Epiphany Mar Thoma Church

Rt. Rev. Dr.Geevarghese Mar Theodosius Episcopa visited Epiphany Mar Thoma parish on September 25th 2011. The Episcopa led the Holy Communion and gave the sermon. The sermon was on the relevance of worship.

Worshipping the one who is worthy of worship. Eternal God, the God who is transcendent is made contemporary through worship. Even though Bartimai had no outward vision he knew Jesus with his inner vision. He had the urge to know Jesus. Distancing is sin or sin is alienation. Tirumeni stressed the importance of the ‘Kiss of Peace’ in worship. It is an experience of reconciliation and forgiveness. It reduces the distance in relationship. The Samaritan woman through her encounter with Jesus realizes that she is the gift of God. Worship helps lead us to a spiritual exercise from our objective and intellectual understanding. To see spirituality as objective is not enough. It should lead us to spiritual experience. Nicodemus went to see Jesus, while it was dark. He was not able to stand in the light. Jesus gives him light-giving words. Recognizing the one who is distant is worship. Around us there are so many whom we do not know or don’t want to know or whom we exclude. We must be able to see God where we live and in our fellow beings. The world is to recognize God through us. We are supposed to do what Jesus said and did, identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are not a sinless community but we are a unique and committed community for mission. The sermon was inspiring and thought provoking.
During the service the Sunday school Children were congratulated on winning the championship in the Sunday school North –East regional Kalamela.

By the grace of God we were able to organize the Diocesan Convention in the North-East Region in a successful manner.
Thirumeni’s presence in all the sessions of the Diocesan Convention was a great boost to the organizers and the faith community. The message of Rev. Dr. T. J. Thomas combining his counseling skills along with Biblical insights was useful and inspiring.

The Seminar on Saturday on the Challenges and possibilities of aging was very interactive and productive. 60 people attended. A committee was formed under the Chairmanship of Rev. Joseph Johnny to prepare an action plan to organize a unit of Senior Citizens Fellowship in the Parish level and wider network in the regional level. Concluding sessions of the convention were well attended and received good feedback from the people.

Achens from the neighboring parishes attended the convention. Rev. K. E. Geevarghese, Rev. Jacob Varghese and Rev. Biju P. Simon attended the concluding session of the convention. Snacks were arranged for all who attended the service.
Rev. Oommen V. Varkey
Vicar