Annual General Body Meeting of the Diocesan Sevika Sanghom September 3, 2016.
Annual General Body Meeting of the Diocesan Sevika Sanghom September 3, 2016.
Presidential Address
Dear friends in Christ,
Introduction
I join you in praising God for bringing us all together to the Diocesan Sevika Sanghom General Body Meeting. This is a time for us to thank God for all the blessings we have had in the past years, particularly in the last financial year. This is a time for us to understand the present and to realize how the present events are affecting or influencing our programs . This will help us to learn lessons to equip ourselves for an effective ministry within the church and out in the society. This is a time for us to look into the future and set directions for our activities, thereby making them meaningful to the members. The question is to re-look at our stereotyped activities to make our ministry more relevant and contextual. The challenges we face today are new. Therefore it demands that we leave the familiar and comfortable territory these days to travel on the unchartered ways.
We are all “fearfully and wonderfully” created by God with a divine purpose. We live in this world to carry out those purposes. Let us remember that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, risen and living, is going before us to GALILEE. We carry the image and likeness of God and therefore we are placed in our living contexts to reveal The Almighty. As we read in the Book, Acts of the Apostles, Peter and John, going to the temple met the lame beggar at the gate called Beautiful, to give him the risen and living Jesus Christ. (Acts 3:1-9). St. Paul said to the people in Corinth to imitate him as he is imitating Christ (1 Cor 10: 1). We have the life-breath God has given to us. Let us understand this as God’s grace and live before God, in all humility. We are called to believe in Christ and inherit eternal life (John 3:16). This is a call to deepen our faith and live in hope. We are called to live eternally with The Lord.
Challenges and Concerns
The Holy Bible tells us that God found the created world as good and beautiful. He created humankind to have harmonious living in the world by maintaining the good and warm relationships with God, with each other and with nature. But today the world has become a wretched world, broken and bleeding. Are we aware of it?
Recently we heard about the stray dogs in Kerala biting and killing persons on the road; surprisingly most of them are women. One Siluvamma , the 65 year old woman , died after the dogs attacked her at Pulluvila on the third of August,2016. Now the debate is whether to kill the stray dogs or allow the dogs to kill man or woman. (In this case it is also an aged woman who needs protection.) These cases are going on.
On August 12, 2016, there was a news about a man who was hit by a Tempo vehicle in West Delhi , lying on the road for about 40 minutes , while about 140 cars passed by , and the man died unattended. No one was willing to stop to offer help.
We hear incidents where people die in the hospitals and the poor people are not getting the use of vehicles to carry the dead for funeral or cremation. A daily-wage labourer from Odisha ( Kalahandi District ) carried his wife’s body for 10kilo meters on his shoulder and with 12-year old daughter sobbing by his side, as he could not afford a vehicle. What is the social role of the community or larger society when someone is faced with such a crisis and feels helpless.
The Rio Olympics 2016 revealed that women of India like P V Sindhu, Dipa Karmakar and others are talented to bring India to the forefront in the World Map. Considering the fact that some of them are from the tribal belt of India and some have come up by their own effort, should we not be challenged to see that community effort is much needed to spot the innate talents of our boys and girls and also to encourage them to grow to their highest potential in their God given talents. Let us remember that this goes well with our Educational Care and Development programs.
The surrogacy bill that concerns the autonomy of a woman over her own body may be a controversial topic on this forum. The external affairs minister Ms. Sushma Swaraj seems to suggest that there can be only one type of family which is the traditional and conservative one. Should not the government rework the surrogacy bill, focusing on the safe guards for assisted reproduction and reconsider the complete ban on commercial surrogacy? More than the question of which position is right, should this not be a topic of our discussion on common platforms to understand the principles of moralism with a human touch to the persons involved.
I have suggested only a few current topics that affect the human community among whom we live today. There are moral principles. There are ethical issues. We do not hear the cry of the people. We do not see what we ought to see. We do not grasp the divine responsibilities. We need to listen to competent persons who can handle these topics and enter into discussion to probe in to the matter in order to make our biblical and theological reflections more meaningful. It will help us to re-read the Holy Bible and also to spend more time relevantly for prayer. Mr. N R Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys said once, “…..I am a doer; I am not just a talker “.
Functioning of the Sevika Sanghom
Sevika Sanghom started functioning in a patriarchal society when our fore-fathers and leaders of the Church realised the need to give special attention to the women in the community to accept them as members in the main stream, to enable them to study the Holy Bible, to encourage them to participate actively in the religious practices and to bring out the innate leadership quality in them in the family, church and society. In other words , the community or the Church never wanted to marginalize them from the life together or side line them from the decision making bodies. The church encouraged them to be active participants in the mission of the Church, to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and to serve in all humility to preserve and respect life. The Creator’s gift of life is to be appreciated of its value and each person has to take up the responsibility of protecting and providing for it.
Sevika Sanghom members have a greater role today in the Church to be active in the mission and ministry. Do you want to be active or passive. If you remain passive, there will be people to tell you what to read, what to watch, what to eat , what to do and what to die for. If you are active, you will be using the God-given freedom and wisdom for your life and work. We live in an area of innovation where we introduce new ideas and new ways of doing things. In the work place, innovation means applying new ideas and methods to enhance stale methods and processes which are necessary for the work to be productive. How about our Sevika Sanghoms? Creative thinking is necessary for an organisation to be relevant. The risen Jesus makes everything new. He is on the move. We are asked to follow Him.
Educational Care Project
One of the area through which the Diocesan Sevika Sanghom is reaching out to the people outside the faith-community is through Educational Care Project, either by running the hostel for children or sponsoring their education. We do it in the context that the Diocese is having a number of Mission Fields where seekers or believers are Marathi or Gujarati speaking people. (Or because we minister to the children through Nava Jeevan or Navodaya. ) .All of them are either tribal people or people from low economic background. I am not forgetting the fact that there are people who have migrated from remote areas due to the natural calamities or severe weather conditions. Let us bear in mind that they are poor not by their choice, but a state that was forced upon them. Poverty is not created by them. Yet, it takes a while or a generation for them to come out of it.
It is in this background that we need to understand our programs, particularly the Educational Care Projects. What they need is not sympathy. We need to empathize with them through the ministry of incarnation. Jesus met the mentally challenged (Demon possessed) not from a distance, but going to Gerasene and sitting with him and healing him. He, not only became sane but also rose to be an evangelist to tell the good news of Jesus Christ to 10 nearby cities. (Mark 5: 1-20 ). Gospels are full of instances where Jesus listened to people, touched them and healed them. Jesus gave preferential option for the poor and the marginalized . He said that he came to give life and to give that in its fullness.
When we engage in the Educational Care Project, let us be interested in the person or persons. If we start helping a child in the field of education, let us be interested in the total life of the person, follow up the care, year after year, to the point that the person will complete the graduation to be a skilled person in a particular field to sustain himself and later on his family and still beyond in being a person who in turn will help the education of children who are in need. Caring becomes meaningful only when we are willing to share ourselves and our resources.
Finance
We need adequate finance to engage in all of the miniseries of the Sevika Sanghom. Money plays a major role in all our activities. But if we are not careful, money will enslave us. We become rich when we find money. This is quite relative. We also become poor when we loose money or wealth. Materialism, market and media are things we find and handle. If we are not careful, each one is capable of enslaving us. Some venerate it and it becomes an idol replacing the living God. These trends are dangerous. We need to strike a balance when we realize that God owns everything and he is one who controls it. That means we have only the stewardship. Any other thinking is wrong and will become un Christian. God wants us to be good stewards, good and faithful. Parable of the talents, said by Jesus , points out that our God expects us to have right use of the talents and take all the efforts to multiply it. We should be willing to hand over the entire to the Master, who then considers us as good and faithful. Giving is not easy, but that is what we are asked to do. To the young, rich, religious ruler, Jesus said to sell all his possessions to give to the poor in order to follow Him and also to inherit eternal life. To what extent, should we give is a big questioning we all raise. Jesus points to the widow who gave everything she had to the temple treasury through the two coins. The Good Samaritan was not satisfied with what he gave to the Inn-keeper; he said I will come back and give you the rest; save his life.
So, this is the lesson for our giving. Not the amount; but the life of the other. Every amount that is given to the Sevika Sanghom Fund and the amount that is received are for the life of the other. Can we keep that in mind when we deal with the finance and the need to give for one cause or the other. Let us give cheerfully for God loves a cheerful giver.
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee of the Sevika Sanghom is a decision making body. To be a member in that body is a privilege and a responsibility. This body is responsible for planning and executing the programs and projects of the Sevika Sanghom. This is a time for introspection. Are we holding Sevika Sanghom as a serving community, a body that will reach out as a Gospel Community and engages herself in the ministry of community formation and community living. How is its life of our Sevika Sanghom in the micro and macro levels? Can we say that we are growing as a living and dynamic community? What we want is to be like a vine that bears fruit and that too in its abundance.
Conclusion
Friends, the challenges we face today are numerous. Time demands that we move from our familiar and comfortable ways to travel on the unchartered ways to give meaning and direction to the human community that we represent. The living Christ is always on the move and He says that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Let us follow Him.
Rt. Rev. Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius
Diocesan Episcopa, Mumbai Diocese of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church
