that was strengthened by the fact that Rome imposed exclusively European bishops at this stage – it was not until much later in the 19th century that Malayalees were consecrated bishops in what was to become the Syro-Malabar Church. The non-Roman Syrians (the Puthenkuttukar) on the other hand, had indigenous bishops (as well as some West Asians).

But whereas in England independence from the Papacy meant independence, pure and simple, in Kerala in the lifetime of Abraham Malpan independence from the Papacy meant stronger attachment to Antioch. It is to the Patriarch in far-off Mardin that the ‘Reformers’ look for support. So, the young kooroyo Mathews travels there in 14

John Jewel, Apology for the Church of England, in John Ayre (ed.), The Works of John Jewel, Cambridge, Parker Society, 1848., vol.3, p.100.

15 Quoted in Avis, In Search of Authority, p.20. The

Elizabethan Act of Supremacy (1559) laid it down that any charge of heresy must be proven by Scripture of the first four General Councils, or an one of them or any other General Council where such views were expressly condemned by the words of Scripture (http://history.hanover.edu/texts/engref/er79.html ).

‘Jewel, Hooker, Calvin, Luther and indeed all the mainstream Reformers did not see themselves as inventing or creating a new Church. They believed they were reforming the old Church, and that, as a consequence, they stood in continuity and direct contact with the Church of the early Fathers’, (Atkinson, Hooker, p.62).

The problem with a Reformation is how far do you take it?

A Reformation, by definition, is about changing something – re-forming it. But how much do you change? Do you simply correct the issues that were causing the problem in the first place or do you take the opportunity for a much more radical re-organisation? You see that in the secular world – the 1917 revolution that led to the abdication of the Tsar in Russia, started off quite modest in its aim to introduce a more democratic system there, but it was soon overtaken by the Bolshevik revolution that utterly changed society and brought suffering and death to millions. You see it in the English Reformation in the 16th century. Do you simply remove the jurisdiction of the Papacy and correct unbiblical abuses in the Church, or do you completely destroy the old and create something new from first principles?

And that same tension was there in Kerala. By the 1890s and early 1900s there were tensions among the Reformed Syrians between those who said, ‘We have reformed the abuses. Now let’s stop there’ and those who wanted to press on with more radical change.

The danger with the second option, it seems to me, is that if you proceed too far you eventually stop being the thing you are claiming to be. In the case of the Mar Thoma Church, you stop being an ancient Eastern Church,

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renewed by the Scriptures, and become Protestants in kappas.

Let me quote an Indian-born poet, Rudyard Kipling. In his poem Recessional Kipling foresaw the end of the British Empire:

That seems to me unfortunate for at least three reasons: Other Eastern Churches need a model While Western Churches find it all too easy to change – look at the thousands of Protestant sects in the USA and elsewhere – Eastern Churches find it very hard to change.

While most of them are incredibly courageous – think of all the martyrs under communism and Islam in the last century alone – they find it hard to adapt the faith to modern conditions and run the risk of becoming fossilised.

The Mar Thoma Church is the only Church (as far as I know) that can claim to be a reformed Eastern Church – genuinely Eastern, but genuinely renewed in terms of biblical faith and spirituality and evangelistic openness. I think that there are lessons that, for example, the Ethiopian Orthodox or the Armenian Orthodox, could learn from you as they hold the balance between their cultures, their inherited patterns, a living Gospel faith and rapidly changing societies. But if the Mar Thoma Church becomes too Westernised – Protestants in kappas – then others will not want to follow your lead.

You are not of Western origin In the perception of many people (including many Christians) Christianity is seen as a European faith – the white man’s religion. We are going through a period in global history where many things are being re-appraised including issues of ethnicity – Black Lives Matter – and colonialism. As the negatives of slavery and colonialization are subject to fresh scrutiny there is a danger that the Christian faith will be seen as simply one more facet of European control mechanisms over other ethnicities and cultures – and be rejected as a result. In those debates it is important that someone is pointing out that Asian heritage Christianity is older than Western European heritage Christianity (and, incidentally, far older than Islam). There were organised churches in India at a time when my ancestors were still wandering around the forests of North Germany worshipping Woden and Thor.

That perspective will need repeating as the critical reappraisal of global European impact unfolds – and the Mar Thoma Church has the credentials that allow her to say it.

Western cultural dominance will not last forever We live in a time of western cultural dominance. The young men in the Middle East who throw stones and burn the American flag wear jeans, t-shirts and trainers – the uniform of American youth. Bankers in Singapore and Zimbabwe wear suits and ties. But the Church must take the long view.

Far-called, our navies melt away; On dune and headland sinks the fire: Lo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!

There is no reason to believe that the present cultural dominance of the West will last forever, any more than that of Assyria, Babylon, Rome or the British Raj. The rising nations today are Asian - China and India. We will need more than ever Churches that live the Gospel in Asian cultures and can speak the Gospel to those cultures. Churches that become too Westernised are likely to lose this ability.

It has always seemed to me, that this is the Mar Thoma Church’s greatest potential – to witness to historic ways of Christian discipleship and worship that do not capitulate to current Western norms, while retaining a strong sense of the power of the Gospel in all cultures and contexts.

So, the death of our beloved Joseph Mar Thoma, the last Palakunnath Metropolitan, is indeed a time for reflection.

With him has died one of the last major personal links with the people at the heart of a defining era in what is now the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar.

There is a difference between nostalgia and legacy.

Nostalgia is ‘a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past’. A legacy is something that you inherit from someone else that potentially impacts your own life.

To use a popular example: If you receive a financial legacy from a grandparent it can make a difference to your life.

The challenge for the Mar Thoma Church is whether all that the late Metropolitan represented becomes a matter of fading nostalgia or a living legacy to carry into the future. *The Rt Revd Dr. John Fenwick is the bishop Primus of the Free Church of England. He is an avid scholar and an author of more than 20 books under the genres of History and Theology; his books include "Anglican Ecclesiology and the Gospel” and “The Forgotten Bishops".

Bishop Fenwick served as the Ecumenical Secretary to two Archbishops of Canterbury. He has also served as the Co-Secretary of the Anglican-Orthodox Ecumenical dialogue. Bishop Fenwick is also a scholar in Syriac language and liturgy and has done in-depth research into the history and character of the Malankara Syrian Churches. Over the last 25 years Bishop Fenwick has been able to establish cordial relationships with many of the Bishops, clergy, laity of all the Syrian Churches, especially the Mar Thoma Syrian Church and The Malabar Independent Syrian Church.

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JMJ

THE EUCHARISTIC EXPERIENCE IN VIRTUAL SPACE Fr. Thomas Punnapadam, SDB. The Holy Eucharist is best described as the ‘font and summit of Christian life’. It has always been so from the birth of Christianity and will remain ever so. The COVID19 pandemic has turned not only the economic, political and social world upside down but also challenged us all to re-examine our approach to and understanding of spirituality and religion in general and many ritual practices in particular. The holy Eucharist is by far the central and indispensable act of Christian faith experience. Hence a vital question confronting Christians individually and as a community is: How best does the understanding of, approach to, and celebration of, this wonderful sacrament be made ever more relevant and efficacious in the prevailing context?

The sacrament of the holy Eucharist has three clear, distinct but inseparable and mutually dependent dimensions, namely the theological, ritual and the mystical. The mystery dimension is indeed central and both theology and rituals should serve to deepen the mystagogical dimension. The mystery dimension is the Passion and death and Resurrection of Christ that has won irrevocable and eternal redemption for every human being. This redemption is available to all who believe and open their hearts and souls to receive it and be transformed by it. The mystery of redemption in and through Jesus Christ is a reality that transcends time and space. The Holy Eucharist is the supreme channel of this salvific grace flowing into human experience in particular circumstances and specified times.

The clear primacy of the experiential and mystical dimension of the Eucharist is clearly established by the fact that the theological understandings and the ritual celebrations of the Eucharist have undergone incredible development and considerable changes during the last 21 centuries. During the second half of the last century and twenty years of this century, the Eucharistic celebration has probably seen more changes than in several preceding centuries. The springboard of these changes is authentic theological reflection, engendered by the radical developments in societies as also a deepening, respectful recognition of diversity of cultures and languages. There is no gainsaying that the incredible pace of the development of technology too has diversified and enriched the manner of celebrating the Eucharist. It is evident that today, Christians the world over have diverse theologies of the Eucharist and celebrate it in numerous languages, with different rituals.

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, which has indeed turned the world upside down, is indeed a challenge and an opportunity to revitalise our experience of the Eucharist. The relentlessly advancing technology is

indeed God-sent grace to a new and deeper experience of the Eucharist. The live streamed Eucharist had offered us a unique opportunity to examine an inspiring alternative to the traditional experiences of this wonderful sacrament in our opulent churches.

Time and space need to be transcended for deep Godexperience. COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to physically distance ourselves. Thanks to technology we have new avenues to transcend time and space. This is no threat to the physical and spatial dimension of the sacraments. It is rather than opportunity to deeper Godexperience through transcending time and space which have intrinsic limitations and constraints. One of the enlightening cartoons which appeared on social media a couple of months ago, showed an encounter between God the Father and the devil. The devil boasted “I have shut down all the churches.” God the Father calmly retorted: “I have opened a church in every home”.

Technology is transforming every aspect of human life at an incredible pace and will continue to do so. The abundant possibilities offered by the numerous social media platforms have invaded every dimension of human life. To what extent can the sacred space of human relationship to the divine be pervaded by technology without sacrificing the core values and diluting essential truths? This is the dilemma facing many honest spiritual seekers today. Any Technology in itself is in a sense amoral. It is the use of technology that determines its value and appraisal. The streamlined Eucharist is by far the most widespread use of technology in religious rituals and worship.

At the outset one needs to become consciously aware that the use of social media for watching news and movies, or as a means to participate in online classes and webinars, is totally different from attending the streamlined celebration of the Mass. It is wonderful to observe that this awareness is deep in some families.

These families prepare to really participate in the streamlined Eucharist by dressing up as they would when going to church. In addition they prepare a little altar, complete with crucifix, candles and flowers. They join in all the singing and respond to the prayers as they would when they are physically present in the church. Such active participation can indeed transform the people from being indifferent onlookers to becoming ardent participants. That a lack of physical proximity is no barrier to their devotion, is clear proof of the mystical dimension of worship. A clear example of transcending the temporal dimension is the possibility that those who are unable to participate live can do so at their own convenience. It has

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been acknowledged by some believers that they even replay more inspiring parts of the Mass for a deeper experience.

The holy Eucharist is indeed the supreme moment of community prayer and God-experience. Contemplative prayer is not so much a method of prayer as it is the fundamental characteristic of every method of prayer; it is better termed soul prayer. It is not so much an activity by performed by particular organs of one’s body and faculties of mind but an experience one’s opens oneself to. It is undeniable that actual experience is beyond one’s control and is something passive. Paradoxically it is uniquely personal and also communitarian. There is no denying the fact that ultimately God-experience, is ineffable. It must never be forgotten that the inevitable conditions of time and space, language and symbols, culture and education, nation and race are only means of opening oneself to the indescribable experience. The ever changing circumstances and situations of life challenge every individual believer and community to search for more relevant theologies of the ultimate mystery and ever more efficacious ritual to open oneself to this mystery.

So, the constraints of COVID-19 protocol and possibilities offered by technology are indeed golden opportunities to rethink our theologies and rituals to deepen experiential dimension of the Eucharist. The greatest lacuna of online celebration is of course the inability to receive sacramental communion. The most widely suggested solution is the traditional practice of spiritual communion.

Some pastors and churches have been offering the possibility of receiving sacramental communion on special occasions or at scheduled times, independent of the Eucharistic celebrations. While spiritual communion is not a substitute, it can go a long way in providing spiritual contentment to the faithful.

Some thinkers have raised a very poignant question.

Could those participating in the online celebrations from their homes, place bread and wine in their home altars, believe it as consecrated during the online Mass and receive it as the body and blood of Christ in Holy communion by themselves ? Could one accept the theology of the online consecration of the Eucharistic species? Is the efficacy of the Eucharistic prayer, the Institution Narrative and of the invocation of the Holy Spirit conditioned or limited by geographical constraints?

Would this devalue the dignity of ordained priesthood ministry. Of course there is no denying the possibility that this could open a door way to abuses.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been responded to as a crisis, from the perspective of health, economy and social relations. From a spiritual angle this crisis has been diversely referred to as a punishment from God or as a sign that the world is coming to an end. Probably the best description is, that it is a wakeup call to return to the

kernel of human life in all its dimensions. There is no doubt this pandemic with its tragedies and ecstasies has brought people closer to God in many ways. It would be one of the most desirable fruits of the pandemic if it could lead to a deeper and more profound understanding of the Most Holy Eucharist from its mystical and experiential angles.

Jesus himself has warned us: The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is! or ‘There!’ for behold, the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you (Lk 17/20b, 21). By fanatically insisting on some traditional rituals and cultic forms, are we, as the idiom goes, rearranging chairs on a sinking Titanic? It is not a question here of superficially labelling individuals or groups as conservatives or liberals, traditional or progressive. It is rather sincere search for means to ever more authentic God-experiences in a technologically advancing world threatened by the storm of the COVID19 pandemic.

Transcending time-space limitations is indispensable for God-experience. Sacraments we believe intrinsically contain these mystical dimensions. The emphasis on the externals should not constrain us. Both the advance of technology and the COVID-19 pandemic is a golden opportunity to re-examine with a pure heart how far physical proximity of persons and things are central to the validity of a sacrament. This is particularly applicable to Holy Eucharist, the most frequently participated sacrament. “Goodbyes are only for those who love only with eyes and ears. But those who love with heart and soul there is no separation.” The Sufi mystic Rumi spoke these insightful words in the context of grieving the death of people dear to us. Could they not be applicable to Covid-19 scenario of Eucharistic participation and even reception of holy Communion?

The conversation between the Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in Samaria is indeed an ever abiding challenge to the contemplative dimension of worship.

The woman had the heart felt problem as to where authentic worship had to be performed, on Mount Zion as the Jews contented or on Mount Gerizim as the Samaritans maintained. The wisdom and relevance of the reply of Jesus is never surpassed: Woman believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father….But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (Jn 4/ 21, 23, 24).

May the Covid19 crisis and the streamlined worship help believers of all denominations and religions to become true worshippers who worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.

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COVID 19 Pandemic: Faith Musings Revd Dr. Prakash George, Kottayam

Humankind is facing many unprecedented challenges due to the Covid 19 pandemic. We are unaware of a similar situation in the history of humanity that has affected the whole world in such proportions. As days go by this pandemic is spreading far and wide and we find it difficult to contain. We do not yet clearly know the magnitude of its adverse impacts on the social, political, economic, religious and psychological lives of the people.

A question many are raising today is 'how are we going to survive till this pandemic is over?' The discovery of new vaccines may give humanity the tool to overcome this pandemic, but when these will come to fruition and how effective they would be are answers the whole world is seeking.

Contemporary events and experiences raise urgent questions for the people of faith: Why does God allow similar tragedies to happen? Who is to be blamed for this pandemic that threatens the whole of humanity? There are no clear answers to these questions but it is natural to raise these questions in the midst of such calamities. One reason for the spread of this virus in such a magnitude is because humankind has made this world into a small (global) village. It has taught us that a globalized world with its consumeristic ideology cannot survive for long.

The world needs to be more compassionate and considerate towards ‘the other’ in order to survive.

Biblical faith helps us to affirm that God is still in control.

God is not only in the light but also in the darkness. When we sojourn through the darkest valleys of life, God is with us and His presence strengthens us (Ps 23:4). We cannot easily or precisely discern God's ways in the midst of natural disasters or pandemics. However we know that God is not aloof, but deeply involved in situations of disaster and suffering, whether in judgment or in divine grief, or in working for something good that may arise out of great tragedy. As the pandemic has become the 'new normal', how is our vision of reality being affected? It can either become wider and more open to new possibilities,

or narrower and dominated by fear and bitterness. The most chaotic periods in our lives can be the catalyst for a new understanding of God, world and humanity. The depth and complexity of the biblical witness of how God works in the world, relates to humans, and interacts with the harsh realities of suffering does not give us an easy answer to these questions. But God is in pain when humanity and creation goes through these experiences of pain and suffering, and humanity can learn new lessons and have new understanding when they experience disarray and chaos in life.

One major lesson the pandemic has taught is that we as human beings are vulnerable. What are the effects of our now constant sense of vulnerability and threat, and how might we act more intelligently and gracefully? The contemporary perils that threaten to kill hundreds of millions of people have been a strong motivating force for action. Our responses to peril invite us to make sense of our very humanity. We are meaning-making creatures who tell stories not only to provide order to events, but also to help solve problems and face the fragility of our own lives. The manner in which we as a faith community are going to read and interpret contemporary events and experiences is significant. The awareness of fragility and vulnerability can also be a powerful motivation for action.

Being fragile does not necessarily imply a condition that needs to be corrected. The Bible affirms both the vulnerability and preciousness of human life at the same time (Pss.8:3-4; 139). The value and worth of humans are in relation to God whose image and likeness and breath human beings possess. This demands more care, support and love for those who need it the most.

During this pandemic we saw on one side, compassionate, caring and self-sacrificing responses while on the other side, there were responses that made this disaster more intense through human indifference, selfishness and violence. We have witnessed the plight of the poor and migrant workers, and the indifferent response of the Government and authorities. Many in the larger community were apathetic towards their plight and did not recognize their presence seriously. The pertinent question we face today is how do we protect the vulnerable – the poor, elderly, children, jobless, homeless, migrant and sick? The faith community has a greater role to play in addressing the issues of these people.

What we face today is not a personal problem but it has a social dimension. Scientific and technocratic paradigms are not enough to address these crises affecting the whole humankind. The adverse psychological impact of this pandemic on individuals and communities are great.

Many are experiencing enormous anxiety and fear. The loss and uncertainties in life has caused many to end their

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life. Many others are going through experiences of hurt, alienation, suffering and death that may evoke emotions of rage, resentment, self-pity and hopelessness. In the Bible we can see many individuals and communities articulating their pain, pathos and suffering through laments. These laments are often quite personal and intimate while some are public expressions of the disorientations they experience in life. It expresses their unwillingness to embrace the new chaotic situation they are experiencing.

The present crisis seems to mirror the failures of our past and it invites us to reimagine our future by taking bold decisions while taking these failures into consideration.

We cannot return to the pre-pandemic status quo. These encounters of disorientation must be a time for the community to turn back to God and to retrospect upon their lives. The shattering experiences of life must enable humanity to think anew and to work for a new world order which is in par with the vision of the kingdom of God. We need to move from the experiences of disorientation to a new orientation that is grounded on the faith in God; a faith that God will transform this chaotic situation as God did in creation and also as God has promised “Behold I make everything new”. We need to work with God in enabling a new order that recognizes the poor and the vulnerable. This needs to be a new world order in which the environment is taken seriously and one in which the protection of nature is considered as something fundamental to the existence of the universe. We need to imagine how to fuse together egalitarian and environmental projects and programs.

Thus the pandemic gives the whole humankind an opportunity to retrospect and reform the ways in which churches, communities, states and nations function.

Another significant lesson this pandemic has taught us is that our health and well-being are dependent on the other. We are interrelated and interdependent beings, and our life and destiny are integrally related to each other. As communities, we have been called to show solidarity with the people who are suffering. This pandemic calls for solidarity and sharing - a sharing of resources, knowledge and information transcending all boarders is vital to overcome this pandemic and other calamites that humanity is going to face in the future. We are not only social beings but also mutual beings. We need a wellfunctioning public health care system because the pandemic has taught us that wealth is not always health.

A strong health infrastructure is essential for the wellbeing of a community. Faith communities must assist the governments in building up a strong health infrastructure that caters to all the people irrespective of caste, colour, and financial status.

The pandemic has also brought to the light the need for every person to live well and die well. Death due to the pandemic calls us to review our attitude towards death.

Death due to Covid 19 has also become a devastating experience for the dear ones of the diseased. Their grief is compounded by social isolation and their inability to provide physical, emotional and spiritual support to the diseased. To live and to die with dignity is to be seen as the fundamental right of every human being. Can the faith community be a good example to people having this kind of experiences by recognizing and responding to their medical, emotional and spiritual needs? How can we give dignified burial or cremation to the diseased? The pandemic teaches us that dignified death is as important as a life lived well.

We are compelled by the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus to think, love and act. Wearing masks, washing hands with soap or using sanitizers and physical distancing are our basic responsibilities today in preventing the spread of this virus. But Christ demands more from us. The Bible is not that focused on individual rights but about responsibility towards the other especially towards the vulnerable, the poor and the least in the community. We have been called to find new meaning in this difficult and chaotic situation. This must be a time to discover what really matters in life and to give priority to them. This search for meaning must deepen our understanding of the God, ourselves and the world, where we live in.

Theme for April 2021, Vol. 9 (2) Be the Gospel of Christ When St. Paul met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus he became a different man ‘in Christ’; he was transformed and became the Gospel of Christ.

He preached the Gospel and identified with the Gospel; he said to Athenians. “For in him we live, move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). He wrote to the Corinthians: “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2Cor 2:15). The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news to heal this fractured world and we need to become the Gospel of Christ to overcome the uncertainties surrounding us, particularly in the post-COVID19 landscape. The theme for the April issue is for seeking the guidance and steps we need to take in becoming the Gospel of Christ. The WCC in their exploration of the role of the laity in the Church in 1998 stated, “We Christian people, wherever we are, are a letter from Christ to the world.” This is the continuation of the theme of the January issue. We invite your contributions.

Editorial Board

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Living Rooms Becoming Sanctuaries – The New Normal from Pulpit and Pews Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas It is possible to see an extension of the COVID-19 restrictions during the Great Lent and the Passion Week in 2021; under such circumstances we may be forced to celebrate the Great Lent, and the Passion Week beginning with the Palm Sunday in our living rooms, making them virtual sanctuaries.

Under such circumstances, the virtual and the unseen may become real in our TV screens, iPads and cell phones. We never used to watch Holy Communion services on the screen unless we are sick and confined to our home or a hospital. We always prefer to participate in corporate worship in our churches, but now the corporate worship has become a non-corporate and a non- participatory one.

These verses teach us that repentance of people is the biblical response to disasters and pandemic like COVID19. We never see people flocking to churches to mourn over their sins and ask God’s forgiveness for their sins against him. We should not see a pandemic like COVID19 as a punishment for some sin that individuals or nations have committed. The Bible is full of stories relating to such plagues, disasters and it may harm us to ignore the clear biblical implications of repeated disasters upon people.

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote that the church had become filled with “admirers” when what Christ wants is “imitators.” When we enter into the Holy Week worship services so many may be suffering and dying in the pandemic, Jesus does not invite us to be mere admirers of the way he carried his cross nearly two thousand years ago. He invites us to be imitators, to carry our own crosses and follow in his footsteps today.

The world is at a standstill because of COVID-19 pandemic. Some preach it as a punishment from God while others preach it as a sign from God to people to repent and turn to God. Let us set aside those arguments in favor or against such logic for this pandemic. We know God’s plans are above our plans and His ways are above our ways.

We do not know where this virus has originated from, how far it is going to spread, how long it is going to stay and what the consequences would be for the whole world. This is the time to imbibe the relevance of 'hosanna' more than ever. This is the time to pray to the Lord to shield and protect the world from this pandemic.

This is the time to pray to our Lord to forgive our sins.

This is the time to seek God's mercy and grace to heal the land.

Let us see what the Bible says about the disasters like the pandemic caused by COVID-19. In 2 Chronicles 7:13-15 (NIV), it is written: “When I shut up the heavens so

that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

Spiritual activities such as “humbling, praying, seeking, and turning” should be understood as four facets or aspects of the act (or even process) of biblical repentance (2 Chr. 7:14). The word 'humble' means to subdue one’s pride and submit in self-denying loyalty to God and his will (Lev. 26:41). 'Pray' in this context is a shameless acknowledgment of personal sin and a plea for God’s mercy, much like that of David’s prayer of repentance (Ps. 51:1–2). 'Seek' is often used in desperate situations in which God is the only possible hope for deliverance (Deut. 4:29–30). 'Turn' is the Old Testament term for repentance and signifies a complete change of direction away from sin and toward God (Ezek.18: 30, 32).

It appears that we have become so secular that we no longer consider God as the central point of reference on how we should live as ‘the people of God’. We have technology at our fingertips and we are so dependent on technology and not on God anymore. We have largely ignored the moral law of God as people and pretty much set up our own morality of what we think is right and wrong. Jesus has warned: “Whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Every person should count the cost.

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Like Solomon, we need to foresee the possibility of the future by healing people and the land in which we dwell.

“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.” (II Chronicles 6:26-27) Ezekiel 6:11 says, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Strike your hands together and stamp your feet and cry out ‘Alas!’ because of all the wicked and detestable practices of the house of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine and plague.” If we continue in our sexual immorality of all sorts, our total neglect of the Sabbath Day, our failure to love our neighbors, our failure in sharing and caring for the less fortunate and marginalized, and our idolatry in all its modern forms, God may send signals to nations and people to turn to Him and seek His mercy.

In Romans 1–3, Paul demonstrates that all human beings are sinners. Six times in chapter 3 he emphatically uses the phrases “no one” or “not even one” to show the total sinfulness of all mankind. Sin rules the entire person—our words, works, and heart condemn us. Paul concludes that “all have sinned and fall short” of God’s standards.

Without the regenerating work of the Spirit, humans are incapable of having a right relationship with God. We don’t seek Him, but willfully turn against Him for we have “no fear of God”. But God, in His grace and mercy, makes sinners right with Him when we believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood to save us from our sins.

comes from gathering (corporate worship) is truly the high experience of faith life.

This pandemic has brought us into a state of a ‘New Normal’, into a virtual worship and not of sharing and hearing the Word of God from pulpits, but from our living room to living rooms. We as Christians will live from this time on in a limited, caged, and stunted way for the sake of safety or fear or mandate, or any other reason, defies the very purpose of the life that we have been given by God. Seeking to redefine a ‘New Normal’ in some mandated way is a grab for power over our lives not only from the pulpit but also from the pews. This virtual worship has given opportunities to those from the pews also to lead, do sermon, sing and witnessing from their living rooms.

The priests leading their worship services from their living rooms have become a new normal for the people who use to sit and listen to their sermons.

Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered, there am I also.” We resist not alone in claiming the ordinary and the extraordinary gatherings of our lives where the sacred lives. There is no new normal there is only life, and if we step into it both from the pulpit and from the pews at the same time we will have life in abundance.

According to one Pastor in the U. S. A., “The church has left the building, but we have to understand that the church never was about the building, but it is about the people on the pews and they are the church.” The pastor meant the people, his congregation, very faithful believers who are still very much with him every Sunday, even though he preaches to empty pews.

Because of the increase of wickedness, which leads to sin, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. Today, our greatest need is repentance, not the repentance of a few Christians within a nation but the repentance of the whole world and the whole people. Let us continue our faith journey as committed believers doing the mission of the Lord entrusted to us wherever we are planted. So, let us transform our living rooms into our sanctuaries and pray to Lord from our living rooms to forgive our sins and heal the land.

Pastors now preach from churches’ pulpits to empty pews while the congregations watch online from their homes at their own comfort and time. The believers are encouraged to keep normalcy to get out of bed and get dressed, go through a normal routine, gather the family together and engage in the worship and sermon each week by singing aloud, clapping, shouting and having a time of prayer. Instead of sitting on pews, they are sitting on sofas comfortably in their living rooms. Most people seem to watch and worship service online and not actively taking part in it, which need to be changed in order to have the new normal as a real experience.

A pastor from the pulpit has the privilege sharing extraordinary times in people’s lives. They are to be present at the death and birth, at weddings and divorce, at grief and in celebration, at addiction and recovery, and at despair and the dawning of hope. These extraordinary things are important, and some of the most treasured parts of the calling from pulpit, but simply living and growing and being with one another in community and all the trust and beauty and witness of the sacred that

The lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic should not be forgotten. Indeed, those lessons should fundamentally change how we do our church and making us more creative. If we are assured of anything, it is that church can and should change so that it can meet the needs of others. After all, church was made for times like these, fostering connection when we so desperately need it. Yes, the new normal should be both form pews and pulpits, but it should be to glorify the God.

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Thompson Kerr, representative of Clergymen's Committee of New York, in ‘An Open Letter to the WCC and the NCC’ (1968) said: “The church has been commissioned "to go out into the world" not to preach sociology but salvation; not economics but evangelism; not reform but redemption; not culture but conversion; not progress but pardon; not the new social order but the new birth; not resuscitation but resurrection; not a new organization but a new creation; not democracy but the gospel; not civilization but Christ. We are ambassadors not diplomats.”

turn could very well mean the standard Sunday sermon might be reshaped permanently to shorter and meaningful ones.

As Doug Pagitt says in his book: ‘Preaching Reimagined’, this should compel us to reconsider our ideas about preaching. He writes, “In truth the idea that a person needs to be specifically educated to understand the things of God is little more than Western conceit… There was a time when churches believed that a pastor should be the sole speaker for God because he was among the few who could read, as though the only important knowledge of God is the kind that comes from reading.”

But the new normal changed this attitude of pastor being the sole speaker and proved that it is possible from pews also or at least that is what we are witnessing now.

Pews and aisles must also change themselves to this new normal. May be people do not wake up Sunday morning with the thoughts of attending in-person-services anymore, at least until an unknown future time, caused by this pandemic as it continues. Let us pray that both pulpit and pews may find meaningful ways to worship God in truth and faith. Either one cannot blame the other for this new normal or it should be the way of every church in the future. But one thing is sure, God who is in control of everything, the creator and sustainer of the world remains the same and He is in control over the world and His creation and even over this pandemic.

Under the new normal, every other pew is empty and taped off – for maintaining social distancing – clergy and church members will be glad to see each other again in person. But the question is whether pulpits and pews will remain the same or will move in the direction of the new normal. We do not know how long it is going to take to return to the old normal way. "The great menace to Christian preaching today is the tendency to dwell only on the things of this world. It looks as if in many places the gospel would be pushed out of the pulpit by the so-called application of Christianity to social problems. The true preacher must preach not only to the times but to the eternities. When he preaches to the eternities he is preaching to the times." (Clarence Macartney, "Suggestions to Students of Homiletics," The Ministry, Washington, D.C., July, 1968) While we are longing for things to get back to normal, we also realize that there will be a new normal that in some ways will be very different in a post-COVID-19 world.

Perhaps COVID-19 will be the unwanted and unpleasant catalyst that will force churches to reshape the methods of worship, sermon, teaching, as well as its liturgies, to align more with what we know about the ways people like to learn. The pandemic might have got us started in providing our churches with more online resources, readings, reflections, and experience-based learning options, as well as coaching in small groups, and that in

In 1 Peter 1:13 we read, “Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.” This is what Christian hope is all about: it doesn’t ignore fear, anxiety, and doubt; it confronts them.

It holds steady, clinging to peace in the midst of chaos.

Through life’s many treacherous storms—be they pandemics, political divisions, social unrest, or personal struggle—Christian hope is buoyed by something greater that has happened and something greater that is going to happen again. This hope, something, which has happened and something that is going to happen must lead and guide the faithful believers in pews and aisles to prepare for the new normal.

Let us continue to embrace a mindset that frames community as both physical and virtual rather than either or. Sundays feel weird, since normally Sundays used to be energizing, challenging and exhausting. On Sundays we get to do the things with which we get excited on the pews, listen to the words from the pulpit, attend worship, send kids to Sunday school, and connect with people we love. Let the pulpit and pews join together to embrace the New Normal in our life. We will overcome this pandemic for sure, but we do not know at which time, but the Lord has His own times and plans to help us to congregate together and listen to the words from pulpits and for us to fill pews again.

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New Normal or Better than Normal?

George Thomas, Copenhagen Thinking the Unthinkable: The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed changes that seemed unthinkable just a few months ago. In February 2020, it seemed unthinkable that the church worship services would soon be disrupted, holy sacraments would be administered in virtual mode, church weddings would be celebrated with utmost austerity, burials and funerals would be undertaken with minimum attendance. It seemed unthinkable that the entire white-collar workforce of many countries would be working solely from home, and the air travel would plummet by 96%. It is, perhaps, likely to bring more changes in the months ahead that seem unthinkable now.

Material possessions can lure us in so strongly that before we know it; we are in a toxic relationship with money and possessions. This is “normal” living for many people. What the Bible tells us about money is that it will not satisfy us (Ecclesiastes 5:10), and that when wealth is gained quickly, it will dwindle quickly (Proverbs 13:11). In Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus teaches about money and warns us against accumulating worldly “treasures.”

We can keep doing what the world perceives as normal or we can make changes and live better than normal.

• •

What is normal?

• • •

Normal focuses on accumulating, while better normal shares with others.

Normal allows money to lead, while better normal seeks to be led by God. Normal does not think ahead, while better normal lives by a plan.

Normal is enslaved to debt, while better normal saves to pay in full.

Normal thinks of today, while better normal invests for the future.

than than than than than

The money we earn should be something we use and not something that uses or controls us. During this pandemic let us spend some time critically examining our relationship with money (wealth) and see what needs to be changed.

The term normal usually refers to something that is typical or natural and something that most people do, and abnormal appears to be the opposite. But with the number of people who live on planet earth, is it even possible to say something is normal? What may be normal in one culture or generation may not make any sense in another.

“When will things go back to normal?” is a question we often ask when things stop feeling normal. What is so appealing about normal after all? What if we chose to look for a life that is beyond that concept of normality? What if we pursued a life that is better than normal?

As followers of Jesus, we are called to live differently. The world tells us to follow our hearts, but we know that our hearts can be deceitful. The world tells us to put ourselves first, but we know that living a life where we give space and time to others is more rewarding and kind.

Let us look at three areas – Money, Work, Relationships – and consider how to change the way we live and leave the status quo behind for a better than normal life.

Money:

Work: While our work is a gift from God, sometimes we can develop an unhealthy relationship with it (just like with money). For example, some people overwork themselves to the point of burnout, which may lead to serious health issues. Other times, we may struggle with underworking, whether by choice or due to circumstances out of our control. Working hard and resting well are both incredibly valuable. Ultimately, we must find a better than normal viewpoint and work ethic. The best way to do this is to see ourselves working for God. “Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord… (Colossians 3:23) Let us look at the difference between what normal and better than normal can look like in our work lives: • • • • •

Normal finds its identity in a job, while better than normal knows who we are in Christ.

Normal chooses workaholism, while better than normal knows when to say “no.”

Normal accepts exhaustion, while better than normal values rest.

Normal looks for ways to avoid difficult work, while better than normal perseveres.

Normal does the bare minimum, while better than normal works with integrity.

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No matter what our work schedules and tasks look like, let us consider Jesus to be our employer. Yes, we should work hard to do our jobs well and honor our earthly employers.

But placing Jesus at the forefront of our minds is even better. Let us think through our work life, and identify in what ways we should make changes for a better than normal work style and ethic.

Relationships: Relationships are a part of our lives. Some of them may be healthy, while others may not be. At times, we may feel closer to people that we are not related to, and feel distant from those in our own families. Within these relationships, we get to witness the good in the lives of people we love, but we also have to navigate the difficult ones - like hurt, betrayal, and frustration. The normal way many people respond when these things happen is to withhold forgiveness, seek revenge, and show no mercy.

We need to examine how we handle relationships at our end too. Do we encourage people with our words, or do we tear them down? Are we kinder to people who can do something for us in return, or do we treat everyone with honor and respect?

Apostle Paul gives very specific instructions in Romans 12:918 about how we should operate in our relationships. He says we are called to love each other as brothers and sisters, honor one another beyond what we would give ourselves, share with others who are in need, and possibly the hardest part...not repay with evil when someone wounds us.

When it comes to our relationships, let us look at some of the contrasting ideas we find in what is accepted as normal and what could be better than normal: • • • • •

Normal abandons friendships when mistakes are made, but better than normal forgives.

Normal allows insignificant issues to create frustration, but better than normal is patient.

Normal gives in to temptation, but better than normal chooses purity.

Normal argues when there are differences, but better than normal builds bridges.

Normal looks out for self, but better than normal thinks of others.

Whether our relationships are struggling or not, we know that normal is not always a healthy place to be, but it is more comfortable to us than the unknown. So, let us choose to be better than normal in how we love and live with the people around us. Let us think through the people in our lives, how we interact with them, and reflect what needs to change to ensure our relationships are honoring to God. Conclusion: For a follower of Jesus Christ, what is pertinent is the better than normal ways of life - as clearly indicated in the Holy Bible. They remain same yesterday, today and tomorrow – before COVID and after COVID. Changes in modes of

worship, fellowship and discipleship have become inevitable due to the pandemic. However, the resulting frustration and confusion about the human understanding of the Church should not alter the true meaning and mission of the Body of Christ. Let us brand the New Normal as Better than Normal!

Mr. George Thomas retired as Principal Industry Specialist International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group based in Washington DC. He has been serving on the Boards of several companies in the manufacturing sector wherein the IFC has equity investments. He holds a Master's Degree in Structural Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. He is settled in Copenhagen, and is a member of the State Lutheran Church of Denmark.

The Navathy of Revd Dr. K. V. Mathew Dr. Zac Varghese, London Revd Dr. K. V. Mathew of the Mar Thoma Church celebrated his 90 birthday on 2 November 2020 with his family and friends. We thank God for this humble servant of God. We offer our felicitations, good wishes and prayers for his life and ministry. th

nd

He is a well-known and distinguished clergy who has made excellent contributions in various areas of the pastoral ministry, theological education, and church administration. He is a great thinker and contributed much in making others to think and study deeply. His philosophical and theological discourses are very stimulating.

He was the editor of the Sabha Tharaka and Sabha Secretary.

He also contributed to many peace initiatives across the world.

He was the secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation India.

He is well versed in Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, German and English, which helped him to be a foremost Old Testament Scholar. Achen had his theological education at Serampore, postgraduate education in the University of Edinburgh and in Germany in the Sixties. He was the principal of the Mar Thoma Theological College, Kottayam and the founding principal of the Dharma Jyoti Vidya Peeth, Faridabad. Achen is the author of many books including the revised translation of the Bible in Malayalam.

His wife, Mrs. Rachel Mathew is also a theologian and she was the General Secretary of the Sevika Saghom and the Chairperson of the Council of All India Christian Women. Geeve Mathew and Philip Mathew are their sons.

I cannot hide the fact my family is greatly indebted to Revd Dr. K. V. Mathew for many things, I have known Achen from my childhood and he has been a very good friend and mentor of mine for all these years. Achen also has helped the FOCUS publication with many articles from its inception. We thank God for this vibrant, peace loving and loveable prophetic priest of the Mar Thoma Church and offer our prayers to God for his health and wellbeing. May he continue to be a blessing for others.

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Family: A Place of Faith Formation (Christ Centered Family) P. T. Mathew, Dallas “Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling” (1Jn 2:10). .

A Christian home is based on God’s purposes for every member of the household. It’s a place where the family’s goals are founded upon His values and where the corporate vision of the future is consistent with His plan.

Developing a family “Mission Statement” can be a wonderful place to start crafting a genuinely Christcentered home. The guiding principles embodied in this document should be flexible but consistent. From beginning to end, they should reflect your eternal focus and express your deep hope of seeing Jesus face to face one day (James Dobson-focus on the family).

Here, John in his letter begins by demanding that his people should remember their privileges. It is their privilege that they are called the children of God. A Christian family is a place where, parents and children practice and grow their faith. It should be a living faith, a loving faith, a laboring faith, a saving faith, a serving faith, a fruit producing faith and a fruit sustaining faith. The first and the foremost important characteristic of a Christian family is love. Love Christ and love each other.

Love: John says that this commandment of love is true in Jesus Christ and true in the people of God. Genuinely love one another. Hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Love is the only element, which helps to defeat our enemies or defeat the dark forces from our life. Take delight in honoring each other in a family, even in the extended form of the family is the church and community.

Generally we can see three major divisions of families: self-centered family-no peace, money centered family-no relationship, and a Christ centered family-filled with love and peace. Let me explain the qualities of a Christ centered family.

A Christ centered Family is a loving family. Jesus Christ said “I am the love”, and one who lives in him will express that quality in ones life. They love one another with genuine affection. They take delight in honoring one another. The basic unit of the society is the family, where the children learn how to love, how to care, how to share and how to honor each other.

It is a sharing family. They are always willing to share their belongings and possessions one another like the early believers who come together and share their posse ions.

It is a praying Family. “A family prays together stays together” It is true. Practice the family prayer in the

morning and in the evening or whenever they get time together in every day.

It is a Bible meditating family: study the word of God and meditate on it to understand the will of God about their life each day.

It is a forgiving family: Forgive each other and ask God for forgiveness each day for their sins and receive the strength of His spirit to overcome the temptation of the forces of the dark. As per John love is the visual expression of the truth. In family, we learn how to rejoice with the rejoicing people, and weep with the weeping people. Learn how to practice hospitality and charity.

It is a serving Family. A Christian family is a place where we learn how to serve the Lord and His people; and a place where we experience the Devine joy. Our relationship with God is the real foundation of the joy in our life. It is palace where one can form their faith and transform their lives through the saving Grace of Jesus Christ .A family altar can alter one’s life.

Family is a place where one can learn and make the right choices of life. As Joshua said,” As me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24.15). Once Joshua took the right choice the entire family accepted and followed the choice of Joshua. A Christ centered family can transform the whole community by the power of the Holy Spirit.

A Christ- centered family is a place one learns the Christian qualities and forms the faith in Jesus Christ. A Christ centered family is like a light shines on the mountain and helps to dispel the darkness around it and shed the light of love.

A Christ-centered home is a place where the spiritual disciplines are practiced. It provides an environment where every member of the family learns how to live by studying the Scriptures, praying, meditating on God’s Word, and spending time alone in the presence of the Lord. Christian home is based on God’s purposes for every member of the household. It’s a place where the family’s goals are founded upon Christian values and where the corporate vision of the future is consistent with Christ’s plan.

Prayer: O Lord our heavenly father, thank you for our loving and caring families. O Lord, continue to help us to sustain our families to fulfill your goal and experience your grace and express it. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!

Thought for the day: “A Christian family is a place where each one lives for one another and everybody live together for God

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Church and the Sex Scandal: Responsibility of Clergy and Laity Prof. Plammoottil V. Cherian, M. Div., Ph. D, Chicago The human race is created by God in His own image that was revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ whose life, teachings, death, and resurrection had affirmed that that all men, women and children share the image and likeness of God. As image bearers of God, Christ taught us that we are in the world but not of the world (John 17:16), which Apostle Paul clarified that we are “heavenly earthlings,” having our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). God who created us values human life, intending all women, men, and children to have worth and dignity always, in all our relationships with God and others. All people who are redeemed and saved by the death of Jesus Christ are members of the body of Christ, and we are in a covenantal relationship with Christ as his Bride, and therefore mandated to keep our spiritual and physical chastity without defilement, and to protect others safe from adulteration and abuse. The scriptures remind us that Jesus was sent into this world that we might experience whole relationships with each other and God, and that we may have more abundant life (John 10:10). The promise of abundant life is not necessarily in bigger prosperity, wealth or perfect health or through pleasure driven life, as erroneously taught by some, but to experience fullness of life, and contentment in all circumstances, even in adverse.

Church, Sex and Clergy I should address this issue from a spiritual and theological point defining who are included in the definition of “clergy.” The term “clergy” refers to all ordained ministers, commissioned, consecrated individuals including lay ministers, lay youth ministers, professors, academic and Sunday school teachers, civil servants, and lay people of any order. This gift of ministry is what Apostle Paul categorized when he stated, “So Christ himself gave some to be the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to build up the body of Christ,” which is the Church universal (1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11). Thus most vocations are carried out by the laity for the well-being of the society, whereas clergy are ordained for administration and sacramental offerings. In fact, all believers are called to be a kingdom of priest and a holy nation in our allotted boundaries to serve the Lord and others (Exodus 19:6).

Sexual abuse or misconduct is a sexual invasion of the body of another by force, sexual assault, incest, indecent exposure, rape, and aggravated indecent assault. Sexual abuse is also a deliberate violation of emotional integrity and a hostile and degrading act of violence against a victim and violation of God’s commandments. Sexual misconduct, abuse, and/or harassment is an exploitation

of power and abuse of position that uses sexuality as an excuse and distorts the blessedness of relationships between couples married in a covenantal relationship which God ordained for humanity. It is sinful behavior.

Unfortunately the Church has been caught up in sex abuse scandal, which is a widespread crime happening for the last quarter of a century. There have been reports of criminal prosecution of clergy, this sinful action brought to the national spotlight, and in several cases, the assailants pleaded guilty. The sad thing as far as I am concerned is, in addition to the sexual crimes committed by priests, another crime of aggravated sins are the actions of the higher authority of the church to keep these crimes secret and to neglect the victim’s cry for justice.

There have been a number of cases of clergy sex abuse worldwide. Some dioceses have wiped out their treasury for paying compensation for victims and filed for bankruptcy.

As we are created in the image of God, we must affirm that our human bodies are good gifts from God, and sexuality is an integral part of humanity. Healthy sexuality and appropriate expressions of it are derived from the goodness of God for mutual pleasure between a man a woman having entered into covenantal relationship through marriage. As children of God, we are holy in Christ and created equal, with a mandate to protect us and others from the vile and sinful actions of sexual behavior. Where one is injured, physically, emotionally or spiritually, may it be a woman, a man, a girl or a boy in their adolescent years by sexual abuse, the assailer violates their dignity, causes fear and anxiety, as well as committing sins before God. Sexual abuse by Laity Be that as it may, while we often hear of the clergy sex scandal, sex abuse by laity is also rampant in society. It is easy to point finger at clergy but more abuses are happening with laity. According to the definition of clergy given above, lay people who enter into different vocations are also ministers of God, according to the talents and gifts God gave us. Our talents for any given profession— teaching, music, law, health profession, civil and federal jobs, and even business are the gift of God. Apostle Paul reminds us that we have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully (Romans 12:6-8). Thus,

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those of us in different vocations without a clerical robe are also ordained by God to fulfill our vocation in the church and state.

There have been several cases of sexual abuse reported in schools, public and private offices committed by laity.

Several women and children have complained about abuse by public officials nominated for high offices, and public hearing have been conducted in congressional hearings before their appointments. At the present times, there have been many cases of sexual abuse, perhaps much more than the cases of clergy reported, disciplined and people have lost their jobs due to sexual misconduct.

There is no meaning in listing or giving a statics by sexual abuse by laity. Sexual harassment in the workplace has been in the spotlight for a while, and these are mostly by laity. A new survey published by Pew Research Center sheds light on what some Americans think the main issues surrounding sexual harassment in the workplace are. The two major concerns Americans have about sexual harassment in the workplace are “men getting away with it and female accusers not being heard or believed. One strange thing I noted in the report is “Democrats (labeled as liberals) were overwhelmingly concerned about these two issues, whereas Republicans (conservatives) were not significantly concerned” (Pew Research Center April 4, 2018). Know that most child sexual abuse is not committed in a religious setting; it is largely committed by a child’s family or extended families where a child or a woman has any sort of relationship with.

God has given us the ability to develop technology to improve the quality of life, faster communication and ease of access to information. However, Internet and Online technology have become the new avenues for sexual abuse by laity. Online sexual exploitation most commonly includes grooming, live streaming, coercing and blackmailing children and women for sexual purposes. As technology advances, new forms of this crime emerge. Never before has it been easier for perpetrators to make contact with children and women, share images of abuse, hide their identity and profits – and inspire other to commit further crimes.

While clergy also use cyber sexual crimes, it is mostly done by laity.

Church and State Must Address Sexual Immorality Apostle Paul had addressed sexual immorality in the church and society. Whether it is committed by clergy or laity, there is no excuse. It was a major issue Paul had to deal with in the Church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 6: 1220). There is a danger in the Christian world when people interpret verses haphazardly, taking a portion of the verse without the full context. For example, when addressing the sexual immorality of the laity in the church, Paul

began by saying, “Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial (1 Corinthians 6:12). Even today some churches misquote and misapply the words, “everything is permissible to me.” Some Christians are excusing their sins by saying that Christ had taken away all our sins, so that they are completely free to live as they please; or what sins they continue commit will be forgiven. Paul answered both these excuses of wrong interpretation. (1) Christ has taken away our sins does not give us freedom to go on doing what is wrong. Christ told the adulterous woman, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more” (John 8:11). The New Testament specifically forbids many sins that are also prohibited by the Old Testament laws (Romans 12:9-21; 13:8-10).

Some inappropriate actions we may consider not serious or sinful, but if they hurt others, physically, verbally and mentally are violations and are sinful.

(2) Another wrongful Christian teaching is that soul or spirit is important but the body is not, and many Christians are wrongly influenced by this concept and they go on sinning. But the truth of the matter Paul teaches is, “Don’t you know your body is the temple of God”? Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are “ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

As the secular culture and ungodly psychologists teaches, sexual immorality is not a simple biological act like eating and drinking, but is violation of one’s body, mind and the spirit causing emotional anxiety and distress, and most often cause permanent damage to their personality of the abused. Therefore, Paul addressed the issue of sexual misconduct very seriously, teaching that “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” Paul wanted them to take on a more eternal and heavenly mindset about sex and human body. The Christian doctrine is to view all of life as an opportunity to bring glory to God and that should be our mindset as well. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). The Scriptures speak strongly against sexual sin. Sex is a gift given by God meant for marriage.

Sexual perversion of all kinds is soundly condemned.

Sexually assaulting a child or a woman is never justifiable; it is always wrong. “You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of God” (Ephesians 5:5). “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4).

Those who commit sexual immorality will face God’s righteous, everlasting judgment. In the final chapter of the Bible, in preparation for the second coming of Christ to receive his Bride, the Church, the warning is “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the

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sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Revelation 22:14-15). Sexual immorality is such a serious violation.

Healing and Hope There is healing and hope of a bright future in Christ for those who have been victimized by sexually. The healing process will be different for each individual. First and foremost, trust in the Lord and release the pain to him who will carry our pains. The road is long, but with consistent faith, trust, trustworthy companions, counselors, and a caring and loving family are proper environment for healing and gaining moral strength.

Christ came to bear our pains and burdens, as He himself said, “The Lord has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted, to bind up the broken hearted, and to proclaim liberty to captives, promising the day of vengeance to the assailers (Isaiah 61:102; Luke 4:18-19).

God has promised to rescue our life from oppression and violence, and he will restore us when we cry for his help (Psalm 72:12-14). In Jesus, we have healing, redemption and hope; and it takes courage and commitment to call out to God in our distress.

God may Forgive the Assailer One who repents for sinful behavior is promised forgiveness. However, discipline should be distinguished from forgiveness. A clergyperson or laity guilty of sexual misconduct needs and may receive forgiveness and be offered avenues for redemption and change. Forgiveness, however, does not excuse one from responsibility to the community and accountability for the brokenness caused by one’s behavior. David who committed adultery with Bathsheba faced numerous consequences, though forgiven, but later became a man after God for the rest of his life. The church must still take steps to protect the people of God. However, abusers are in peril of eternal damnation. The Bible makes it clear that unrepentant abusers who do not turn from their ways will be judged and will not enter the Kingdom (Matthew 5:21-22; Galatians 5:19-21; Revelation 21-22). Malachi 2:13-14 and 1 Peter 3:7 indicate that abusers' prayers are blocked and not heard. If a servant of God abuses others, he will be punished when Jesus returns, and will be treated as an unbeliever (Luke 12:45-46). It is so important that domestic violence be recognized and dealt with as serious sin.

Satan’s Strategy God desires to work by the Holy Spirit in people’s heart to make them a living Body to Christ. However, Satan enters the church with numerous weapons to lure many to commit sexual crimes. When God ordained sexual relations in the context of marriage, God cannot condone

something that is so destructive, particularly when we see the obsession with pornography, child abuse and sexual immorality that are used as the most popular form of entertainment. Sexual immorality is the most effective weapon Satan uses to separate believers from the body of Christ. . Satan does not make any difference in the distinction of clergy or laity his strategy is to weaken the body of Christ. By being in the cadre of clergy or a devoted believer cannot be taken for granted in the church. We have two natures within us, the spiritual nature and the carnal nature, both struggling to win over us. Every believer, must guard against then enemy’s weapon of temptation, and guard him or him by the power of the Holy Spirit. One who commits sexual immorality not only sins against his/her body, and must account for the numerous sins they commit against others. Therefore, flee from immorality.

Editor’s Note: Dr. P. V. Cherian is a retired Professor after a long academic career of fifty years of teaching and research in the Medical Schools of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, and Saginaw Valley State University. His interest is in relating theology and science. He is one of the pioneer members who helped in the formation of the Mar Thoma Diocese of North America and Europe and served as its Associate Secretary from 1984-1990. He is a member of the Chicago Mar Thoma Church.

Pearls of Wisdom Series No.15 “We cannot have compassion on the weakness of others Until we first recognize our own” (Treaties of St. Bernard).* Knowledge of the truth comprises three degrees, which I will try to set out as briefly as possible. In the first place we seek truth in ourselves, then we seek truth in ourselves; then we seek it in our neighbour, and last of all we search for truth in its own essential nature. We discover truth in ourselves when we pass judgement on ourselves; we find it in our neighbour when we suffer in sympathy with him; we search out its own nature in contemplation in purity of heart. Notice not only the number of these degrees, but also their order. Before we inquire into the nature of truth, truth itself must first teach us to seek in our neighbour. Then we shall understand why, before we find it in our neighbour, we must seek it in ourselves. The sequence of beatitudes given in the Sermon on the Mount places the merciful before the pure in heart. The merciful are those who are quick to see truth in their neighbour; they reach out to him in compassion and identify with him in love, responding to the joys and sorrows in the lives of others as if they were their own.

They make themselves weak with the weak, and burn with indignation when others are led astray. They are always ready to share the joys of those who rejoice and the sorrows of those who mourn.

(Contd. on Page 23)

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Aspects of Loneliness Dr. George Mathew, London* Although it is a cliché, the current pandemic has given rise to numerous morbidities in increasing prevalence. Various physical disorders have been identified, however little attention is given to emotional and psychological problems.

In the media, there has been a heightened focus on anxiety and depression, but the factors that contribute to these conditions have not been given due importance. As there is strong correlation between these psychological conditions and physical disorders, it is important that professionals are able to recognise and intervene as necessary. This is particularly relevant in Western society where social interaction is relatively limited compared to Eastern societies. Whereas previously extended families and close community interaction were the norm, we have moved into a self-reliant position, in which dependence on others is considered less than desirable. Nevertheless the Internet and social media have provided outlets to overcome isolation.

Humans are essentially social animals, and social relationships are essential for physical and mental wellbeing. In England, loneliness and isolation are widely prevalent particularly in the elderly and bereaved. However these conditions are creeping into the younger age group due to the restrictions of isolation and limited social gatherings. It is therefore vital that leaders in society, and the church in particular, seek to identify individuals before these conditions progress to psychological disorders.

I remember an elderly patient who was living on her own and did not have any social visits. In the course of history taking, she said that she goes to the hairdresser twice a week to have her hair done. On further enquiry, she stated that this was the only human contact she considered essential for her. It is important to evaluate other factors in one’s life, in determining the interplay of various layers.

Those who have been bereaved in the previous year are a vulnerable group, particularly widowers who were shown to have an excess of deaths in the first year, after the loss of their spouse. Murray Parkes et al in the paper ‘Broken Heart’ studied over 4000 widowers, and found that there was an increase of 40% above expected rates of mortality in the first year of bereavement, due to cardiovascular causes.

Various instruments have been used to identify loneliness, such as the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Revised) and De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale. These scales are rated subjectively and are a measure of self-perception, mainly for identification and research purposes. They can be used in screening populations for further interventions.

A recent study in September (Groarke) in the context of the pandemic in UK found the overall prevalence of loneliness to be 27%, with a range of 14% to 36% making it a significant

public health issue. It is correlated with worse physical and mental health. Various risk factors have been studied including younger age group, being separated or divorced and previous mental health disorder. A greater degree of social support was considered to be protective.

It is possible to look at two categories of emotional and social loneliness. The former consists of a lack of close and confiding relationships, whereas social loneliness is associated with feelings of rejection by society and unhappiness.

There are several outcomes, which are manifestations of loneliness, which we need to be aware of, as they could be the presenting problems. Negative feelings of self and others are common. Sufferers are less inclined to join in social interaction and relationships.

The presence of psychosomatic disorders such as headaches, fatigue, crying and poor sleep should alert one to other co-morbid factors.

Passive reactions may include excessive alcohol consumption or drug misuse. If these symptoms are severe, they can even lead to self-harming thoughts and actions.

It is not all doom and gloom, given the appropriate personality and response. There are several religious orders of solitude and silence. They give the individual time and space to reflect on various matters of life and meditation.

This concept is seen as a necessary condition for achieving greater closeness, and communication with God. Psychotherapists have attempted to explain the concept, and in fact have even suffered from the condition. Carl Jung, the eminent psychoanalyst in the 1950’s and 60’s said that loneliness is associated with a sense of loss of contact with other people, or with personal feelings of isolation. However he later suggested that it ‘does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible’. He wrote a paper “Psychotherapists or the Clergy” in which he discusses the loss of religious faith in modern culture. He believed that the loss of religious symbols and ‘Mother Church’ are factors in this decline towards isolation. He suggests a ‘search for new symbolic forms through which the psychic condition of modern man might find adequate expression’. Being alone and being lonely are different concepts. One can be alone without being lonely, and one can be lonely in a crowded room. Loneliness is therefore a state of mind or emotion, instigated by feelings of separation from other human beings.

According to Age UK, more than 2 million people in England over the age of 75 live alone, and more than a million older people say they go for over a month without speaking to a friend, neighbour or family member. This has considerable implications for churches, charities and voluntary organisations to detect and help.

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For some people, certain life events may mean they feel lonely, such as:

• • • • • •

experiencing a bereavement going through a relationship break-up retiring and losing the social contact one had at work changing jobs and feeling isolated from co-workers starting at university moving to a new area or country without family, friends or community networks.

It should be recognised that sometimes the manifestations could be of aggression. These are mostly passive directed to self in the form of mood and emotional disturbance, selfharm, etc. But occasionally aggression towards others and objects can result. Hence it becomes important to identify and intervene early, to prevent progression to more severe changes.

One of the earliest studies on loneliness and aggressive behaviour was conducted by Zilboorg in 1938, who remarked that chronically lonely people are hostile and aggressive. Two subsequent studies in the late 1970’s correlated the UCLA Scale of Loneliness with the HostilityGuilt Inventory Scale. However a study published in 1985 failed to show evidence of overt aggression in lonely people.

The results showed that lonely males react strongly to rejection, and tend to verbally express hostile attitudes, especially towards women. Theoretical models have been proposed, which suggest that social skills are acquired in pre-school years, and these are necessary for forming and maintaining relationships in adult life. When these skills are lacking, withdrawal and loneliness may result, which could further lead to rejection and negative thoughts of hostility. It was postulated that loneliness and hostility are inter-related and create unsatisfactory social environments due to poor social skills, and may have the consequence of rejection and greater aggressive tendencies.

What can our community do to address this growing problem in this time of lockdown. The first step is to identify those in need. Our Church whose mission is to reach out to society, can play a big role in the alleviation of distress. Each parish, which has a local presence, can start by seeking out those elderly people living alone, with poor social support, recently bereaved, and those with a history of emotional disturbance. It may be helpful to form a group to look at these issues, and explore ways to help.

A paper in 2016 by Church Urban Fund identifies three ways that churches can play a part in responding to loneliness: Clearly these interventions can only take place within the constraints of current legislation and good practice in the light of the pandemic.

1.

Group based activities are better than one-to-one interventions. Expression of inner feelings to others

2.

3.

in similar situations enhances confidence and selfesteem.

Activity groups based on mutual interest, such as cooking, music, Bible discussions, etc.

Members of groups allowed to take responsibility, and have a purpose. Church related volunteering had a significant beneficial effect on mood, general health and life satisfaction.

Rooted in the Bible, Verse 10 of Isaiah 41 states: ‘Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand’.

Philippians 4: 6-7 reinforces the power of prayer: ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The Bible gives an account of David’s loneliness and despair in his heartfelt appeals for mercy to God, and for His intervention (Psalm 25:21). His son had risen up against him, and he was forced to flee from the city, leaving his house and family.

For the Christian, the remedy is in the comforting fellowship of Christ. This has been the fundamental feature of those who suffered, went to prison and even to death, due to their steadfast belief and faith.

The issue of loneliness and its ramifications have been acknowledged by the Health Service in UK to be of such importance, that a website is available to help alleviate the suffering. These include talking about feelings, peer support, setting achievable targets, relaxation and mindfulness.

Points to avoid are focusing on things that cannot be changed, especially images on social media. It is not unusual to resort to alcohol, drugs and gambling to overcome loneliness, and these should be avoided.

The issues of loneliness are complex and need a multidimensional approach. Although our Church has played its role, it is possible to achieve greater things if we focus on the human element, starting at grass roots level. We are gifted with the numerous talents of the members, and can make significant headway to address this matter.

Editor’s Note:* Dr. George Mathew was a Consultant Psychiatrist in the National Health Service (UK) for over 25 years, and retired from practice in 2015. His clinical interests include mood disorders, epilepsy and in learning disabilities. He was a Fellow of The Royal College of Psychiatrists, and held various senior medical management positions in hospital.

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The Dimensions of the Human Spirit Revd Dr. K. V. Mathew, Kottayam [The following is a response from Revd Dr. K. V. Mathew in answer to a question about body, mind, soul and human spirit.]

Do I know myself? Yes/no/somewhat may be an honest response. Though I have a visible body, it is not me. I must be a body with life; not merely with breath, but I must be conscious, with a living mind within. When consciousness is lost, though I may breathe, virtually I become dead. There is no further sign of a living Homo sapien, which is the name given by scientists to the living human. A few of my thoughts have been put into words below to communicate a “somewhat” answer to the question raised at the beginning. The vocabulary used herein has been chosen from both secular and sacred (Christian theological) sources.

Etymologically, the word ‘human’ is derived from humus, meaning soil in Latin. ‘Sapien’ means wisdom/knowledge (Gen. 2:7). In Sanskrit, the word for ‘human’ is manu, meaning ‘thinking being’. These two words convey the connection of humans to the earth, his habitat, and to his invisible thinking faculty, the mind. The Earth, or the ecological sphere, is physically known to us and is very real to all living creatures. However, the mind, the abode of thought and imagination, is invisible and intangible, although realizable, and can be experienced by every conscious being.

If the human body were to stop breathing, the inner organs would cease to function, and finally, the brain as well. Such a body is eventually returned to the earth for decomposition. However, the body is valuable only because it is the vehicle of the living being. Without breath, the body cannot function. The ‘earthy’ body becomes a living soul (neshama/nephesh) - a human being, when they breathe air. The modern viewpoint is that this life-giving breath is, in fact, oxygen.

Life-providing breath, animated soul, person – these are abstract terms related to living beings, and cannot be understood unrelated to concrete realities. Terms like ‘breath’, ‘air’, ‘wind’, ‘spirit’, have one major equivalent in the Hebrew language – ruach. These words are primarily used today in a sacred or religious context. We tend to understand these concepts differently as we approach them from different angles.

‘Spirit’ is a very significant term that gives dynamic reality, life and energy when related to lifeless things. We have already seen that human beings became wise, dynamic and energetic beings that are capable of thought when they are inspired by the Spirit. The human wisely

understood the real source of a living universe, the source of life with wisdom, imagination and energy, is God the unique (holy) Spirit (John 4:24). This spirit sustains the dynamic character of the cosmos as well.

Thus, the various nuances discussed above – the soul, spirit, breath, et al. – can all be seen as different conceptualisations of the same experience, mediated by the conscious mind. The mind in the human is the enigmatic, secret centre, which is consciously connected with the Holy Spirit of God. In other words, human is the extension of the divine El (power), wisdom and image of the invisible Spirit that inspires and invigorates the cosmic realities. God’s freedom and authority are also given to the human (John 1:12). All of creation eagerly awaits the manifestation of the faithful human, so that cosmic order may be maintained according to the divine plan (Rom. 8:19).

Pearls of Wisdom

(Contd. from page 20)

Men whose inner vision has thus been cleansed by the exercise of brotherly love can delight in the contemplation of truth itself, for it is love of truth which makes them take upon themselves the misfortunes of others. But can people find truth in their neighbour if they refuse to support their brothers in this way; if one the contrary they either scoff at their tears or disparage their joy, being insensitive to all feelings but their own? There is a popular saying which well suits them: “A healthy man cannot feel the pains of sickness, nor a well-fed man the pangs of hunger”. The more familiar a man with sickness or hunger, the greater will be his compassion for others who are sick or hungry.

For just as pure truth can only be seen by the pure in heart, so the sufferings of our fellow men are more fully felt by hearts that know suffering themselves. However, we cannot sympathize with the wretchedness of others until we first recognize our own. Then we shall understand the feelings of others by what we personally feel, and know how to come to their help. Such was the example shown by our Saviour, who desired to suffer himself in order to learn to feel compassion, and to be afflicted in order to show mercy. Scripture says of him that he learned the meaning of obedience through what he suffered. In the same way he learned the meaning of mercy; not that he whose mercy from age to age was ignorant of mercy’s meaning until then, but what he knew of its nature from all eternity, he learned by experience during his days on earth. *This is based on a reading from the treatise of St. Bernard on ‘the Degrees of Humility and Pride’. It is taken from a collection edited by Henry Ashworth O.S.B, ‘A Word in Season’, The Talbot Press, Dublin, 1974, page 225-226. Collected by Dr. Zac Varghese, London.

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Soul Repair Dr. Zac Varghese, London Dag Hammarskjold, the first Secretary General of the United Nations, wrote the poem, ‘God the Artist’, and described God’s creative powers and our dependence on God’s grace.

“Thou takest the pen – and the lines dance.

Thou takest the flute – and the notes shimmer.

Thou takest the brush – and the colours sing.

So all things have meaning and beauty in that space beyond time where Thou art.

How, then, can I hold back anything from Thee?”

Somehow, the idea that God is the creator, sustainer and provider has slowly faded away from our thinking and our being over last few decades. In its place, mankind has found a new secular faith that human needs can be satisfied entirely with scientific advancement, economic management and statecraft.

Secularism is now dominating the world and religious influence is now on the decline, particularly in the western world. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated human limitations and helplessness. Our forced retirement from the busyness during this pandemic lockdown and physical distancing has given us time to think of our priorities in life. It is also helping us to realise that some human needs are beyond human help.

How comfortable are we when we are forced to abstain from such corporate spiritual practices due to this epidemic and rely on virtual worship? Do we experience any withdrawal symptoms because of this forced lockdown from corporate worship? Does this new experience leave us feel depressed, anxious, lonely and frustrated? Does this help us to take a close look at our spiritual practices? This pandemic has damaged us in many ways including income from a job, health, relationships, death in our families and that of our friends and people that we have known. We need the repair of body, mind and soul to overcome our difficulties. For physical and mental disorders we approach doctors and psychotherapists, but where do we find a repair sanctuary for damaged souls and how could we achieve soul repair? How do we realise that our souls are damaged?

Discouragement and disappointment in times of trouble and tribulation is not unusual. Throughout the Bible we see examples of godly men and women who have faced similar situations. These examples can serve as encouragement to us today because God who was faithful to previous generations will be faithful to us today. It’s helpful to begin by reading the Psalms because King David wrote many of these during the dark times in his life, and they can serve to encourage us when we are depressed, tired and discouraged.

Since David had experienced the joy of a soul restored

by God and therefore, he could pen the beautiful words of the 23rd Psalm: “He restores my soul.”

In the 23rd Psalm we come across an answer to the question, how can I restore my soul? The answer is “He [God] restores my soul” (Ps 23:3). To restore means to repair, renovate, or return to a former condition. We consider the soul as the deepest part of our being, our spirit and innermost being.

The closing down of churches and not being able to participate physically in worship services, Holy Communion and other sacraments are troubling Christians in many different ways. Does this physical distancing help us to realise that we have an addictive spirituality because we are brought to believe that God accepts us only through traditional prescriptive ways?

The word soul is used over 800 times in the Bible, in some place it is interchangeably used with the word ‘spirit’. It is generally considered as the personality, essence, of the individual created by God, and not destroyed by death and hence the expression: ‘may his/her soul rest in peace and rise in glory!’ Although this word is used regularly as a common currency in our daily discourses and prayers, it is difficult to find a precise definition. I thought that I could find a precise definition in the book, ‘Modern man in search of a soul’ written by the psychoanalyst and therapist, Carl Jung, but I could not find it there.

Early church Fathers believed in the immortality of the soul; we see resurrection of the body as a distinctive

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Christian faith. In traditional forms of prayer in the context of terminally ill patients, funerals and memorial services, the soul is constantly referred to in the context of an eternal life. As a result, the soul repair and spiritual well-being is thought of as part of the pastoral ministry.

In St. James’ letter we read: “Is any one of you sick?

He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up, if he has sinned, he will be forgiven” (Jm 5:14-15). Therefore, these prayers are intended to prepare the person by healing his soul for his final journey to an eternal life; death is a gate through which the soul passes.

According to Jung both psychotherapist and clergy may have a role in maintaining the well-being of the soul.

Spiritual practices provide effective support for emotional well-being and healthy personality development. He concludes: “This living spirit is eternally renewed and pursues its goal in manifold and inconceivable ways throughout the history of mankind. Measured against it, the names and forms which men have given it mean little enough; they are only changing leaves and blossoms on the stems of the eternal tree”16 There is a limitation in the words and language we use for describing this eternal reality; therefore, names do not matter, but we must take care of the ‘stems of eternal tree.’

Since God is the one who made us, only He can restore us because; only He knows what we truly need to restore our souls. God has given us the answers about restoring our souls in the Bible (2 Tim 3:16-17), and it has the answers and wisdom to deal with everything we will ever face. It can make us wise unto salvation (2 Tim 3:15), serve to encourage us when we are faint-hearted (2 Cor 1:3-4), and be our guidebook to a life of peace and satisfaction (Ps 119:97-105). While there are all kinds of books written by men offering worldly wisdom, only God’s Word is truly capable of restoring the soul and offering hope in times of distress. Of course, restoring the soul is only possible for those whose souls have been redeemed through faith in Christ. Jesus promised rest to all those that would come to Him (Mt 11:28-30), so it is important that we are sure of our salvation and our relationship with God. Only those who are truly born again in Christ and have indwelling experience of Christ can experience the peace and joy that God has promised in His Word.

Thankfully, God has provided for us comfort when we face discouragement, trials and temptations. He has provided three primary sources of encouragement and strength.

16

Carl C. Jung, ‘Modern Man in search of a soul’, Routledge, London, 1999, page 282.

First, He has given us His Word, The Bible, to guide us, encourage us and nourish us spiritually. We need to spend time reading it, hearing it preached (Rom 10:17) and most of all obeying it (Ps 119:2; Prv 3:1-2; Jm 1:25).

Second, God has also given us the privilege of prayer (Mt 7:7-11; Mk 11:24-25; Jn 15:7; Heb 4:16; 1 John 5:14). We need to take our problems, our discouragement and our tiredness to God in prayer, knowing that He loves us and cares for us (1 Pet 5:6-7).

Third, He has given us other Christians, Koinonia (fellowship), to encourage us and support us (Ecc 4:919; Eph 4:29; Heb 3:13). It is important to be a part of a healthy, well-balanced church for regular worship and to have fellowship with other believers (Heb 10:23-25).

Christians who have gone through similar struggles can be a great source of encouragement and help as we go through dark times (2 Cor 1:3-4).

In these times of physical isolation, we should be able to rely and use the digital facilities and social networks to keep our fellowships and friendships growing and strengthening. What has emerged from hundreds of scientific studies is that loneliness can contribute to stress response that contributes to major health problems and death. One can be physically surrounded by people and still feel lonely and loneliness is not the same as being alone, one can be alone and not experience loneliness. Loneliness can cause serious mental anguish and pain. This could be a significant contributor to the long-COVID-19 illness, which some people are experiencing after their initial recovery. It is clear that community and connectedness provide significant physical and emotional health benefits.

‘Repair Shop’, is a BBC television programme to which I am attracted to for many reasons and so also the old programme ‘Waltons. The human dramas expressed in various episodes of these shows help me to see the presence of God in these people’s lived out real experiences. Leo Tolstoy wrote: “A concept of God is not God.”17 God is not a concept to prove or disprove; God is a direct experience. It is in the love-filled interactions with others that we see the presence of God. Our knowledge of ourselves also depends on our knowledge of God and our relationship with God to have an indwelling spiritual experience.

In ‘The Repair Shop’ we are shown how a team of extremely skilled and caring artisans rescue and resurrect irreplaceable endearing treasures that their owners thought were beyond rescuing. These inanimate objects had many endearing human stories to tell. It is these memories that the Repair Shop is rekindling and 17

Leo Tolstoy, “A Confession and Other Religious writings’, Penguin Books, 1987, page 65.

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revoking. Extremely talented craftsmen and women carefully, sensitively, technically, artistically and spiritually transform priceless treasures of deeply loved history-filled family treasures and bring to life these broken treasures and their memories for restoring emotional health and wellbeing of people. It is difficult to make it through an episode of The Repair Shop without shedding tears. I thank God for his presence in the skills and love that these people express. I often feel that these people are healing the bodies, minds and souls of people who bring these artefacts for repair. It also shows the healing power of memory and how simple artefacts, a letter or a book can become an inseparable aid to our spiritual journey. Our body, mind and soul have many stress points and these have come to the forefront during this pandemic and we need well thought out repair shops to help us through this crisis and heal our souls.

Our conscious mind filters every thought, feeling, idea, situation and experience. It makes distinctions, interprets, classifies, critiques, judges, compares, computes and then accepts or rejects input from outside sources. It also interprets all of our life-derived data as it is recalled from the sub-conscious. Therefore, our Emotional investment is a storehouse of all our feelings and sensations from the past. When it provides accurate information, it can be our guardian and protector. However, it can also be our greatest hindrance to healing and positive change, if it is fed with negative, distorted or incorrect information. Sometimes, the conscious mind can actually deny information that is vital to the healing process, no matter how profound or positive the new information can be. Fortunately, the conscious mind can accept new beliefs. Just as it has established values based on ‘bad experiences’ or false beliefs, by providing new and accurate information and positive experiences, we can re-wire and create a whole new sense of being. Negative thoughts prevent the mind from enjoying emotional health.

Being-with-others and being-for-others are very helpful in building our emotional health; this is as opposed to for being-itself or for being-for-itself. Therefore, we need to address this problem urgently. Spiritual friendship and support groups can help us for building up emotional health; there is an urgent need to feel connected. This can be helpful in repairing our souls through our connectedness with our neighbour. The coronavirus has brought to us an unforgettable message that ‘we are all in this together’. The Gospels clearly tell us to consider ‘the other’, the stranger, as a gift from God as realised by the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37). We are asked to welcome strangers, to care for the widow, the orphan and the sick, and to build relationship with those distant and different from us.

This is a process of moving away from self-centredness

to other-centredness to establish God’s kingdom values. The kingdom values of longing for justice, fellowship, truth and spirituality are the measures required for the healing the soul. Let us pray for finding a new normal in achieving these objectives now and in the post-COVID landscape. This will help us to live the life of heaven while on earth.

At the Point of Need [The following is based on a story by Chiara Lubich, the founder of the Focolare family. We’re all connected like members of one body. If one member is weaker, the other takes over. This is the simple, but striking gospel logic that Chiara Lubich presents to us in the following text, which is more relevant today than ever. This should be ‘the New Normal in the context of the ‘New Normal.’]

In a hospital ward I once saw a man with a plaster cast.

His chest and right arm were immobilized. With his left hand he tried to do everything… as best he could. The cast was extremely uncomfortable, but his left arm, although it was more tired than usual by the end of the day, grew stronger by doing twice its normal work.

We are members of one another and mutual service is our duty. Jesus did not merely advise us to serve one another, he commanded us to do so.

When we help someone out of charity, let us not believe we are saints. If our neighbour is powerless, we must help them and do so as they would help themselves if they could. Otherwise, what kind of Christians are we?

If, in future, when our turn has come and we need our neighbour’s charity, let us not feel humiliated.

At the last judgement we shall hear Jesus repeat the words: ‘I was sick and you visited me … I was in prison…, I was naked…, I was hungry…” (Mt 25:36).

Jesus likes to hide precisely in those who are suffering and needy.

Therefore at those times too, we should be conscious of our dignity, and with our whole heart thank the person who is helping us. But let us reserve our deepest gratitude for God who created the human heart to be charitable, and for Christ who, by proclaiming with his blood the Good News, and especially ‘his’ commandment, has spurred on countless hearts to help one another.

Based on “I was sick”, in Meditations, by Chiara Lubich, New City London-Dublin 2005, p. 54

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Book Review: Continuing the Faith Journey, By: Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas Rev. Dr. Abraham Philip Parolil, 27 B, CTC, Manganam, Kottayam- 686018 Book authored by Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas and edited by Dr. Zac Varghese, London, entitled, Continuing the Faith Journey (Diaspora FOCUS, 2020). Pp. 170, Price US $20/- ($25 including shipping charges) The editor Dr. Zac Varghese in his preface highlights the significant disconnection between pulpits and pews in our daily lives, and at the same time sees some glimpses of hope through some amazing Christians who preach and live out the gospel. On the back-cover page, there are a number of appreciations of the book by the Revds Dr. Valson Thampu, Dr. M. J. Joseph, Dr. Joseph Daniel, Dr. Martin Alphonse; and Dr. Titus Mathews and Dr. Zac Varghese.

It is a recent book published by Diaspora FOCUS, which contains selected articles written over the past quarter of a century by Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas. The writings have already appeared in some magazines, festschrifts and certain journals. It is noted on the second page of the book that the proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the “Light to Life” project of the Diocese of North America and Europe to help school children studying in the Grama Jyothi Schools run by the Mar Thoma Church in Northern India.

In the Foreword to the book Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan (Late and lamented) points out that “This book is helpful in realizing some of the problems facing the church and the wider society”. In his message the Rev. Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius Suffragan Metropolitan (the present Metropolitan) affirms, “The church is on a faith-journey. Christ remains the Lord and Master. Church is called out to have a pilgrimage for the expansion of the Kingdom of God”. Bishop Dr. Euyakim Mar Coorilos in his message writes, “His [Lal Varghese’s] articles show deep reflection of human nature, profound knowledge and has a thorough scholarly approach”. Bishop Dr. Isaac Mar Philoxenos says, “The message conveyed through this collection of articles makes us not only to think, but also to act” and commends that the book be able to make an earnest desire among its readers to live by a quest for the unknown.

Now coming to the book as such, it has a good introduction, and then it is organized into three parts.

Part One consists of chapters 1-9 and has the sub-title: Jesus, the Christ (The Messiah). To begin with the author portrays the life of Jesus especially his genealogy, life and ministry, miracles, death and resurrection in the light of the various Gospel texts. The radical nature of the teachings of Jesus is clearly brought out and the essence of it is portrayed as his call to love one’s neighbour. The present-day church hierarchy is being criticized for being attracted only to the wealthy members and distancing themselves from the poor. The church-going members are mentioned as mere pew-filling Christians on Sunday mornings and who live in an affluent world conformed to its norms and never bothered about the sufferings around them. Jesus Christ is delineated as the Carpenter’s son who did things differently. A clear distinction is drawn between Christians who betray Jesus and who do not betray Jesus in their everyday life-situations. It is well-stated that our deeds should not be for self-glorification, but for the glory of God. The portrait of the grim suffering state of Jesus on the rugged cross is well-brought out and rightly points out that the journey of Jesus to the cross began at the very beginning of time when humankind rebelled against God. The unity of the church finds emphasis using Paul’s metaphor of the church as body and is explained in the light of 1 Corinthians 12. Towards the end of this section the social justice of Jesus is shown as perfect as it is the justice of God based on the values of the Kingdom of God. Thus, it is also advocated that the church in the world should work together to develop a specific “Christian culture” loving our neighbours as ourselves and be in the world and not of the world.

Part Two has the general theme as Ministry and Mission of the Church and it is given in chapters 10-19. These

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chapters deal with very pragmatic issues such as the role of the Diaspora church and its future taking into special consideration the role of youth and their identity and integration. The need to nurture the children and the youth providing them opportunities to learn about the faith and practices of the church as well as the rich heritage is well-highlighted. In an alien culture knowledge of one’s identity is as important as integration into the society in the vicinity in order not to become a ghetto. The need for the youth to be given administrative responsibilities both at the parish and diocesan levels have been brought to the limelight. It is noted that till the first decade of this century no authoritative study has been done to see as to how many second or third generation Diaspora Mar Thoma families still have their allegiance to their parent churches/denominations or how many have become “religious nones”. Anyhow, hybrid form of nondenominational congregations sprout in some of the US cities and are founded by second generation leaders of various nations like Korea and such congregations have attracted Kerala Syrian Christians as well. Formation and existence of such hybrid churches may be the cause for our youngsters to quit from the traditional Syrian Christian parishes. This issue has to be seriously addressed by the present leaders of the Church in the Diocese.

The emphasis on the mission of the church and its possibilities in a new land are well explored. It is proposed that each Mar Thoma parish should adopt a Neighborhood mission field and be involved in the mission of God (Missio Dei) in the culture around it, where they are planted. Chapter 14 of this section gives the festschrift article written by the author in honour of the Diocesan Bishop of the North America-Europe MTC during 2009-2016 Bishop Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius (the present Metropolitan). In it the author elaborately deals with the vision of Mar Theodosius for the Diocese and profusely quotes form Theodosius Thirumeni’s book, Churching the Diaspora: Discipling the Families. The thrust of the article is on the nurture of second and third generation Mar Thomites and the ways and means to keep them in the Mar Thoma Church fold rather than losing them from the church. It is followed by the article “Reaching out to the other” and gives emphasis on a missional church while critiquing the family conferences and other gatherings of the church in the US where we find the youngsters and those who cannot afford the five-star gatherings missing. The need of the hour is stated as to become an inclusive community and be bridge-builders. The question is raised whether we can take our faith to the other side from our comfortable zones. The last chapter of this section opens up new areas of mission in our contemporary world and advocates that we ward off our

identity, homogeneity and fundamentalism, and embrace the “other” and love them as our neighbours.

Chapters 20-30 constitute Part Three and it articulates the Challenges to Christian Faith in a world of pluralism, biblical approach to homosexuality, Postmodernism and it’s challenges to Christianity, Religion and violence, Religionless Christianity, Priesthood as gift from God, What lay people expect from a priest in our parishes, Escaping Market Culture, Beyond inter-faith Dialogue and Ecumenical Journey towards transformation. All these constitute a wide variety of topics covering most aspects of human life. These articles were written over a span of two decades. Well-thought-out very many practical suggestions are there which will certainly improve the quality of ministry and mission of our parishes, if carefully noted and followed. The ecumenical arena is covered delving into dialogue in interfaith and inter-religious relations. The closing article is a quite recent one, which came in the festschrift volume of the present Diocesan Bishop Dr. Isaac Mar Philoxenos. Its theme is again a journey and is for transformation. It is rightly said that transformation involves the ardent pain to re-process our past experiences and the willingness to face the unknown challenges as a faithful community.

I do appreciate the author Lal Varghese, Esq., Dallas for his ardent urge to see the church become relevant in today’s world especially for the younger generations in the Diaspora situations. Human life is journey. We carry the batten for a certain time and distance. The past generations have played their role for the last two millenniums in transmitting the apostolic faith. We have to be responsible and sincere in carrying the batten to the next generations. God will certainly lead and guide the church and show ways of meaningful mission in the contemporary life-situations. Once again, my best wishes to Lal for his future endeavours and efforts. This beautiful volume if carefully read and noted by second and third generation Diaspora Marthomites, will certainly become meaningful in their faith journey and enrich them by falling in line with the rich legacy and traditions of our ancestral faith.

Editoial Note: We appreciate Lal Varghese, Esq., one of the editors of FOCUS online magazine for publishing the articles written by him during a span of 25-30 years bringing out his personal experiences as a Diaspora Marthomite especially pointing out the issues of Diaspora Mar Thoma Church and the solutions to be taken by the Church. We also appreciate Dr. Zac Varghese, one of our editors for editing the articles. The entire proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the ‘Light to Life’ a project of the Diocese of North America and Europe to help the poor school children studying in the ‘Grama Jyothi’ schools in North India. We recommend our well-wishers and readers to purchase this book and be part of this noble cause. Copies of the book can be obtained by contacting Lal Varghese, Esq., at his WhatsApp number +19725561109 or at his e-mail address attylal@aol.com.

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Obituary: Rev. Dr. E. C. John: An Erudite Scholar with a Pastoral Bend of Mind Revd Dr. M. J. Joseph, Kottayam Rev. Dr. E. C. John (aged 94), a wellknown CSI Presbyter – widely known in the academic circles of the theological fraternity – passed away on Oct. 29, 2020, in Bangalore.

He was born in Kaviyoor, Kerala.

I am reminded of the words of Sam Ewing who wrote: “It is not the hours you put in your work that counts, but it is the work you put in the hours”. It is true of E. C. John Achen who had a high stewardship of time management throughout his life. He was quite meticulous in his literary work and has left a legacy of theological works in Malayalam and English.

As I unravel the scroll of remembrance, Dr. E. C. John Achen comes to my mind as my Old Testament Professor in the United Theological College, Bangalore while I was doing my B.D. course there. As a very erudite scholar with great humility, he used to come to the class with a Hebrew Bible and other notes in his hands to teach us the basics of Hebrew language and Old Testament. I have had several occasions to get associated with him since 1962, first as a student in his Hebrew class and then as a member of the editorial board of two valuable publications in Malayalam. He was the Chief Editor of both volumes. They are Vedapusthaka Bashyam (1979), The Bible Vijnanakosham (2006). Achen co-authored with his wife, Juliana, a book on the German resistance movement. It speaks of the sequence of events during the Second World War in Germany. His wife Juliane Hanna John played a significant role in taking care of the health concerns of the Students as a trained nurse at UTC. I was her helperstudent for 2 years. While Achen was the principal of UTC, I also had occasion to know more about the administrative setup of the college as a member of the executive committee.

As principal, E .C. John Achen had proved to be an able administrator. Without a ray of doubt, everybody will remember EC John Achen’s contribution to the college as the architect of the UTC library block.

Let me now move to the brilliant academic career of Rev. E. C. John; he studied theology at UTC, Bangalore and specialized in the study of the Bible especially the Old Testament .For higher studies he spent his time in Cambridge, UK and Heidelberg, Germany. He took his Doctor of Theology degree from Heidelberg. He joined the faculty of the United Theological College in 1959 and continued there. He served as its principal from 1983 -1993. Rev. Dr. Gnana Robinson succeeded him as principal. He held the Chair of Theology and Ecumenism at the Ruhr University, Bochum, 199395.Recognizing his service to the Senate of Serampore University and of his scholarship as Professor of OT Studies,

the Serampore University awarded him a Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) in the year 2009.

Dr. E .C. John Achen started an academic fraternity in Kerala under the name ‘The Ecumenical Christian Academy’. I remember to have attended a few of its meetings. He used to invite a few interested theologians including lay people for theological reflections and paper presentations. Unfortunately, it did not last for long as he was not able to manage it from Bangalore. It is worth recalling that he edited a book under the title’ The Bible, Church and the Poor. It is a collection of papers presented in the last seminar of the Ecumenical Academy. Achen had authored a commentary on Jeremiah and several articles. He was quite at home in German language. His latest book, The Sermon on the Mount (2012) published in memory of his dear wife late Juliane is a an example of his wide range of knowledge in Biblical Literature, the Rabbinic sources and the contemporary Jewish customs.

He had authored and edited a few books and articles; the book, The Servant of the Lord (1983), speaks of his depth of OT scholarship. The article under the title “Reading the OT from a Dalit perspective” (2007) portrays more of his concern for the poor and down trodden than of his scholarship.

“What matters in life is not being applauded when you arrive, but being missed when you leave”. Dr. E. C. John Achen is also remembered for what he is. He was a compassionate pastor with a pastoral bend of mind. He believed that “the hands that touch are holier than the lips that speak”. He was more concerned about the spirituality of religion rather than its visible expressions of creed, code and cult. He believed that one’s care for others is the measure of his or her greatness.

As a good pastor, he followed the words of St. Paul in 1 Cor.15:58: “Work for the Lord always, work without limit since you know that in the Lord your labour cannot be lost”.

Radiating love, joy, gentleness and humility, he lived and died leaving footprints on the sands of time. He was always proud of his students climbing the ladder of life. Probably he believed in the words of the Jewish Rabbi, Hillel, “My students are my glory”. In a festschrift volume in my honour (Upon the Wings of Wider Ecumenism-2006) published by ECC, Bangalore, when I bid –farewell to the Centre, Dr. E. C. John Achen wrote a brief felicitation message. Let me quote a few lines to illustrate my great regard for him: “Dr. Joseph maintained his friendship over the years and regularly sent me his publications. Well remembered are his meditations and reflections in English and Malayalam. It pleased me immensely to see one of such collections in German. I recall with gratitude the invitations to give special lectures at the Mar Thoma Seminary when he was the principal and at the Ecumenical Christian Centre…“ This is the man Dr. E. C. John Achen.

Rev. Dr. E. C. John survived by his four children: Dr. Mary John (Delhi), Alice (Mumbai), Balan John (Germany) and Dr. Jacob John (Bangalore).

“Life levels all men; death reveals the eminent” (Bernard Shaw).

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PHOTOS OF FUNERAL SERVICE OF MOST REVD DR. JOSEPH MAR THOMA METROPOLITAN HELD AT THIRUVALLA

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PHOTOS OF INSTALLATION OF MOST REVD DR. THEODOSIUS MAR THOMA METROPOLITAN AT THIRUVALLA

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