Are Bishops entitled to these much luxury?

I have a mail from one of the readers from USA, who wanted me to put it up! Well this blog is all about giving a platform to different voices and opinions in order to let the Church know what the members are thinking.

If you disagree with the following or any posts - mail me or put in a comment and I'll publish that too! Have a wonderful new year ahead and God Bless!

~o~

Are Bishops entitled to these much luxury?

Should Bishops move around in luxury cars or should they be given only some form of average means of transportation so that they can move around.

Bishops need means of transportation to visit churches and to go places where they need to be. No problem with that. Well when I was in Kerala I remember the local bishop visiting our church the maximum once in a year. And in some year that might not even happen. However, you can find them oversees collecting money for "Gospel Work" for enrichment work! most of the time. To whom are they accountable? To the common lay member who thinks that the Bishops are visible representatives of God?

When I was a kid I remember my dad telling me that Bishops do not eat from lay men's houses and they don't even eat from the Parsonage. Now if you need to find bishops( especially overseas) you need to call lay men's houses. This is not a hypothetical situation. I have first hand evidence.

Bishops know the people who are affluent, the famous, the rich, the top brass. They do not even care about the ordinary laymen who constitutes the flesh and blood of the church.

Well I am not even sure whether the church has any significance. Of course the Marthoma church gave me the foundation on which I built my life. But more is to be done. This is a church that grew from nothing, from a few couple churches. Now it more like a multi-billion industry that produces CEOs who give handful of pay-outs for themselves ignoring the plight of the ordinary men and women.

We need to rise. What is the opinion of the church regarding homosexuality, materialism/consumerism, divorce, youths fleeing the church in hundreds( Next time when Bishops visit US, I earnestly pray that they visit a US church and see how many people attend those churches and how churches are being sold and leased out). When will the leadership arouse from its slumber. When will they realise that the time is ticking. Are the laymen taken into confidence. I am not surprised why in Europe large number of people have fled and still fleeing the church. The hierarchy cannot connect to the laymen.

Maranatha!

Pray for Reformation!

Sorry for the delay in posting, but I've been busy with Christmas. This week there was a comment and I'm publishing it as a post for the benefit of those readers who don't bother to read the comments!

By the way - "4 the MTC" do send me a mail or comment with your suggestions and I will only be happy to post it up for you. List some of the issues and your concerns. And to the large number of readers - do keep us in prayer. I am not looking at a bloody revolution but more of one which Gandhi followed as in Non-violence and will keep speaking till the Church is provoked for change.

God Bless!

~o~

4 the MTC said...

I am not the same anonymous user who posted before this....

i would like to mention that we need to include something more to this blog...

we have to bring our issues together in prayer.. i promise to include the reformation of the marthoma church in my daily prayer...

i would like all my fellow christians who have accepted Jesus christ as their personal saviour to make a promise to include this in their prayer...

moreover let us start to mention the reforms we expect from the marthoma church in this blog (i know some of them are mentioned)..

we will hold our hands together for the sustainance of our community in faith.. and money and power should not be our agenda

Alert - another collection on the way!

For all the people who ask what's my qualm about giving for charity - I have none. I am totally good with the idea for giving to charity. But what I do not like is the condescending attitude of how the Church just takes decisions and wants money for hall after hall, ambulances, vans, scooters, bicycles and much more in some Bishop's name.

I guess soon we will have churches named after our Bishops.

Well here is an update on another collection which is coming up! Well you are all free to give - But i ask when did my Church ever care where do i stay or do i need help? I guess it reminds me of the famous words - Look at the log in your eye before you look at the speck of dust in your brother's eye. So far I appreciated the way my Church goes all out to help the world, but some how in it's eagerness to help and get the names of Bishops and Priests on Marble Memorial Slabs - the members are left to fend for them selves.

I have heard a lot how our own members are not given preference even in our own Marthoma Schools and Colleges without coughing up a few lakhs in donation.

Well Christmas is the time for giving and I sure this years the poor people in my neighbourhood is going to get some cake without my business card attached to it!

~o~

Church to build houses for the poor

The Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar will donate 1,500 houses to the homeless poor in different parts of the State as part of the 90th birthday celebrations of the Mar Thoma Metropolitan, Philipose Mar Chrysostom. In a statement here on Tuesday, Zacharias Mar Theophilus Suffragan Metropolitan said the beneficiaries of the scheme would be selected without caste and religious considerations. He said the keys of the first 90 houses under the project would be handed over to the beneficiaries at Thiruvilla on April 27, 2007, the birthday of Mar Chrysostom.

He said the fund required for the housing project would be mobilised from among the church members in different parts of the world. The housing project committee had opened its office at the Olivette Bishop's House in Chengannur and P.T. Thomas had been nominated the committee convenor.

~o~

Where is the Light of the Church to Lighten ?

Hi Readers,

I got this from Chris as a comment and since a lot of people don't read the comments, I have taken the liberty to post this as a blog entry. From here on it is all Chris, another like minded marthomite who feels change is needed! Thanks Chris! God Bless. A big welcome to all the readers from around the world logging in to read! Comments would be welcome!

~ o ~

I dont believe and I dont agree with everything that the Mar Thoma church teaches - but I pay the annual membership fees, so am I a Mar Thomite. Im not sure myself.
However I do feel its time for the bishops to make it mandatory that the services be held in English in every place outside Kerala (yes, even among mallus!). Holding onto tradition (language is now a tradition, I dont know when that happened, but it is) when it doesnt help in the growth of the church is ridiculous. I left the church a few years back because it had nothing to offer me -
1 I didnt understand what was going on (not least because I didnt understand Malayalam). If they are so insistent on being traditional I suggest they go back to holding the service in Greek (because Malayalam is greek for the younger generation and it will be closer to what the New Testament Church practised!). If the priests cant be bothered to learn and hold the service in English, dont expect the younger congregation to learn and attend the service in malayalam.
2 I have never heard the Gospel being preached (I was not saved in the Mar Thoma church).
3 I have never enjoyed worship (I didnt even know there were songs other than hymns and choruses till I left the church).
4 The Sunday School left me full (I had had enough) of, not hungry for - the Word of God. I didnt learn the Word, I learnt stories from it and noone ever told me how it related to Christ. I speak this not as an ignorant irresponsible fellow who never listened in Sunday School - I speak this as someone who won almost all the 1st or 2nd prizes for every Memory verse competition and Sunday school exam there ever was in one of the biggest Mar Thoma churches -the Kuwait Mar Thoma Church.
5 Apologetics (like Explanations of Alleged Discrepancies in the Bible), Doctrines (lke Salvation, Baptism) and Traditions (I mean the necessity of the Smoke and the uniform of the priests and the bishops) were never explained.
6 I left the church a few years back because it had nothing to offer me. I have returned to the church now because it has nothing to offer anyone and I wanted to help out.

After having read this, Im sure a lot of you will think me to be a pompous fellow, but what I have written is the truth. The youth want to learn the Word of God. The youth want to understand the service. The youth want to participate. The youth have left our church because the church offers nothing. Under the guidance of Rev Philip Simon, the Manipal Bethel Home church has grown by leaps and bounds in attracting the youth in just a matter of months. I hope that the other achens ask him how he did it and at least try and replicate it, if not find a formula of their own. God bless you all and I hope this site makes a difference for the future of the youth (I am not 50 myself!).

~ o ~

The Church and its court cases!

The Episcopal Elections in 2005, as most of the church members know had its fair share of issues and fiasco's. I was there in person to see the hilarious nature in which our Church administration handled the issue.

The story in short was that there were two achens shortlisted to become Episcopa and then one of them lost in the final count. What turned out to be an embarrassment, just before the elections was a court case filed against Rev. K.V. Varkey who was the Vicar of Maramon Parish. He was the same Achen who lost the elections. There was a case filed on his behalf by certain people. The case as usual was handled without serious thought.

Think about it the so called sacred consecration of Bishops are now no better than the Bush-Al Gore Elections in Florida.

Read and enjoy! Comments are welcome.

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Hearing commenced on the court case filed by Jomini Mary Abraham seeking elevation of Rev. K.V. Varkey as a Bishop.

Rev. Varkey also filed an affidavit pointing out mistakes on the part of our Metropolitan and seeking "justice".

In the appeal filed by Jomini in the sub-court, there was some set back for the Church, as our lawyers did not defend the case properly.

There is an apprehension in peoples' mind whether the same thing will repeat.

Rev. Cherian Thomas appeared as part of the proceedings last Tuesday. If our lawyers do not handle tithe case properly or support Varkey achen's cause indirectly, there is every possibility that Mar Paulose's election may be reversed. That can create havoc in the Church.

Who is a Marthomite?

Yes! A simple question, I plead of you to ask yourself ?

For a Church which boasts of 2000 years of history - it might have been a very easy question to answer. But ask the average marthomite youth and you will find conflicting answers.

Is it because there is nothing called a marthomite identity? What can the Mar Thoma Church claim other than its so called link to St. Thomas - not to forget which is also claimed by every other Christian faction in Kerala (Syrian Christians) .

There was a time when the Mar Thoma Church had great leaders, who made an impact on society and took the Word of God to the outside world. There were leaders which inspired the society at large and dictated how the community lived. Marthomites became synonymous with honest hardworking people.

This community rose in social hierarchy, educated their women, entered positions of power for their honesty, led reforms, and became shining examples to a larger society which was to learn and respect this tiny yet foresighted minority. The marthomites went to foreign shores as teachers, civil servants, agriculturists, nurses and several 'service based professions'.

Today with more than 65% of marthomites settled outside Kerala, there is a clash of the generations. For the new generations who have been born and raised outside Kerala, the obstinate and unaccommodating stance of the Church in addressing several issues is beyond understanding.

The Church maintains it is a Kerala and Malayalam based church. Yet a rising number of young members do fall under this bracket and are neither affiliated to Kerala or speak the native language of the church - Malayalam. Then again in a feeble attempt, over the last few years a priest was assigned for the youths outside kerala - as a Outside Kerala Youth League Secretary. This however is limited to working in Bangalore and inside India. The Middle East or other Europe or Northern American parishes are thought of nothing more than money banks to fill the coffers of the Kerala Institutions and the Church.

The real issue here is that the Church or its leadership do not have a clear vision on what the future of the community is. There is no official stance of the Church on homosexuality, genetic cloning, war in Iraq, political situation in India (anything outside Kerala will be welcome), acceptance of other churches and faiths.

There is a general feeling that the Church is a train running in full speed without a driver. There is danger of derailing if there is no serious attempt to do something and turn the tide of this downslide.

More in the next post....... Comments welcome!