Farewell Speech
Address given at the Farewell Meeting organized by the Diocese of North America and Europe at the Ascension Mar Thoma Church, Philadelphia on April 1, 2016.
Dear Friends in Christ,
The time has come for me to bid farewell to the Diocese of North America and Europe and to each one of you, whom I have loved and served for the last seven and a quarter years. Your love is more than the love I have expressed and I thank you for the same. I am what I am today by the Grace of God and because of you among whom I lived,grew and ministered.
1. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to serve you. It gave me an occasion to re read the Holy Bible, the history and heritage of our Church, the liturgy that we use and the mission and ministry in which we engage. The result is the present nature of the Diocese that we all see today, about which so many of you spoke today at this farewell function. And I thank you for your kind words. Some of you expressed your appreciation through the pages of the Marthoma Messenger published from New York and the Marthoma Echo published from London, U K. I have been hearing your words personally during my visits to the parishes and congregations of this diocese. You have also sent e-mails and greeting cards recently. All of you have supported me well and I am grateful for your sincere love, care and concern.
2. ‘Churching the Diaspora and Discipling the Families ‘ is an attempt in which our diocese is still engaged in .( This is the title of a book which I have written and published while I lived in the diocese ,from my experiences and reflections. ) . We belong to an ancient Church living in modern times. Hence our struggle is to find out how the positive aspects of our ancestral faith and culture can translate in order to address the challenges of the West so that the values become intertwined with the local cultures and practices , leading to the evolution of a synthesised tradition relevant for our times. We should not be mere traditionalists, but be ‘tradition makers ‘ where the clergy and the laity shall join hands to review and revise our tradition so that our life in the Church will be relevant and meaningful for our time.
3. When we understand our community as one that goes ‘Beyond Diaspora’, I believe that it is time for us to write a new chapter in the history of our growth here. I see that evidently in our outreach mission . While continuing the present mission activities in the diocese, let our parishes and congregations engage more on the ‘neighbourhood mission’ where the Mar Thoma Church will become the salt of the earth , light of the world and leaven that would bring total transformation. ( The youth members in N Y city has taken up the challenge of being a neighbour to the homeless people through a shelter home. The youth group together to go to the market to buy things to cook a meal for the homeless, cook food for them, welcome them as they come in , eat the same food, take time to assemble them for a meaningful conversation with them, sing songs for them or pray for those who ask for special prayers. There are people who regularly come to this event . A similar work is carried out in U K by St. John’s Mar Thoma Parish. There are other ‘ neighbourhood ‘ ministries. ). I wish the diocese more of God’s blessings to move forward in our faith journey with The Lord.
5. We should not forget the ‘hospitality for the stranger ‘ about which both the Old Testameent and New Testament of the Holy Bible speak about. We are immigrants in a land full of immigrant groups and our children and grand children are citizens. On December 10, 2015 Canada welcomed the first group of Syrian refugees. The new young Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was present at the airport to greet them. He said: ‘ Welcome to your new home ! Tonight, you step off the plane as refugees, but you will soon walk out of this terminal as permanent residents of Canada ‘. The P M is willing to welcome more to the land in 2016. The Mar Thoma Community everywhere in USA, Canada, UK and Europe shall remain as a welcoming community, an open Church, extending hospitality to the strangers, proving to be a Good Samaritan in rehabilitating them, and becoming a good neighbour to every one at all times. Jesus said, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
6. I take this opportunity to thank all the members of the diocese for the support all of you gave me all these years. Our clergy play a key role in the ministry of the Church and I gratefully acknowledge their service and cooperation. I am grateful to the Clergy family for accommodating me during the weekends when I came for Episcopal visits to the parishes or came for the Diocesan conferences ( there are more than 10 conferences every year ). I am grateful to the members of the new generation for having dialogue which led the diocese and the Church to revise the liturgy and plan several innovative measures for the empowering of the ministry here.
I could minister only with a team of talented persons at the Sinai Mar Thoma Centre, N Y. I am grateful to them. Rev Dr Philip Varghese was a fatherly figure in the team. Rev Binoy J Thomas ,the Bishop’s secretary and the Diocesan Secretary, was a sleepless person, working day and night to catch up with the pressure of work in the diocese. His family was a host family for me . I also remember the services of the earlier Diocesan Secretaries. Mr Thomas Oommen (Saji ) was there to help in all ways. He was maintaining the accounts of the Diocese. The Sabha Mandalam and the elected Sabha Council members represented the diocese on the Sabha level. The Diocesan Assembly members put their heads together in making strong decisions in our faith journey and strengthening our growth together. Our Diocesan Council members remained as the hands and feet of our Church and Diocese – active all the time, working very hard voluntarily in spite of their hectic schedule in the respective places. The Diocesan Secretaries and Treasurers , past and present , kept our diocese as an integrated family and maintained a sound financial status. Mr Philip Thomas, the present Treasurer, living in Dallas used to come to NY with a sense of accountability to keep the treasury intact and worked well with the internal and external auditors. So I thank all the members in the diocese and my ecumenical friends. Forgive and forget, if I have offended any one at any time in word, deed and in my attitudes . That is the Christian spirit that loves. I am still your servant and we are living and growing in the same family.
7. You have a good shepherd and leader in our Dr Issac Mar Philoxenos Tirumani , who is my successor. He is an experienced person with 23 years of Episcopal ministry in several dioceses, a scholar, an academician, theologian, ecumenist, efficient teacher, a world leader and a loving shepherd. A right person at the right time. With his leadership , I wish and pray that this diocese will grow from strength to strength, reaching greater heights.
I need your prayer as I now move to a new diocese where our Philoxenos Tirumani served once and going to stay in a place which Tirumani has built. This is Mumbai, the financial Capital of India. In contrast, you also see abject poverty ( Slumdog Millionaire will tell the story ). We have there Navajeevan Centre working among the mothers and children of red streets , Navodaya mission with an out reach program to the mentally challenged, mothers and children of ‘rag pickers’ from the waste dump yards, Educational ministry, Mission fields in the Marathi and Gujarati speaking communities and the like. I need ,not only your prayers but also your support. I welcome you to Mumbai. Come!
God be with you. Thank you.
Mar Theodosius+
