Presidential Address – Diocesan Assembly
Mar Thoma Church, Chennai – Bangalore Diocesan Assembly- 2007. At Madras Mar Thoma Syrian Church, Chetpet – July 11, 2007.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY THE DIOCESAN EPISCOPA.
Phil 2:5 “Have the same mind as that of Christ Jesus”
Dearly Beloved in Christ,
We are assembled here as the Diocesan Assembly of the Mar Thoma Church, Chennai – Bangalore Diocese. Let us praise God for bringing us all together for this meeting. I greet you in the precious name of Our Lord Jesus Christ and bring you greetings from all the members of the Church. This is a meeting when our Church is celebrating Navathy of our beloved Metropolitan Thirumeni. Let us praise God for the long life and leadership granted to our Thirumeni and pray to the Almighty that continued blessings be showered upon him.
St. Paul exhorts us to: “Have the same mind as that of Christ Jesus”. Based on this I want to draw your attention to three things regarding the nature and mission of the church.
We are a worshipping community. The Christian faith celebrates the incarnation of Jesus Christ, His sacrificial death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection from the dead. We participate in the Holy Sacraments, particularly in the Holy Qurbana, to transform our lives to become sacramental before the whole world. This involves suffering and sacrifice. The Christian faith does not sanction the imposition of sacrifice and suffering on human beings or indeed on the rest of the creation by any outside power or authority. However, when we voluntarily accept suffering and sacrifice for the well being of others, it becomes redemptive.
The ecumenical world considers the whole inhabited earth as one oikos or household. In a household some sacrifice is required on the part of the individual members in order to sustain and harmonize relationships within the household. We must understand Acts 4: 32-35 in this context.
“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions as his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the Apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For, from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and placed it at the Apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need”.
We, as the Diocese pool are our resources to meet our common needs and to participate in the common mission. This is the great witness of our community. We care for the weaker ones and we include them in the decision making process. This spirit of caring is maintained with the willingness for sacrifice. The spirit of unity is maintained by upholding the sacred bond we have one with another. The resources meant for Mission fields are used in:
o Supporting Missionaries and Evangelists.
o Church Planting through the purchase of land and property to construct worship places and mission houses.
o Christian Nurturing for teaching the Bible, running hostels, conducting Sunday School classes, conferences for youth and women etc.
We should remember here the Navathy Home Project of our Church initiated in celebration of the 90th birthday of Our Metropolitan. The target of the Church is to give a minimum of 1500 houses to economically weak houseless people. The response of our members has been commendable. We are building 82 houses in the Diocese. There are 165 applications pending. While working on this project, I have identified 14 families in Tamil Nadu region who are also landless to whom we have decided to provide five cents of land. We need funds for this work that needs to be completed. Sacrificial giving is possible when we are prepared to accept the fact that the need of the other is greater than our giving.
We are a living church. We follow Christ, who said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Gospel of John also says that Jesus is the Bread of Life. Jesus the wandering shepherd took ordinary bread in the Upper Room, blessed it and said: “This is my body” (Mt 26:26) He gave it to his apostles saying: “Take, Eat, This is my body broken for you.” Our Lord’s purpose was to impart Eternal Life to His followers of Christ.
Jesus broke bread to indicate His imminent death on the cross. The experience of death is part of life as we know it in this world. Everyday, cells die in our body and new cells are formed. We live by breathing in and breathing out. Between the two, is the moment of death. Death is not the end of life, but an integral part of the life God has granted to us. Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds”. John 12:24
Life progresses as a repeated process of death and life. You die to your childhood, when you become a teenager. You die to your adolescence when you become an adult. Death is necessary to life. Are we willing to die for the cause of Christ? Are we willing to spend ourselves for the life and mission of the church? Loyalty to the Church is important to our Christian life. It gives meaning and place to our Christian identity. The out reach ministries we have in our Mission fields , our ministry to students, the emerging service of caring for the aged are all a part of our diocesan character and we must support these activities through:
o The Mar Thoma Centre at Beerasndra in Bangalore
o The Jubilee Centre at Mydakkur in A P
o The guidance centers at Vellore and Manipal
o and The Youth Centre at Padi in Chennai.
Our Metropolitan Thirumeni was prophetic when he said that “We should give more to the world than what we have received from the world”. Sacrificial giving is necessary for our development as better human beings
St. Paul speaking about the life and work of Christ goes on to say that he is always happy and rejoices with everyone. This is the life of ‘Thanksgiving & Rejoicing’. Phil 2:1
In our Christian tradition we say Thanksgiving prayers before our meals. We also have the tradition of hospitality where we honor our guests and friends by sharing and offering our food. So life is not to be found in the gluttonous and selfish indulgence in the pleasures of eating (the spirit of consumerism) but is to be seen in sharing and offering (giving thanks to God – Eucharistia). This is what we see on the cross when we pray: “O Thou That was crucified for us, have mercy on us”. Christ said “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Mt 5:7
The life and mission of this Diocese must be a ‘Thank-offering’, well pleasing to God. It should create a spirit of rejoicing within the church and in the land where we live and work. We have 54 Parishes in our diocese. The local parish will become the ‘Church within the Church’ when members of the parish care for the needy and suffering within the worshipping community. Generally when I visit parishes I take time to visit the aged and the sick who are not able to attend the church service. In certain places the office bearers of the Church also come with me to all the homes I visit. In such visits the dear ones confined to their homes, experience the Church within the Church. We pray in those homes as a family among the many families which form the Church. This brings rejoicing in the parish as a whole.
Jesus carried out his ministry in ‘obedience to God and fulfilling God’s, purpose on earth. He could truly say “it is finished” before he breathed his last on the cross. That was thanksgiving. And there was rejoicing about it. This is to be the meaning of our lives as well. When we die, there should be not only mourning about our physical absence but also rejoicing through many generations about our contribution to the world around us.
As the followers of Christ, let us discern where God in Christ is active in the ministry of the Kingdom of God and take up our participation in His Ministry as friends of Christ. Let us participate in this meeting of the Diocesan Assembly remembering that Christ is present in our midst as the Lord of the Church and assuming our responsibility on behalf of the Church to carry out the mission and ministry of our Lord. May the grace of God strengthen us to fulfill the given ministry.
May the Lord Bless Us.
Mar Theodosius, Diocesan Episcopa
