“Light a candle instead of cursing the darkness. Do something constructive instead of complaining. You do your best; God will do the rest, because even a mustard seed of faith in God can move mountains.” These thoughts prompted just a few well-meaning people in New York, Boston and Chicago to conduct a telephone conference and consultation on Feb.28, at 9 PM for over an hour.
The subject of discussion was how to reduce the mounting tension, bitterness and in-fights in the Syro-Malabar Church (SMC) in USA, especially among the laity in the 23 parishes and 35 mission stations and between the clergy and the laity, due to petty differences on liturgical worship – like claver cross, crucifix, altar curtain, its colour etc. Other topics of conflict are putting up posh churches beyond one’s means and who should manage these material assets and how, instead of building up Christian communities that pray together and stay together to grow together
On the eve of the communist revolution in Russia, it is said, the bishops and the clergy were discussing and disagreeing on the colour of the vestments to be used for the following day’s liturgical worship in the churches, but the bloody revolution that broke out the following morning decided it to be RED, and the churchmen were packed off to dungeons or concentration camps. None of the participants in the telephone conference wanted to see that happen to SMC here or it reduced to zero as some fighting factions want.
The idea of a telephone conference to get light in darkness was first mooted by Sri.Thomas M. Thomas of New Jersy, Vice-President of SM Catholic Congress of North America, its two term national treasure and one of its founding fathers in 1990s. It was supported by Sri Thomas Koovaloor of Yonkers, N. York, and former President of the Bronx chapter of the SMC Congress, also former trustee of St.Thomas Church and founder of the St.Thomas Malayalam School in Bronx. They together with a few others decided to get also Dr.James Kottoor, passing through Chicago, whose recent article: Syromalabar Church in USA, brought up the whole issue to public attention.
What emerged from the over one hour-long telephone conference is summarised below as a list of dozen suggestions:
1. The present craze for putting up fashionable churches in the name of multiplying the number of Syro-Malabar Rite parishes must be discouraged by all means.
2. The SMC hierarchy in Kerala must be properly advised against the dangers of making the SMC in USA a carbon copy of the SMC in Kerala – a Rite-centred worship and church-centred politics to multiply Episcopal thrones and parishes.
Holy Pastors Needed
3. What the Syro-malabar community needs in US urgently is St. John Marie Viani like pastoral minded holy priests to take care of the spiritual as well as the socio-economic needs of the jobless or job-lost newly arrived immigrants who are at sea to find a foothold to stand on their feet and get integrated into this unfamiliar mainstream of western culture. It is not enough that priests who come from Kerala are able to take care of the Malayalam speaking older generation but must also be quite proficient in English to deal effectively with today’s English speaking children and general public into which SM community has to be integrated.
4. The vast majority of the present batch of clergy are seen as money-minded (some are said to be millionaires), interested in having a good time here, not pliable to the direction of the bishop since many of them have either green card or citizenship and unwilling to go back to Kerala for lame reasons.
What emerged from the over one hour-long telephone conference is summarised below as a list of dozen suggestions:
1. The present craze for putting up fashionable churches in the name of multiplying the number of Syro-Malabar Rite parishes must be discouraged by all means.
2. The SMC hierarchy in Kerala must be properly advised against the dangers of making the SMC in USA a carbon copy of the SMC in Kerala – a Rite-centred worship and church-centred politics to multiply Episcopal thrones and parishes.
Holy Pastors Needed
3. What the Syro-malabar community needs in US urgently is St. John Marie Viani like pastoral minded holy priests to take care of the spiritual as well as the socio-economic needs of the jobless or job-lost newly arrived immigrants who are at sea to find a foothold to stand on their feet and get integrated into this unfamiliar mainstream of western culture. It is not enough that priests who come from Kerala are able to take care of the Malayalam speaking older generation but must also be quite proficient in English to deal effectively with today’s English speaking children and general public into which SM community has to be integrated.
4. The vast majority of the present batch of clergy are seen as money-minded (some are said to be millionaires), interested in having a good time here, not pliable to the direction of the bishop since many of them have either green card or citizenship and unwilling to go back to Kerala for lame reasons.
5.Promotors of Malayalam based churches should learn from the bitter experience of other linguistic communities from Europe who built their own churches here years ago, which are now abandoned and laid vacant just because their English speaking younger generation has merged into the general public to attend liturgies in English in Latin or other churches.
6. Due to terrible shortage of priests in USA many of the Latin churches are facing closure and so they are only too happy to offer their unused church space for SMC community to conduct their own liturgies. This is what is done even in Europe where the same Church is shared by various denominations – Catholic, Lutheran; Protestant etc. instead of building own churches.
Transfer, Elections & Transparency
7. The rules prevalent in SMC of transferring Parish priests every 3 or 4 years should be strictly implemented since in some parishes problems crop up only because the same priest continues even after 10 years.
8. Similarly friction in the parish community is created because of the one man rule in many parishes of the priest who nominates people to parish and block councils and administrative offices instead of finding proper persons through election or consensus.
9. To prevent mismanagement of funds transparent accounting of every penny received and spent in the parish must be introduced where it is not done. In this connection the practice in many Latin parishes of publishing the Sunday collections in the parish bulletin of the following Sunday is worth imitating.
10. Many parish priests are blamed by the faithful for using their Sunday sermon more for fleecing the faithful than for preaching the good news. As a result priests who insist that people pay their tithe every month are made a laughing stock by Voice blog people who make shocking comparisons of the income of priests through salary and donations which are multiples of what an ordinary nurse makes.
11. To make the telephone conference group representative of the SMC laity, the organisers are going to get people of good will from the existing 24 parishes and from the Faith and Voice blog groups to wipe out divisions among the laity and hand over the leadership they have taken to better qualified youngsters in a future general body election.
12. Finally it was decided to appraise the Synod of the SMC in Kerala of these decisions and suggestions in order to get their blessing, approval and guidance.
Depending on the response from Bishops, clergy and laity in various parishes, a Fact Finding Committee or an Enquiry Commission may also be set up to find out what is the best way to go ahead. In any case the pioneers of this Telephone Conference have unanimously made it clear they have no other intention other than doing the work of John the Baptist in the Desert -- making straight the Way of the Lord, so that He alone may increase and they may decrease and even fade out, as and when a new set of enlightened lay leaders take over to guide the Syro Malabar community through the narrow path shown by the Lord, especially during this Lenten season we have started.
"I READ THIS ARTICLE IN A BLOG AND I HOPE IT WOULD BE USEFUL FOR SYRO MALABAR USA."
6. Due to terrible shortage of priests in USA many of the Latin churches are facing closure and so they are only too happy to offer their unused church space for SMC community to conduct their own liturgies. This is what is done even in Europe where the same Church is shared by various denominations – Catholic, Lutheran; Protestant etc. instead of building own churches.
Transfer, Elections & Transparency
7. The rules prevalent in SMC of transferring Parish priests every 3 or 4 years should be strictly implemented since in some parishes problems crop up only because the same priest continues even after 10 years.
8. Similarly friction in the parish community is created because of the one man rule in many parishes of the priest who nominates people to parish and block councils and administrative offices instead of finding proper persons through election or consensus.
9. To prevent mismanagement of funds transparent accounting of every penny received and spent in the parish must be introduced where it is not done. In this connection the practice in many Latin parishes of publishing the Sunday collections in the parish bulletin of the following Sunday is worth imitating.
10. Many parish priests are blamed by the faithful for using their Sunday sermon more for fleecing the faithful than for preaching the good news. As a result priests who insist that people pay their tithe every month are made a laughing stock by Voice blog people who make shocking comparisons of the income of priests through salary and donations which are multiples of what an ordinary nurse makes.
11. To make the telephone conference group representative of the SMC laity, the organisers are going to get people of good will from the existing 24 parishes and from the Faith and Voice blog groups to wipe out divisions among the laity and hand over the leadership they have taken to better qualified youngsters in a future general body election.
12. Finally it was decided to appraise the Synod of the SMC in Kerala of these decisions and suggestions in order to get their blessing, approval and guidance.
Depending on the response from Bishops, clergy and laity in various parishes, a Fact Finding Committee or an Enquiry Commission may also be set up to find out what is the best way to go ahead. In any case the pioneers of this Telephone Conference have unanimously made it clear they have no other intention other than doing the work of John the Baptist in the Desert -- making straight the Way of the Lord, so that He alone may increase and they may decrease and even fade out, as and when a new set of enlightened lay leaders take over to guide the Syro Malabar community through the narrow path shown by the Lord, especially during this Lenten season we have started.
"I READ THIS ARTICLE IN A BLOG AND I HOPE IT WOULD BE USEFUL FOR SYRO MALABAR USA."
9 comments:
“Light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.
ANSWER.
THIS IS WHAT IS VOICE BLOG WAS TELLING ALL THIS YEARS THAT THIS SYROMALABAR IS IN DARKNESS UNDER THIS BISHOP AND HIS USELESS SUPPORTERS OF CLAVER CROSS.
“Light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.
നിങ്ങള് ഇപ്പോള് കാലം മാറ്റി ചവിട്ടുകയാണോ?ഇത്രയും നാള് നിങ്ങള് ബിഷപ് പറയണതെല്ലാം സെരിയനെന്നു പറഞ്ഞിട്ട് ഇപ്പോള് പറയുന്നേ സ്യ്രോമാലബാര് ഇരുട്ടിലനെന്നാണോ?വോയിസ് ബ്ലോഗും കൊപലും കുടി ഒരു വിതത്തില് എല്ലാം നേരെ ആക്കിയപ്പോ നിങ്ങള് മലക്കം മറിഞ്ഞു ബിഷപിനെ കൈ വിടുകയാണോ?
The subject of discussion was how to reduce the mounting tension, bitterness and in-fights in the Syro-Malabar Church (SMC) in USA
ANSWER.
ക്ലാവര് കുരിസിനെ കളയുക.ഇസ്ടമുള്ള അച്ചന്മാര് എന്ത് പോക്രിത്തരം കാണിച്ചാലും സപോര്ട്ട് ചെയ്യുന്ന തരികിട പെരിപാടി അവസാനിപ്പിക്കുക.മര്യാതക്ക് കാര്യങ്ങള് നടത്തുക.ആളുകളെ പാറ്റിച്ചു എന്തും നടതാന്നുള്ള തോന്നല് അവസാനിപ്പിക്കുക
Holy Pastors Needed
ANSWER.
WHO ALL ARE HOLY PRIESTS?
ROY?
ZAKARIA?
VINOTH?
JOJI?
JOHN?
To make the telephone conference group representative of the SMC laity, the organisers are going to get people of good will from the existing 24 parishes and from the Faith and Voice blog groups to wipe out divisions among the laity and hand over the leadership they have taken to better qualified youngsters in a future general body election.
ANSWER.
WHO ARE YOU TO DECIDE ABOUT VOICE BLOG?AND WHAT IS THIS FAITH BLOG DOING?IS THAT THE SAME BLOG WHICH IS RUNNING BEHIND AND PROMOTE LOCAL POLITICKS IN COPPELL?
ARE YOU JOCKING?
By the way who wrote this? a priest?or a married man?or a priest who then married later?
"It seems that this group has become an idol worshippers who only worship crucifix where the design and image of Christ was created by an artist."
you are right.If you study history and bible,jesus was crucified compleatley naked,as a part of humiliation.
The little bit cloth on him is just a favour from compassion.His armpit was't shaved,there are full of blood on his body per scripture.
thanks.
The Battle In Garland Shifts Into High Gear ,
Even though I do not deserve all the praises that the author of this article has showered me, like every human being, I accept it with a pinch of Biblical wisdom contained in 1 Cor. 4:7.
Here we read that whatever we have(my ignorance,pride stupidity,rude,nature of satan etc.), it is a gift from God and we should never boast about it because all the glory belongs to God and to God alone. Having said that, my experience in Garland yesterday was on the whole very enjoyable and rewarding. It was enjoyable because what Jesus said in Acts 1:8 was being fulfilled through me in a very small way(it should be with your love and good deeds not with arrogant,rebellious nature). In Acts 1:8 Jesus said: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth [including Garland, TX].” Nothing gives me more joy than bearing witness to Jesus Christ by witnessing to His Cross which is the Crucifix(just wearing crucifix means nothing,if you watch tv drugg addicts,gansters, prostitutes etc also wearing crucifix) [and never the Mar Thoma Cross which Fr. Joji and many others are promoting and marketing as the Cross of Jesus Christ which is a heresy.]. Just as Prophet Elijah defeated and killed(not with cross) the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, within the next couple of weeks, Jesus Christ Himself will give convincing proof in Garland beyond all doubt that Mar Thoma Cross is merely an idol and it can never replace the Crucifix(is also an idol).
In the meantime, while I was pondering over my experiences yesterday at the Garland church, not all my experiences were pleasant. About 10 people verbally assailed me and spoke abusive words to me. I was again encouraged and very much comforted by Jesus’ own words in Jn. 15:25:( no there is plenty of reson to not wecome you,can you tell us ,you are not baptized by pastor Johnson?) “This is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’ And Jesus also gives the reason for their hatred in Jn. 15:21: “They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.” I completely understand that as long as anyone loves the Mar Thoma Cross, they can never understand the One who sent Jesus Christ to save mankind – God the Father Himself. Because to know Jesus Christ, a Christian has to know Him through the Crucifix and the Crucifix alone.(no that is wrong,he did it for all mankind,hindus,muslims,children they died before five yers of age. Your deeds determine your life after death. You can see a lot of placees in bible that jesus teach about judgement. Not even a single place he ask,did you worship crucifix,marthoma cross,did you go to church,did you pray? Etc.etc.)That is why St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 2:2: “While I was with you, I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified(means suffered).” If one does not seek to know the crucified (suffered) Savior through the Crucifix(if you show me this word in bible,iwill be your slave for the rest of my life.), he can never understand Jesus Christ. If one does not understand Jesus Christ, he can never understand the Father who sent Him. Such people will hate those who stand up for the Crucifix without any reason as Jesus said in Jn. 15:25.
Give praise to Jesus Christ in Garland and everywhere who alone "gives us the victory" [through His mighty Cross, the Crucifix] (1 Cor. 15:57).(it don’t say cross or crucifix but jesus, would you please read catholic bible?)
Dear tom,
you are fighting for crucifix and thinking that you are supporting Jesus.
Other group fighting for cross by thinking that they also supporting Jesus.
Peter told Jesus you should not suffer and die,by thinking that, he was also supporting Jesus. Because he was expecting a military Christ,who concur all worldly kingdom.
Look what Jesus called peter there.
Matthew 16:(20-23)
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law , and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God , but merely human concerns.”
so Jesus doesn't need any of our support,he need us.
why can we pray without crucifix or cross? Jesus Prophets,disciples and first century Christians,pray without any of these. when Jesus send disciples neither cross nor crucifix was one of the item allowed to carry.
WHEN WE FIGHT OUR ENEMY IS SMILING.
LET US GO BACK TO THE KEY POINT OF THE BIBLE. EVERLASTING LIFE.
Don't worry tom, they didn't call you name, why you didn't see crucifix supporters are writing and taking about our vicar and bishop. Use your word to core ct them too.
thanks a lot.
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