Creation Groans for Liberation www.csi1947.com 2 June 2020 Express the Peace of God in Anxious Times EDITOR’S DESK Such as this! reetings to you in the name from God, and not from the world. and improve the present eco- of Lord Jesus Christ! We can always trust Him because standards. When individuals take G He is still on the throne. We may sharp decisions on conserving In the past few months, not always understand the details our environment that gives long people all around the world have of God’s plan, but we know that term results. Many of the practical become familiar with COVID-19 His plans are perfect and has also things we can do are not difficult, and it has caused great fear and experienced it. rather it is beneficial to us and concern by many. While India others. battles the COVID 19, the desert We are challenged to redirect our locust, a voracious grasshopper on focus from anxiety and panic to Our responsibility in raising its part has caused tremendous love and preparation. The present young children in the present havoc. Another incident that crisis presents an extraordinary circumstances: broke our hearts is that in a opportunity to augment our love country claiming to be the first and care for our neighbours, fellow We are blessed to be in a time in the world, to be founded on human beings and nature. We where we can connect each other equality, George Floyd was killed can do this only when we rely on through the technology available, ruthlessly. On the street, his cries God. Such reliance reduces fear, especially when we are called to for help were not answered, but increases faith, and reorients our stay-in and distance ourselves his killing was recorded. His death call to serve others. from others. The COVID-19 has triggered intensive outrage pandemic has forced many even amongst religious leaders and Our responsibility towards sectors to shift their bases online groups. The Bible teaches us to nature in the present including education, where many love our neighbours because we all circumstances: teaching institutions have started are His beloved children, therefore teaching their students through our brothers and sisters. Jesus, We do not know whether the online platforms. the Son of God, when He was on climate change is influencing the this earth he goes to Samaria and spread of COVID-19, but we do In recent days, schools have he sits down at a well. And he know that climate change alters started to take classes using the looks up at a marginalised outcast how we relate to other species on internet and television. In the woman, who was despised by the the Earth and that matters to our Indian context, internet access is religious leaders and asks her for health and our risk for infections. not available to everyone. Already a drink. As we are called to follow Many positive things also have there is a wide gap in providing His footsteps, let our love towards been taken place during this equal opportunities to students other fellow beings penetrate lockdown period. Our continuous studying in State Government irrespective caste, creed and efforts to reduce air pollution syllabus and other syllabuses. In colour. caused by burning fossil fuels like addition to the existing disparities, coal, oil and natural gas also helps digital learning, which has now In such anxious circumstances, keep our lungs healthy will protect been imposed even on Government we are expected to express the us from respiratory infections like school students, will further peace of God. “You keep him in coronavirus. Another measure is divide and widen the gap between perfect peace whose mind is stayed generating electricity sources like the haves and the have-nots. on you, because he trusts in you. wind and solar, thus decreasing Providing education to children Trust in the Lord forever, for the harmful air pollutants that put is the duty of the Government. Lord God is an everlasting rock. - further strains on our health. Once the Government plans to Is 26:3-4”. As our peace comes We are challenged to upkeep provide education through online www.csi1947.com June 2020 3 or distance mode, it should God. In these circumstances, the also ensure that each child responsibilities and challenges of gets access to the education it the facilitators of Sunday School provides. Earlier this month, are further increased. I urge the nation was shocked to hear the Sunday School Directors that a girl in Kerala studying in and Teachers to use creative Class X ended her life allegedly methods to inspire our children because she did not have access to experience God’s presence and to online/television classes. The guidance in their day-to-day lives, underprivileged students from by obeying to His commandments. remote and far-flung areas who lack necessary infrastructure or Church after lockdown facilities will be severely affected by the online learning and it I am sure that we all will join the shall have long-term ill effects psalmist to gladly say I was glad in their career. Because of the when they said unto me, let us uncertainty on the possibility of go into the house of the Lord. lives of people back into normalcy Ps. 122:1. Once the Government after the COVID 19 attack, other permits to re-open the Churches, states also may adapt to the online we will be eager to sprint into the classes for students. Hence, we Church. Considering the present are challenged to take efforts to pandemic situation, which is still bridge the gaps, thus those who in an aggressive mode, we should are deprived with opportunities discipline ourselves by strictly shall be elevated. A highly obeying the norms and guidelines commendable relief work has been provided by the Government. Such done by various dioceses and instructions and pieces of advice local congregations of the Church are for our welfare and should not of South India by providing be viewed differently. We should food, cash, medicines, sharing also adopt new methods in serving hospital wards and institutions the Eucharist ensuring the safety for quarantine etc. during the of the congregational members lockdown. An immediate attention and to avoid communal infections. to the deprived students should be At this crucial period, let us look the next step the Church should to the sovereign God, who has take. We can work along with the promised to be with us at all times state governments to achieve this to guide us. goal. Let me stop this letter with a On the other hand, students who sincere prayer, that the God of have access to the internet for all mercies, be compassionate online education are on the verge towards his people and protect of temptation to use the internet them from all evil. for the pleasures that this world has spread-out. The situation C. Fernandas Rathina Raja being so, it is our responsibility General Secretary, CSI. to train our children to discern between good and not-good. Parents cannot be with them all the time to control what they watch or do. Children, whether alone or with friends, must learn to stand up and say NO to certain things. This attitude can only be developed in children by thorough training and disciplining them according to the Word of www.csi1947.com 4 June 2020 COVID-19 and Beyond

1. Introduction Failure of science to stop coronal is no indication that science has wenty first century humans failed. Those who expect faith and stand helpless before religion to heal all illness on earth Tthe covid-19 pandemic. are entertaining inappropriate Currently, science and medicine expectations. The inability to stop have no preventive and no cure corona simply reveals that both for the disease. Religion, to which science and religion are limited. people turn in crises, also stands Being limited does not make them helpless in preventing Covid. The irrelevant. Finite science may, ‘miracle healers’ in all religions, therefore, work towards a cure who usually promise assured relief or preventive. Religion may help cannot even be traced. Some are humanity cope with the disease. using the opportunity to mock Religion may also help humanity religion and faith by pointing out reflect on the morality and ethics that the community is missing of the way of life of 21st century nothing due to the closure places humans. Raising questions of worship. Science and religion about the appropriateness of the alike are currently caught helpless. philosophy of life of a community, Humans like it when they are and of the morality and ethics of potent and in control. Presently, a community are an important Corona is the victor and humans function of religion. While being are the vanquished. Corona is limited and finite, both science telling us the plain truth that we and religion have contributed are finite and limited beings. Both enormously to human welfare in science and religion are challenged the past. Presently, they both hold to redefine themselves within the the potential to bring relief from boundaries of human finitude. the pandemic in their own different ways. Accepting human finitude 2. Finite Humans are Still and the limitations of science and Rev. Dr. Abraham Resourceful religion protect us from holding Kuruvilla is an ordained inappropriate expectations about minister of the Mar Neither science nor religion can science or religion and consequent Thoma Church, formerly take away human finitude. At the disillusionment. Clergy Trustee of the same time, science and religion Mar Thoma Church may help humanity actualise its 3. Humans and the cosmos and Principal, Mar potentials. Despite being finite, Thoma Theological humans are highly creative. Humans are a part of the cosmos Seminary, Kottayam, Since science and religion are created by God and found good. and Director, TMA both limited, scientific theories The cosmos is a harmony in Institute of Counselling, are continuously replaced which each element of creation is Kottayam. He serves as by newer theories. So also influencing every other element the Secretary, CNI-CSI- religions continuously reform and is being influenced in return. MTC Joint Council, and themselves to come up with newer God created the harmony by the member of the Faith understanding of God and more successive differentiation and then and Order Commission relevant religious practices. While bringing together the differentiated of the World Council of humans are finite beings, there is opposites to create a harmony. Churches. enough in humans to take pride. Light and darkness, day and night, There is no need for science and land and sea are opposites created scientists to be embarrassed by God but are brought together to about the inability to stop corona. form a harmony which was found www.csi1947.com June 2020 5 to be good, very good. The universe human task was to nurture the indispensible limits necessary is a harmony, a fellowship in interconnections, keep it grow, and for the maintenance of harmony. which the opposites are held thereby keep it good. Any harmony Through his interventions, God is together in tension. No element of will stay good only so long as the encountering humans to recognize God’s creation can claim intrinsic components stay within the limits that the craving for dominion goodness isolated from the whole. required to promote the harmony. alienates and deprives while the Goodness emanates from the The account of human fall in limits, as part of a harmony, togetherness, from the fellowship, Genesis tells us that the snake liberate and enrich. Because of the from the harmony. If any element creates doubts about the goodness interventions of God, world history is isolated from the harmony, the of the limits God set. In effect and salvation history overlap. whole system loses its harmony. the snake is portraying the limits The isolated as well as the on humans as taking away from 5. The Craving for Dominion and remainder lose their goodness. human dignity. The snake bluffs the Drive for Exploitation The interacting harmony has that violating the limits opens the also the potential for growth. It way to becoming Godlike. The The craving for dominion makes is not static, but dynamic. The snake is defining limitation as humans blind. Human resources, commission God gave to humans draining dignity and limitlessness particularly the resources of to rule over creation has to be as upgrading dignity, to be on par science and technology, have been understood both in the context with God. The temptation is to abused for exploitation all through of the interactive nature of the dominate and break loose from history. Those with superior harmony as well as the dynamic the relationships and limits that technology utilize it to exploit and progressive nature of the are essential for the maintenance those lower down in technological harmony. The prohibition on of harmony. However, humans development. During the industrial eating the fruit of the tree in the realized the bitter truth that revolution those who had access to middle of the garden is symbolic breaking loose to dominate drains the tools of science and technology of a prohibition on despotic rule humans of their humanity as well used it to exploit the poor in each over the garden. There are limits as the divine image. Detached country. The same resources were operating on the commission from the harmony, human life is used by the European countries given to humans to rule over the cursed and isolated. The rest of to establish colonial rule across garden. These limits are the key the harmony God created is also the globe and exploit, oppress to maintaining the harmony of accursed. and dominate those they ruled creation. over. The people were treated God does not consider loss like slaves and the resources of 4. The Craving for Dominion is of harmony as a reason for these countries were plundered. the Core of Evil. abandoning creation. God Industrial revolution was a period intervenes to restore harmony. of rapid scientific advancement The mandate given to humans These are interventions by as well as ruthless exploitation. is the nurture of a garden with God to invite humans back The end of the colonial era did not harmonious interconnections. into the fellowship, into the mark the end of exploitation. In The goodness or harmony harmony of creation. The the post colonial era globalization continues only so long as the invitation is to recognize the simply enabled the continuation interconnections are good. The goodness of the harmony and the of domination, exploitation and www.csi1947.com 6 June 2020 plundering through the multi- in transport, communication ignored the impact of the pollution national corporations. In this new and satellite technology have of air, water and even the outer era of globalization, the rulers intensified human exploitation to space on themselves and other of the developing countries are cover the whole of planet Earth creatures. Humans also ignored simply pawns in the hands of and all its inhabitants. Expanded the impact of the destruction of the MNCs. The rulers dance to and intensified exploitation the habitat of flora and fauna on the tune of the MNCs, yielding has resulted in the Earth being the harmony of the universe. The to policy decisions that facilitate wounded by humans as at no time threat to the survival of humanity continued exploitation of the before. Primitive humans were was ignored. The climate change people and the resources of the helpless against the fury of the and its impact on the living and developing countries by the richer elements of nature. The balance the non-living were also ignored. countries. The MNCs are like of power is now tilted so much in The exploitative mind of humans giant trees with their trunk in favour of humans that the Earth failed to take into account the the first world and the network of and the inhabitants of the Earth ground reality that humans roots in the developing countries are simply toys for humans to cannot survive wounding the eco- to suck away their resources. play with. The human craving for system. Armed with the tools of In this era of globalization unlimited exploitation assumes science and technology, humans colonialism continues under a that humans are mandated to have become arrogant enough to mask. The need of the globe is a exploit the Earth at will. Humans deliberately present a deaf ear to new international economic order indiscriminately deformed the the groaning of mother Earth and which ensures greater justice to earth, polluted air and water, of fellow creatures. The dominating less wealthy countries and those destroyed forests and inundated mind of humans assumed that with lower levels of technological the habitat of tribals and wildlife higher the ability to exploit, higher development. by building huge dams. Such the dignity of humans. The role indiscriminate exploitation of of respectful and responsible 6. Earth as the Victim of Human the Earth has destabilized the relationship towards planet Domination ecosystem so much so that Earth, mother to all creatures, human life itself is becoming and towards other creatures was The rapid advances in science impossible on earth. The warning ignored. and technology have made of environmental scientists that humans to go beyond exploiting the Earth and its other inhabitants 7. Covid-19: A Voice of Protest other humans to impoverish the are capable of responding and Earth and all its inhabitants. reacting to human invasions was Utilizing the tools of science The revolutionary changes consistently ignored. Humans and technology, humans have

www.csi1947.com June 2020 7 brutally wounded mother Earth start relating respectfully to Earth soul. The compassion of God and destroyed the habitat of other and its inhabitants. offered community to lepers, earthly beings. Humans have people branded as sinners, the failed to lend a listening ear to the 8. Incarnation: God’s Invitation Samaritans and all other non-Jews groaning of mother Earth and its to Harmony who were denied fellowship by the inhabitants. The current reality is Jewish community. In addition, that human domination of planet When humanity is facing a Jesus challenged the validity Earth is so complete that space pandemic which has turned of many Jewish customs and is denied to other creatures. The upside down the world of humans, traditions which denied fellowship Earth is home not only for humans it is appropriate for us to reflect to marginalized humans. The but also for the innumerable on the meaning of the crisis. It is beliefs such as sickness is the inhabitants of the Earth who all appropriate for faith communities result of sin, non-Jews stand contribute in unique ways to the to do this reflection on the basis rejected by God, the land of harmony of the planet. We have of their faith. We may look at the Samaria and the Samaritan invaded their homes and have crisis from the perspective of God people are unclean, healing on denied them food and shelter. as incarnate in the world. Through the Sabbath is a violation of Mother Earth is groaning in pain incarnation God is actually the Law, women should not be that it is not able to support all inviting humanity to give up the taught spiritual truths, were all its children. Any living organism path of domination and join in the creating painful exclusion. Jesus acts in defence when survival is creation of harmony. By choosing therefore challenges such beliefs threatened. Is Covid-19 a united to be human and choosing to by defying them. Jesus defied front in self defence put up by be limited, God makes a choice the belief system of the Jews and mother Earth and all its other opposite to that of primitive the rituals and traditions of the children against the violence of humans in the Garden of Eden. Jews. Thereby Jesus included humans? So it seems. Covid-19 God is giving us the message that the excluded in the fellowship of has grounded our airplanes, ships, being human is not below the God. However, precisely for these trains and all forms of public dignity of God. Human existence, actions, the Jewish hierarchy transport. Factories are shut with all its limitations, is good excluded Jesus. Moreover, down. It has also shut us inside enough and dignified enough for they moved in the direction of our homes, forcing us to retreat God. Within the human body of domination and suppression by from our conquest of the Earth. Jesus there is space enough for plotting to kill Jesus. How Jesus Corona is challenging us to reflect the fullness of God to dwell in (Col. reacted and responded to these on the unjust and exploitative 2:9). moves to exclude him socially and international economic order, exclude him from the face of the oppression and exploitation of Incarnation, the choice of self Earth is of vital importance for us. poorer countries and the poor of limitation, has many dimensions How to include those who exclude the earth. Corona is also forcing to it. Within the limitations of was the challenge Jesus faced. us to rethink our invasion of the being human, God revealed the Counter exclusion was not an habitat of earthly being and the fullness of his compassion. This option for Jesus. Jesus confronted wounds inflicted on the Earth, compassion drew people into the oppressive and excluding home for all of us. I believe God the fellowship of God offering mind of the Jews powerfully and wants us to stop conquering and people healing in body mind and challenged all humans, including www.csi1947.com 8 June 2020 his critics within Judaism, to come back to the bliss of being rethink and turn to an inclusive finite humans. God. Jesus enjoyed the freedom to be a critic of Jewish hierarchy 9. From Domination to as well as the Roman Governor, Communion Pilate. This he did right through his life, including his trial. They If the attitude of conquest and the were all invited to change their resultant alienation from creation ways of thinking and acting to be is at the root of the present on the side of God to work towards pandemic, it is appropriate to restoring the divine harmony. think where humans need to change. In the context of this On the face of stiff opposition pandemic which has left over three Jesus continued to be lakhs dead (so far) and brought compassionate as well as human life across the globe to a confronting. Both ways were grinding halt, it is appropriate to combined to redirect the world think of the range of appropriate to an inclusive God and to the responses of humans. Let me harmony towards which God propose that human response is directing his world. Through is called for at three levels: (1) his acts of compassion and Repentance, (2) Coping and (3) confrontation Jesus challenged Healing. Let us look at all three his contemporaries to change, briefly: to repent. The repentance God demands through Jesus involves Repentance a movement away from injustice to justice. Jesus challenged Repentance involves a humans to update their standards fundamental shift in our belief of justice to include justice to all system, behaviour and emotions humans and the entire created leading to fulfilling relationships order. Jesus demanded justice with self, others, the eco system neither pushing it down their and to the ground of all being, throats nor pointing a gun at God. Repentance may be an them. God is determined about intense personal experience. At his goals and his strategy which times it may be corporal when a involved voluntary change. The human community may choose offering of the life of Jesus Christ to change their belief system, is the price God willingly paid for behaviour and emotions. The his determination to bring about present pandemic is an occasion voluntary changes in humans. for the entire humanity to examine This is why the gospels portray its foundational beliefs, behaviour the death of Christ as the ‘ransom’ and associated emotions. paid by God. (Mk.10:45) Full of Repentance in the context of a compassion and full of protest, pandemic like the present one has right till the end, Jesus died a personal, structural and ecological triumphant death. That is reason dimensions which are inter- enough for Paul to declare that related. the ‘principalities and powers’ of this world were crucified and made Primitive humans understood a public mockery on the cross. themselves as helpless before (Col.2:15) The victory of those who the natural forces. Technological crucified Jesus remains hollow advancements have led post and the cross of Christ remains modern humans to believe that triumphant. From that cross we are masters or rulers over the Jesus beckons twenty first century world around. Humans had almost humans to give up their pursuit come to believe that making of oppression and domination and nature an obedient servant www.csi1947.com June 2020 9 of humans is our birthright. of the people and resources of and water, protection for wild life Humans almost began to think developing countries will continue and regulation in the exploitation of themselves as omnipotent, unhindered. Air and water will of non-renewable natural powerful enough to manipulate at continue to be polluted. The resources. Repentance will also be will anything around. Repentance beautiful creatures on land, air marked by more just international calls for a change in this false and water, who proclaim the politico-economic relationships sense of omnipotence and accept glory of God, will continue to be our finitude. Legitimate repentance dominated and destroyed. The Coping will help us accept that we are not Earth will continue to be deformed rulers but care takers. Since we through indiscriminate mining Humans are challenged to cope are care takers, our ethics need and explorations. The habitat of when our mental constructions to be updated to include justice primitive human communities and about life on earth crumble. to the Earth and to all earthly wild animals will continue to be From time to time this happens beings. Only such updated ethics swallowed by huge dams. to individuals and communities. will help us practice eco-justice. Natural disasters, human made Repentance based on an updated Genuine repentance will mark disasters and personal tragedies justice system will inspire us a reversal of this process at the are all occasions when we towards a respectful relationship personal, structural and ecological crumble. As we look at human with the environment. In the levels. Changes at the structural history, many things have absence of updated ethics and and ecological levels are possible crumbled around us and we have morals, right and wrong will be only when appropriate political coped. When things crumble, decided by the old ethics, based decisions are made for each victims may collapse or cope. The on our false omnipotence. The country. However an international pandemic has led to a massive risk of going back to the false consensus will need to be evolved collapse of most things we are omnipotence will be enhanced as to address many issues related to accustomed to. The massive and when medicines or preventives ecology. International consensus collapse ranges from the loss of are developed against covid-19. plus national level policy decisions freedom to meet others face to It will permit indiscriminate are a must for enduring reversal face and shake hands or hug. exploitation of the earth. We might of the onslaught on planet Earth, The collapse is also seen in the continue to believe that humans the pollution of air and water and breakdown of international trade are entitled to exploit the earth as the destruction of forests and wild and travel. Deprived of familiar we please. From there on, we will life. Repentance at a personal level freedom, human life has virtually be tempted to go on triumphantly also becomes important because come to a grinding halt. celebrating the conquest of appropriate policy decisions covid. We will then be licensed may be sabotaged by powerful On the face of such massive to continue our domination and individuals with vested interests collapse of our familiar world, exploitation against planet Earth and by groups with vested coping first of all involves enduring and its inhabitants. In that interests. Evidence for repentance the pain of our losses. As a triumphant mood the exploitation will be manifest through purer air result of the pandemic, different segments of people have suffered different losses. Within each segment, the range and depth of losses vary widely. The massive loss of life to the tune of over three hundred thousand so far means grief of a very special kind. Many died without a chance to bid bye to dear ones. Many lost the bread winner of the family. One of the very tragic consequences in India is the loss of job for the urban poor. Unable to survive in the cities, many set out on foot to their village homes. The story of eviction of several lakhs of our unfortunate brothers and sisters is one of the most tragic in the www.csi1947.com 10 June 2020 history of independent India. They who are struggling to cope and to fellow human beings and the eco- are refugees in their motherland. reach out to them. Reaching out to system is far more important than Many die on the road, not reaching them will involve both reaching out the possessions. In fact we never their destination. Several lakhs with financial assistance, where possess anything. Things God gave of Indians in the Middle East are necessary, and offering emotional us to nurture people and nurture losing their jobs or are under and social support. the earth were misunderstood as threat of losing their job. Their private possessions. The crisis is future looks bleak and the loss When grief is experienced and an opportunity to break free from again is huge. The impact on world finished those in crisis will be in a this faulty view of possessions. economy and national economies position to assess what resources Those of us who want to help the is beyond imagination. The they have to cope effectively with victims of the pandemic must pandemic has resulted in losses of the crisis. Usually, when the first of all shake free from the unprecedented magnitude. debilitating emotions are finished, faulty view of what makes human the brain works with far better life worthy. Then only the carers Every loss, big or small, involves clarity. People will be able to will be able to see the victims pain. Coping involves gaining assess what resources are left as worthy despite the losses. In strength to grieve, experience the for them despite the losses. A other words a deep repentance in pain and finish or minimize the significant part of this assessment this matter by the care givers is a pain. Coping becomes possible only is a mental reconstruction of our pre-requisite for them to qualify when pain is substantially finished. world. In this consumerist world themselves as a helpers. In the Some succeed in handling the we are trained to value a human midst of huge losses, an important pain on their own. Others struggle being on the basis of possessions. resource for the victims is a either because the magnitude When wealth and possessions community around which, despite of loss is excessive or because are lost we are trained to see the losses, values them as human their personality resources are such persons as less worthy. In beings created and redeemed by a moderate or inadequate. Regardless addition to wealth, our social loving God. In addition, we have a of the reason, they all need help status, power and authority, and God who, through the sufferings and the help has to come from health are all indicators of our of his own Son shared our pain the community. An important personal worth. Significant loss in and coped with it exceedingly well. responsibility of all of us is to any of these areas is a threat to Communion with him is indeed identify persons and groups who are our sense of worth. When the pain the most vital resource for all who struggling to grieve and struggling of the loss in any or all of these suffer, regardless of caste and to cope. As our brothers and sisters areas is diminished, it prepares creed. A supporting community come back from abroad and from the way for us to reassess the that values the victims is a other states, the churches are to source of our personal worth. Our great resource for the victims to organize necessary resources to losses are also an opportunity to reconstruct their lives using what help those struggling to cope. We relocate our source of worth in is left for them in terms of material need a system to identify those God. Our relationship with God, things as well as relationships. www.csi1947.com June 2020 11 May this pandemic become an opportunity die as healed persons. of Christ. Being in Christ releases opportunity for the whole world to healing resource within us through rethink about the source of human What does all this mean for a comprehensive reconciliation. worth. healing in the context of Covid-19? Being in Christ also heals us from In as much as there is deep the fear of covid and face up the Healing alienation between humans, and threat. Being ‘in Christ’ has many the rest of creation, Covid-19 is faces. ‘In Christ’ we are recipients Healing is an act of God and a a call to all humans to enhance of the healing grace of God and human response. Repentance their level of reconciliation with are objects of God’s healing. ‘In facilitates healing. In repentance the environment. Keeping the Christ’ we are healed to be agents we amend our ways of thinking, house, keeping the environment of healing to many who are victims acting and feeling so that and keeping our relationships of covid and recover to be the relationships are harmonized. healthy and clean are acts of servants of Jesus on earth for the Healing is part of this harmony. repentance. Caring for the trees, rest of their lives. In Christ we However, we also see the reverse planting ornamental plants and are healed to take up the cross order in the ministry of Jesus. vegetables all add to our level of and endure cross as a testimony Jesus healed on several occasions reconciliation. Offering care and against the exploitation of God’s when the sick person did not love to all humans across caste, earth and its inhabitants. ‘In request for healing and did not creed and economic status and Christ’ we are also healed to die, indicate any sign of faith. Jesus treating them all as persons of should we succumb to covid or simply took the initiative to heal true dignity and worth is also any other illness. When we are in by intruding into the life of the an act of repentance leading to Christ, we are with him in the joy sick. However, it may be noted reconciliation. Accepting the of the kingdom and the sufferings that Jesus himself understood unconditional love of God in the for the kingdom. We take up the healing as a sign of the Kingdom midst of our moral shortcomings unavoidable cross involved in that of God. Jesus began his ministry is also an act of repentance and intimate oneness with Christ. by announcing the Kingdom and reconciliation. Those who are down Protection from Corona, healing then calling people to repentance with covid as well as those who from corona dying due to corona befitting the Kingdom. Hence are walking around unaffected by all involve that experience of being the healing that Jesus offered covid are all invited to examine in Christ. We live or die as persons at his own initiative are acts their belief system, behavioural healed by Christ of proclaiming the gospel non- patterns and emotional habits to verbally. Healing, which is the sign check whether repentance is called 10. Conclusion of the kingdom and a non-verbal for. Jesus Christ who walked proclamation of the kingdom, is an around in Palestine and offered God stands committed to restore invitation to repent and believe. So healing to people at his own the harmony of creation and it is both ways: repentance leading initiative is with us right in the to redirect creation to its true to healing and healing leading to midst of covid. Today, of course destiny. He will go to any extent repentance. As repentance and he acts through his servants who to accomplish this goal. This healing meet and merge, we enter could be professionals or simply commitment is demonstrated the blessings of the Kingdom humans who care. Jesus also by his willingness to choose the heals in response to the groaning cross. He also challenges us Obviously, then, some who of humans from across the globe. powerfully from the cross to join were healed by Jesus would As we weep and groan let us him by taking up our cross and not have gone on to repentance remember that there are vital following him in recreating planet and reconciliation and may not areas where we as human race Earth. The crucified one is also have entered the blessings of the are to repent about and amend. the risen one, bearing the marks Kingdom. From the opposite end There are also personal traits and of his wounds, offering us peace it is possible for humans to repent habits that need amendment for and to move, with the doubting and be reconciled with God and us to grow in reconciliation. At his Thomas, from disbelief to faith. He nature and yet may not be healed own initiative and in response to challenges us to a comprehensive in body. All humans have to go our repentance, Jesus Christ is repentance. He also invites us to through this experience at least still healing. We are drawn into his cope by reconstructing our lives once. This is because we are all healing power by being in Christ. and to be healed to live or die. mortal and hence die one day. We IN the midst of covid we are invited die because we are not healed in to be ‘in Christ’ and experience body. Christian faith gives us the the release of the healing power www.csi1947.com 12 June 2020 BIODIVERSITY

orld environment day 2. God is concerned with theme for this year is biodiversity conservation. Biodiversity. We are W a) Interested in rescuing the celebrating World Environment Day on June 5. The CSI, CNI and human and the non-human. Marthoma churches are observing June 14 as Ecology Sunday. On In the story of Noah’s Ark, we see the backdrop Covid-19, the theme that God is equally interested Biodiversity is relevant. Genesis 1 in rescuing the human and the reminds us that God sees creation non-human from the threat of as good in itself. The story of Noah disaster. The Ark is mostly full of reminds us that God is concerned all the other species – with only with biodiversity conservation. very few human beings on board! Romans 8 confirms that God has God also makes it clear that the plans for the whole creation too. animals, birds and creeping things are not merely included for Noah’s 1. God sees creation as good in sake, but because they have value itself. in their own right. God created everything with an intrinsic At the end of the sixth day, God value and a purpose. They are found that all he had created to be included “to keep their was good. At the end of the various kinds alive throughout creation sequence, God blessed the earth” (Genesis 7.3). In other the Sabbath, as the crown of words, the God who made every the creation. It seems from creature and who sustains all life the Biblical account that God on earth is committed to what unequivocally loves all creation for today we would call ‘biodiversity its own sake, not for our sake… conservation’. Noah was the first “God so loved the world that he great conservationist( Ecologist), gave his only son…” ( John 3:16). but in another sense, he was also As Genesis 1 tells us, the creation the first great missionary. He was reveals God’s character and the first person God gave a specific how he sees what he has made calling and job description too – a – is good and that he makes mission to fulfil. good things. The accounts of the Dr. Mathew Koshy creation in the early chapters b) All components on the earth Punnackad, a former of Genesis emphasis the delight are mutually interconnected or Principal of the God takes in his creation. More dependent on each other for life Bishop Moore College, specifically in Genesis 2.15, Adam and survival Mavelikara, Kerala, is instructed to ‘till and care has been serving as the for’ the earth and many modern Noah’s Ark can be seen as Hon. Director of the interpreters take this in a strong a picture of the planet earth Ecological Concerns sense that we are accountable to today – a planet where all of Department of the God for the care we take over our us are squashed together, Church of South India fellow creatures and our shared often competing for space and Synod. world. Earth is Good because God resources, yet also a planet where pronounces it good. God created God has made enough for all if we everything with an intrinsic value recognise our interdependence. and a purpose. Nothing in the God has made a world where universe is neither waste nor the welfare of each species is useless. Earth is a living creature. dependent on the welfare of many www.csi1947.com June 2020 13 other –where complex ecosystems (v.17). Somehow, our salvation 3. Future purpose for creation interact. We are as dependent on theology as Christians has got healthy ecosystems as the smallest too small. It has mainly focussed Romans 8 reveals that God has a plant or insect … or as the most on God’s saving plans for people future purpose for creation as well! impoverished subsistence farmer like me and me and forgotten According to St. Paul, the creation in a developing country. To take that God might have a bigger itself is waiting to enter the one example, we now realise how picture. Noah reminds us that same freedom that we now have closely our welfare is tied to the God has plans that are far bigger through Jesus. Correspondingly, humble honey-bee. It is estimated than us. As St. Paul tells us in the redemption of creation awaits that bees pollinate 70 % of all Colossians 1, Jesus’ saving work the full redemption of human crops. In the unlikely but scary was “to reconcile to himself all beings (Romans 8:18-23). We event that they became extinct, it things, whether things on earth are called to do two things – to is estimated that many ecosystems or things in heaven, by making help to save the species that He would collapse – and some peace through his bloodshed on has created and to turn from the people claim humanity would be the cross” (Colossians 1.20). ‘All arrogance and idolatry that incurs threatened with extinction too. things’ includes the non-human His judgment. Some people think It illustrates just how closely our creation, reconciled - brought that the disappearance of natural welfare is tied to that of other back into relationship - to God species doesn’t matter that much. parts of God’s creation. Without through Christ’s saving work. God In planning matters, the economy bees, there would undoubtedly asks Job, “Who cuts a channel for often is more important than be no land flowing with milk and the torrents of rain … to water a ecology. Partly as a result of such honey. In God’s creation, all our land where no man lives, a desert a mindset, we are living through relationships within the whole of with no one in it?” (Job 38:25-26). the sixth great extinction in the creation, are essential. God’s purposes within creation history of the earth – and the first are beyond the understanding and to be caused by humans. c) Our salvation theology even the importance of humanity. Today, as habitats and species The current rate of extinction is Moreover, when God sends the suffer around the world, Job 12:7: said to be 100 or even 1,000 times rainbow as a sign of his Covenant ‘But ask the animals, and they will above the natural level. A real promise, it is a promise that teach you, or the birds of the air, sense of the value of God’s creation includes more than Noah and and they will tell you, or speak to would cause us to repent of such his descendants. Time and again the earth, and it will teach you or callous disregard. In our globalised in Genesis9, God repeats that let the fish of the sea inform you’. economy, greedy and abusive his covenant is with ‘every living “The environment is telling us it’s trading practices dispossess creature on earth’, with ‘the earth’ sick”, We would do well to listen both people and natural species. (v.13) and with ‘all life on earth’ more carefully. Destruction of tropical forests

www.csi1947.com 14 June 2020 assaults both indigenous races formed together (Genesis 1:24- We have been privileged to hear and wildlife. Trade-in ivory and 31). Humans, endowed with a good news, and so we renew our ‘bushmeat’ threaten elephants special calling and exclusive commitment to speak that good and primates. Sometimes forests privileges, have a pivotal role in news courageously in a world so are destroyed by people who are the development and well-being of appallingly hungry for it. To speak themselves desperate for land to creation. When we fail, all creation good news to the poorest and the feed themselves and their families. suffers. most vulnerable, to speak good news to the creation abused and In many cases, demand from 4. Share the good news with all exploited by us. If the God of Job the wealthy nations drives the creation and the Lord Jesus Christ and St exploitation both of people and of Paul are right, then our witness in the natural world. For instance, At the end of St Marks’ Gospel, this respect truly is a sign of our the demand for fish has depleted Jesus says to his disciples “Go liberation. And a sign of hope in stocks worldwide. Thus in our and share the good news with the world. world oppression of the poor, all creation.” (Mark 16:15)All such as is denounced by Amos creation. The task of believers is And that’s catching up with us, in his time, is inseparable from not simply to go and communicate catching up with us in terms of the destruction of species and a few ideas to a few promising its practical effects. We see the ecosystems. Rather than just human beings,it is to transform pollution of our oceans, loss of feeling guilty, we can take practical the face of the earth. We are to Biodiversity, and the increase in and political actions towards fair be the bearers of good news for hunger. We are more and more and ecologically responsible trade. the world that God has made. beginning to realise how we have Not for anyone little bit of it, for turned our back on that command Currently, human activities anyone community at the expense of the risen Lord, to be and to are destroying Biodiversity at of others. Not even it seems for carry good news for all of his alarming rates, and these losses humanity at the cost of everything world. We need to ask God to rally are irreversible. In the biblical else in the universe. Good news for us and unite us and inspire us view, the earth and all that fills all creation. And that is why we’re around a vision of universal good it comprise a community. One here, to ask today what is going to news, which is justice for creation of the fundamental errors of our be good news for creation? It looks and justice for God’s human culture is to separate humanity in the last few decades mainly and children also. These two things from the rest of creation. The very perhaps the last few millennia are inseparable. We do not have to term ‘the environment’ suggests as if the human race has on the make some kind of choice between that we are a separate entity, while whole not been very good news looking after human beings and everything else is ‘out there’.That for the rest of creation. “Go...” looking after the planet. We are as is why are using the word Ecology. says Jesus “...share the good human beings, in case you haven’t In the Genesis account of creation, news with every creature, with noticed, creatures. humans and other creatures are everything that has been made. www.csi1947.com June 2020 15 In Job 38:18, we can find that as a nursery and food source To prevent further outbreaks, wonderful reminder of where we for a wide variety of marine life, the experts said, both global stand in creation. God says to provides a home for many fish heating and the destruction of Job with unforgettable fatherly and charismatic animals such the natural world for farming, sarcasm “Have you comprehended as turtles and dugongs, protects mining and housing have to end, the expanse of the earth? Declare coastlines by absorbing wave as both drive wildlife into contact if you know all this.” So we are energy, produces oxygen and with people. There are too many part of a great interwoven system cleans the ocean by soaking up pressures at the same time on our of life. We live because we are polluting nutrients produced on natural systems, and something creatures. We depend on the land by humans. In addition, has to give,” she added. “We are health of the world around us. And seagrass accounts for 10 per intimately interconnected with because of that, the health of the cent of the ocean’s capacity to nature, whether we like it or not. world around us and our long- store carbon—so-called “blue If we don’t take care of nature, term health are not two things but carbon”—despite occupying only we can’t take care of ourselves. one. Let’s not lose sight of that. 0.2 per cent of the seafloor, and And as we hurtle towards a it can capture carbon from the population of 10 billion people on What we have to say is in the atmosphere up to 35 times faster this planet, we need to go into this sharing of good news there is life than tropical rainforests. future armed with nature as our for us, life for our neighbours, life strongest ally.” for the creation in which God has Seagrass and climate placed us. Emergency “The separation of health and environmental policy is a ​ Additional reading on Nevertheless, the potential of dangerous delusion. Our health the WED 2020 theme - seagrasses to sequester carbon is entirely depends on the climate Biodiversity now starting to gain international and the other organisms we share attention as efforts to tackle the planet with.” What is Biodiversity? the climate emergency become ever more urgent. The latest Stories explaining Biodiversity is the variety of life on report by the Intergovernmental the significance of earth. It is essential for sustaining Panel on Climate Change, Biodiversity. the natural living systems or focusing on oceans and the ecosystems that provide us with cryosphere(frozen water part of 1. Interconnected or dependent food, fuel, health, wealth, and the Earth system), points out on each other other vital services. Humans that mangroves, salt marshes are part of this Biodiversity too and seagrass meadows can store (All components in the earth and have the power to protect or up to 1,000 tonnes of carbon are mutually interconnected or destroy it. Currently, our activities per hectare—much higher than dependent on each other for life are destroying Biodiversity at most terrestrial ecosystems. More and survival. Man is not alone, we alarming rates. These losses are countries can include seagrass share this earth with 80 million irreversible, impoverish us all and as part of their box of tools for other species. The relationship damage the life support systems mitigating and adapting to climate between these species is connected we relyon. But we can prevent change. in a complex web of interaction. them. It illustrates just how closely our Corona Virus- Warning from UN welfare is tied to that of other Special Emphasis on World Day Environment chief parts of God’s creation) Environment day 2020 Nature is sending us a message The mosquitoes in Borneo were One of the most threatened with the coronavirus pandemic terrible. On bad days, the people yet overlooked ecosystems on and the ongoing climate crisis, of Borneo would be covered earth, seagrass could have a according to the UN’s environment with mosquito bites. The real promising future thanks to chief, Inger Andersen. Andersen problem with the mosquitoes its ability to absorb carbon. said humanity was placing was that they carried a sickness Seagrass is a flowering marine too many pressures on the called malaria. This meant that plant whose blades form dense natural world with damaging sometimes the people who got meadows in shallow, sheltered consequences and warned that bitten by mosquitoes would get areas along coastlines. It has a failing to take care of the planet really sick or even die. World range of benefits: seagrass acts meant not taking care of ourselves. Health Organization wanted to www.csi1947.com 16 June 2020 stop the people of Borneo from getting sick and dying from malaria. They sprayed DDT all around the villages of Borneo because they knew that would kill the mosquitoes. It worked. The mosquitoes died, and the people stopped catching malaria.

Everything seemed fine, but what the people didn’t know at first was that the mosquitoes weren’t the only insects that the DDT had killed. Some wasps died, too. These were parasitic wasps whose were born. The trouble with rats not only because of the supreme larvae ate caterpillars. Without is that — just like mosquitoes — intelligence and precise timing the wasps, there wasn’t balance in they often carry serious diseases that these elephants sensed about the ecosystem. Because they were which people can catch from them. Lawrence’s passing, but also not there to eat the caterpillars’ Now the people of Borneo worried because of the profound memory worms, the caterpillar population that they might have an outbreak and emotion the beloved animals began to grow and grow. More of the plague or another illness evoked in such an organised way: and more caterpillars were born that could kill lots of people. The Walking slowly, for days, making and they were hungry. They ate, people of Borneo realised they their way in a solemn one-by-one and they ate, and they ate. The needed more cats to bring back queue from their habitat to his problem was, the people of Borneo the balance in their ecosystem. house. lived in houses with thatched Some were borrowed from roofs made out of grasses. That’s neighbouring villages, but they Lawrence’s wife, Francoise, was right, the caterpillars ate holes in still needed more. And that is why especially touched, knowing that the thatched roofs, and soon the in 1959 members of the British the elephants had not been to roofs began to fall in. The people Royal Air Force flew over Borneo his house before that day for well of Borneo replaced the roofs, but in a helicopter and sent 20 cats over three years! But yet they ... (dramatic pause) there was an in parachutes to the ground. Can knew where they were going. The even bigger problem to deal with. you imagine that? Twenty cats in elephants wanted to pay their parachutes — all because nature profound respects, honouring their The wasps weren’t the only insects got out of balance. ( from website) friend who’d saved their lives – so that ate the DDT. Cockroaches much respect that they stayed and other insects did, too. So, the 2. Mutual Care. for two days two nights without cockroaches and other insects eating anything. For two days began to get sick. And these Earth is a balanced and diverse the herds loitered at Anthony’s insects were the food for Borneo’s domain where responsible rural compound on the vast Thula small lizards, the geckos. The more custodians can function as Thula game reserve in the South cockroaches and other insects partners with, rather than rulers African KwaZulu – to say good-bye the geckos ate, the more DDT over. Earth to sustain its balance to the man they loved. Then one got inside the geckos. The geckos and a diverse Earth community. morning, they left, making their started to die, too. long journey back home. On March 7, 2012, Lawrence And the geckos of Borneo were Anthony died. Two days after his Lawrence Antony cared for Wild eaten by cats. That’s right, and death, the wild elephants showed Elephants. Wild Elephants, in the cats began to die. But even up at his home, led by two large return, expressed their care during worse ... the cats were important herds. Separate wild herds arrived the death of Lawrence Antony. because they killed rats. When the in droves to say good-bye to their (from the Book Elephant Whisper) cats died, there wasn’t balance beloved ‘man-friend.’ Lawrence in the ecosystem. There were Anthony. A total of 31 elephants There is SOMETHING IN not enough cats to kill the rats. had patiently walked over 12 THE UNIVERSE IS GREATER So the rat population of Borneo miles to get to his South African AND DEEPER THAN HUMAN grew and grew. The rats began to House. Witnessing this spectacle, INTELLIGENCE. overpopulate. More and more rats humans were obviously in awe www.csi1947.com June 2020 17 A Church-led ‘eco-ministry’ Spreads Sustainable Environmental Education in Southern India

ecology programme affects the poorest people. Climate led by the Protestant change has an impact on health An Church of South also with diseases new to this area India (C.S.I.) is reaching teachers, such as chikungunya infection clergy, students and children with emerging.” education about leading healthy lives, sustainable agriculture, Training ‘green clergy’ and climate change mitigation and teachers to empower learners energy saving. The programme works through The programme, Eco-Ministry schools, training green clergy and of the Church of South India, teachers to empower people to was among nominees for the withstand those challenges. So 2019 UNESCO-Japan Prize far C.S.I imparts education on on Education for Sustainable sustainability through 94 colleges, Development (ESD), which rewards 341 high schools, 1,704 primary outstanding projects as part of schools, 47 technical institutions, UNESCO’s broader work on ESD. 24 para-medical institutions, 14 professional institutions, With more than 4.3 million 50 medical centres and 343 members, the C.S.I. has placed hostels. Between 2014 and 2017, ecological concerns as a key part 100,000 children benefited from of its constitution and mission and the programme with 800 clergy runs a programme to transform and 1270 teachers working as behaviour and systems through educational facilitators. In 2009, engaging, learner-led education. C.S.I. received an award for Long In 1992, it began by establishing a Term Commitment to Protect committee for ecological concerns, the Living Planet from UNDP making it the first church in India and the Alliance of Religions and to do so. Conservation presented by then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- An Article about Church Honorary Director Professor moon. of South India from Mathew Koshy Punnackad said: UNESCO Website, “Our overriding vision is to build “Information and training appeared on 12/02/2020. a better world based on justice, are disseminated in schools Web URL: https:// peace and respect for creation and churches on sustainable en.unesco.org/news/ in all its forms using the values agriculture, healthy lifestyles, church-led-eco-ministry- of sustainability. India is deeply harvesting rainwater, solar energy, spreads-sustainable- affected by climate change, and biogas, the use of sustainable environmental- we are facing both flooding and material, raising awareness education-southern-india drought during the unexpected on climate change mitigation- season due to the cyclones. The adaptation and impact reduction, change in weather pattern affected and tree-planting projects,” said agriculture drastically. All of this Professor Punnackad. www.csi1947.com 18 June 2020 “In schools, we start with a three- month green audit which involves all teachers and students and uses practical methodology to touch on many parts of the official curriculum as, for example, data is produced on how much water is wasted and how to reduce that waste or what are the best plants to grown on campus,” he said.

The audit touches on air, water, energy, waste, land and food, and the evidence is added to create a database for the school. The Green School Programme has empowered students to use natural resources Chennai, a sewage treatment plant to propagate waste management responsibly and efficiently and purifies 20,000 litres of water techniques. optimise energy efficiency. This per day, which is being used, for includes harvesting rainwater; non-groundwater recharging and Last year C.S.I. collaborated propagating plants, which enhance gardening and farming purposes. in organizing an International groundwater recharge and avoid A solar panel grid system installed Conference on ‘Greening the soil erosion; making churches on the rooftop of the centre meets Globe for Sustainable Living’ in plastic-free; planting saplings 65% of electricity consumption. Chennai which was attended by on the church grounds as part more than 380 delegates from of all important functions such Success stories for the 7,000 India and outside who discussed as weddings, funerals, baptism; schools taking part in the Green what religious collectives could do using sustainable construction School Audit include the C.M.S. to tackle the issues of ecological materials to build environment- L.P. School, Mundakayam, conservation. friendly churches to accommodate which took first place in 2016. the maximum expected number The school, located in the state “Our ultimate goal is to build of people. In addition, it promotes of Kerala in the South-West of a new world without pollution the ‘Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, India, raised money for people in and fair social order. Thanks Recycle campaign eliminating Kasargarod, a district of Kerala, to the programme, we see that chemical pesticides on church where the soil and water have been students are changing, and a new campuses and honouring local contaminated by the Endosulfan generation is being built with new farmers; incorporating sustainable pesticide for over 25 years leading values,” said Professor Punnackad. agricultural information into to a rise in cancer cases. Pupils church services; encouraging the devised a puppet show which Education for Sustainable use of public transport to get to toured the 11 districts of Kerala Development empowers people church; and publishing paper to fundraise for those affected and with the knowledge, skills, communication less often. also created a street play to instil attitudes, values and behaviour the value of soil conservation. needed to think and act for a Model centres to see sustainable sustainable future. It is also about living in action Students at the rural C.M.S. Lower including sustainable development Primary School which was placed issues, such as climate change The programme has also second in the audit worked to and biodiversity into teaching established model centres at avoid the use of plastic bottles or and learning. UNESCO promotes Othera in Kerala and C.S.I. Synod any throw-away plastics under and implements ESD at all levels Centre in Chennai where visitors the slogan “Beat Plastic Pollution”. and in all social contexts. In can see sustainable living in Instead of plastic pens, they use India, UNESCO is supporting action. At Othera, the 3.5 acres pens made from wastepaper which communities to empower of land includes an eco-friendly contain a seed so the pen can themselves through community- camp centre with rainwater be buried after use. All students based non-formal education for a harvesting, solar energy, biogas use cloth school bags and the sustainable future. cooking and domestic animals. whole school has adopted a village At the C.S.I. Synod Centre in ward consisting of 400 houses www.csi1947.com June 2020 19 Ekphrasis : Narrativizing visuals and creating metatextuality as a mode of engaging with Art

Understanding Ekphrasis it the burden of bias. Allusions have to be explained or narrated. kphrasis is a Greek term Symbols have to be engaged meaning description. An with and referenced. The pragma Eekphrastic poem is a vivid is recounted and the objects description of a scene or, more too must be detailed in a vivid commonly, a work of art. Through manner. Even sound can be the imaginative act of narrating described or recreated. Ekphrasis and reflecting on the “action” allows for interpretation. The goal of a painting or sculpture, the is to get the reader to envision poet may amplify and expand its the object as if it were physically meaning even positing a theory. present . Adjectives, analogies, similes, metaphors and nouns are Ekphrasis is a process of useful in this pursuit. narrativization that describes visual art often creating in this The process of ekphrasis engages process another text. It dwells in with the subject of description: of the intermediality of the visual fact, place, time, objects, events and verbal. It transforms the and effects. Once these elements audience into spectators of the of the visual are identified and events, thus recreating the scene analysed. or event captured in the visual. It is employed as a technical The process of narrativizing the mechanism of rhetoric and can work commences. A narrative Dr. Shobana P. transmit mythological, historical comprises: Setting, Characters, Mathews is an English and cultural information. Plot, Point of View, Conflict, Professor at Christ Theme, Narrative Arc and University in Bangalore. It offers a method of approach Linguistic Devices. She is a prolific writer to texts of antiquity or where who has interest in Art. meaning-making is difficult due In Keats’ ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, to the lack of resources other visual vividness is achieved This paper was than the work itself. It has thus through interrogating and asking presented at the Art the potential to be a method of questions that the reader must Camp Organised by knowledge dissemination. perforce engage with. Thus, the Communication the reader, by confronting the Department of the Ekphrasis as a Metatextual cultural reality of the narrator, Church of South India narrative mode is transported to the place of the in July 2019 in the event and becomes a participant CSI Synod Centre in Detailing of the visual often in this act of telling. In this case, Chennai. creates a point of view, a the reader is transported to perspective and focalises the plot Keats’s reading of the visuals on sequencing. In other words, the the panels of a marble urn that story is told through a certain he beheld in the British Museum. perspective which carries with By referencing the natural www.csi1947.com 20 June 2020 and organic elements :‘sylvan imprint the intricate descriptions Functions of Ekphrasis: historian’, ‘leaf fring’d legend’, onto the reader’s memory. The ‘beneath the trees, happy happy personification of the urn as the Apart from retelling visuals by boughs that cannot lose Your ‘unravish’d bride of quietness’, verbal recreation, ekphrasis leaves’, ‘with forest branches ‘foster-child of silence and slow becomes an important mode of and the trodden weed’ that are time’, ‘sylvan historian’ act as a art analysis and interpretation. If intricately carved so much so that new representation of the myth one abides by the notion that the they seem to be braided (‘brede’) he reinventing the function of the ‘author is dead’(Barthes), in this gives us an almost tactile sensory object. case the artist is inaccessible, this experience of the texture of the method helps a reader make sense panels of the urn, each bordered As Keats circumambulates the of a work of art by contextualising by vines and boughs . Urn, he draws his reader with it beyond its context. him not only close to the Urn, but He focusses his musings on two to the inspiration for the visuals Ekphrasis also becomes a mode particular scenes, the lovers, and depicted on the urn. The reader of engaging with text through the town that is celebrating a is invited to wonder at what town confrontation of details and festival. has emptied itself of its people, by imbuing a sense of textual who these lovers are, and why logic. The reader, by verbally Keats raises a series of rhetorical these throngs are pouring into interrogating the visual narrative, questions that evoke the the streets as they follow the and by the ensuing sequence of envisioning of a scene before the mysterious priest leading a heifer thought, creates another text, the readers’ eyes: lowing to the skies. ekphrastic text.

“Who are these coming to Interestingly Keats evokes a sense Some examples of ekphrastic the sacrifice? of aurality by using a sound writing are: Yeats’ poem ‘Leda To what green altar, O rich register of words: pipes and and the Swan’, Robert Browning’s mysterious priest, timbrels, heard melodies, ditties, dramatic monologue ‘My Last Lead’st thou that heifer melodist, piping songs, heifer Duchess’, Dostoevsky’s novel The lowing at the skies, lowing at the skies, silent, silence Idiot and Oscar Wilde’s novel The And all her silken flanks and quietness. Picture of Dorian Gray. with garlands drest? What little town by river or Having transported the reader The technique also upholds an sea shore, into a two-fold journey, to the urn amount of objectivity in the study Or mountain-built with and to the scenes depicted on the of visual art as the reader must peaceful citadel, urn in this ode Keats then posits be guided by the visual elements Is emptied of this folk, this his aesthetic axiom present within the frame to further pious morn? build the narrative. And, little town, thy streets “Beauty is truth, truth for evermore beauty, --that is all Ekphrasis allows for a fair Will silent be; and not a Ye know on earth, and all degree of viewer autonomy as soul to tell ye need to know.” the narrativizing is undertaken Why thou art desolate, can by the viewer. Thus, the viewer’s e’er return.” (Keats, John) subjectivity is also engaged with and the narrative is owned by (Keats , John) Thus, this ode serves as a metatext the viewer / narrator. Thus, that uses the ekphrastic mode reading becomes participatory and The reader is confronted of narration and narrativization active and no longer the domain with objects and details that to reflect and expand or amplify of a privileged few, namely the otherwise might have escaped Keats’ particular synthesis of academician or the artist but is their attention. It often reiterates classical symmetry with Romantic inclusive of an audience, trained with the purpose of recall to liberty. or otherwise. www.csi1947.com June 2020 21 Rev. James Cecil Victor, the CSI Synod Pastoral Concerns Dept., Finishes his Term after Implementing Innovative and Effective Programmes ev. James Cecil Victor, who headed the important Rresponsibility of the CSI Synod Pastoral Concerns Department for six years, finished his term and joined back his diocese. He was instrumental in providing new insights, training, resource materials, and retreats for around 3,500 pastors of the Church of South India.

Rev. James gave a new face for the Pastoral Concerns Department with his innovative and out of the box thinking. His gentle ways of interactions, the ease challenging effort from his side Synod and he sincerely held this at making new friends, ability to bring the Lenten meditations for more than half of the time in articulation and effective as videos for each day by the CSI span of his tenure. He initiated communication skills which were pastors from all the five southern the process of formulating a new pruned by his theological studies states of India. curriculum for CSI Sunday School. in the United Theological College, He took care of Communication Bangalore, where he did his He organised workshops and Department as well as Mission Bachelor of Divinity and Masters training programmes such as and evangelism departments for in Theology with specialisation in Training of Trainers Programs, a brief time until the respective Communications. His leadership Family Summer Institutes, directors were appointed. abilities made it easy to be in Refresher Courses, Young regular touch with the various Theologians’ Consultations, Mrs Suhasini Cecil, wife of Rev. diocesan leadership and with the Conferences for the Ordained James, is a talented and trained pastors across South India. Women, and Lenten Retreats teacher. She has served as the for the Clergy. The Exposure warden of the Daisy Gopalaratnam The Institute of Pastoral Visits of pastors to the Mizoram Working Women’s Hostel under Management (IPM), which was Presbyterian Churches have the auspices of CSI Synod. Their initiated under the leadership created avenues to learn and also daughter Evelyn Natalia is a of Rev. James, turned into inspire the participants to be fifth standard student, who has the flagship programme of the relevant to the times. command on multiple languages. Department, which gave training for more than half of the 3500 Rev. James represented CSI in Rev. James will continue his presbyters of the CSI. Two large several Mission and Ecumenical ministry as a vicar in the Diocese scale Synod level Pastors meeting Bodies both in India and abroad. of Medak where he hails from. named Koinonia (at Chennai ‘Child-Friendly Churches’ and Kanyakumari) along with Programme by WCC in Geneva, The officers of the synod, the the regional pastors’ meet added and NIFEA programs by CWM, are directors who were colleagues feathers to his ministry. Being a couple of them. of him, and the staff of the CSI a workaholic, many resource Synod Secretariat with him and materials were published by He was given the additional his family wish all the very best in him specifically useful for the responsibility of the Christian the future ministry and life. pastors of CSI. It was a novel yet Education Department of the CSI www.csi1947.com 22 June 2020 Rev. J. Solomon Paul Finishes Service as the Synod Youth Director after Six Years of Vibrant Leadership

ev. J. Solomon Paul stepped down as the CSI RSynod Youth Director after rendering six years of meticulous, dedicated, and vibrant leadership to the department, which was beneficial to the millions of youngsters of the Church of South India.

While he joined the Synod, he was Presbyter with 5 years of experience in pastoral ministry after graduating from the United Theological College, Bangalore, where he bagged the best outgoing student award. project proposals, and bring the temporarily abled and Disabled He was quick to adjust to the youngsters under one umbrella. came together for mutual enormous responsibility and the collaboration. willingness to work tirelessly He led the process of making day and night demanded by a Youth policy Guidelines for But the jewel in the crown is the the Synod Department. He has CSI which will definitely be a two editions of the ‘Christha Yuva a good command on English, foundation for the Synod and Jathrotsava’, the mega youth Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and can diocesan level youth activities conference in the Synod level. The understand Malayalam. This in the coming decade. He first one was held at Thiruvalla ability came handy when he led was instrumental of giving in the Madhya Kerala Diocese the Synod Department which international exposure for many in 2016 and second in Trichy has a web of work in all the five youngsters of CSI by coordinating Diocese in 2019. More than two Southern States of India. with the foreign partners and thousand youngsters attended in international organisations. each of this, in which seminars, He had a cordial relationship with workshops, creative worship, the leadership of various dioceses, He was asked to shoulder the sports events, rallies, and much which helped him to effortlessly responsibility of the CSI- SEVA more added colour and meaning! conduct programmes with the when the former Director was dioceses. He had conducted appointed as the General Secretary Rev. J. Solomon is married to Mrs six regional youth conferences, of NCCI. Even though this was Namratha Tejaswini and they are various diocesan level workshops an additional ‘burden’, Rev. blessed with a son, Samvith Nestor and conferences which were Solomon took up the challenge Paul. Rev. Solomon moved back specifically focusing the youth and organised two of the Synod to his Diocese, Karnataka Central, leadership training. Projects like Level gatherings: ‘Child Champs’, and in the ministry as the Vicar of MITHRA, Youth Dare to DREAM, held in Bangalore in which a the St. Paul’s church Dodballapur. Youth for Peace campaign, thousand children attended, and Wind beneath our wings, and ‘DARE the Devil’ conference held The officers of the synod, the Leadership and Discipleship in Vellore attended by around directors who were colleagues training were marked by his seven hundred Dalit women of him, and the staff of the CSI efficiency, willingness to learn and entrepreneurs. Another big Synod Secretariat with him and adapt to the situations, ability to event which made impact was his family wish all the very best in prepare attractive and meaningful ‘Integrating Abilities’ where the the future ministry and life. www.csi1947.com June 2020 23 News CSI Synod Dept. of Communication

The Proactive Role of the Church of South India During the Lockdown in India Due to COVID 19 Catches Attention uring this lockdown period included in this report you can see software for conducting online due to COVID 19, the the details on the Synod FB page. classes during the lockdown due dioceses and the local to COVID 19. D Adv. Fernandas Rathina Raja congregations of the Church of South India have been actively General Secretary, CSI. St Andrew’s CSI Church in leading relief work, supporting Kanichukulam distributed food the authorities especially the kits to the needy. health workers, and arranging online worship services and chain Dornakal Diocese prayers. St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Centre, We have published a detailed Khammam, distributed Ration report of these activities of the Kits sponsored by Azim Premji Church based on the data we Philanthropic Initiatives to the gathered from the social media Children those who are under and shared on the official “Sense International India - Deaf- Facebook Group of the Church Blind Programme” on Wednesday of South India Synod (https:// the 13th May 2020. The The Kattampackal CSI Church www.facebook.com/groups/ Diocesan Bishop, officers and the distributed food kits to the entire csisynodcommunication/ ) in the Superintendent of the Deaf-Blind families of the congregation who July 202 issue of the CSI Life Programme led the process. are in need during lockdown due Magazine. This documentation to COVID 19. Around 110 families was based on the shares on Synod It is noteworthy that the diocese got the benefit. FB group which narrated the is continually engaged in relief relief work until the 12th May activities. The Youth Movement of the 2020. In this issue, we publish Piravom St Andrews CSI Church the news and information from distributed food kits to the the diocese about the relief and members of the St. Mathew’s CSI related activities from the dioceses Church in Njeezhoor. between 13th of May and 18th of June 2020. The Diocesan leadership has decided to financially support As we have explained in the 2000 most needy families of the last issue of the Magazine, from diocese till the normal situation the news we received from the prevails. dioceses, we understand that there Madhya Kerala Diocese are many leaders of the dioceses, In various ways, the Madhya local congregation committee Nedungadappally CMS School Kerala Diocese has been members, youth movement of the Madhya Kerala Diocese continuing the commendable and women’s fellowship leaders of the Church of South India activities. and members, leaders of the proactively responded to the online institutions such as hospitals classes started by Kerala State Madras Diocese and schools/colleges and other government against the backdrop benefactors have been involved in of COVID 19. The PTA of the The Diocese of Madras partners this relief work. It is encouraging school with the support of certain with NGOs to distribute food to to see that the church effortlessly well-wishers donated Television migrants stranded near railway associated with the state/district/ sets to 5 needy students. stations. A request from the panchayat administrations to be a Diocese to CSI Wesley English help to the needy. We congratulate CMS College, Kottayam under Church to prepare 1000 packets all of them for their great effort. the Madhya Kerala Diocese of the of food was met by the church, Even though the names are not Church of South India, develops sponsored by friends. Mount www.csi1947.com 24 June 2020 Dept. of Communication CSI Synod News

Wesley church does relief Madurai- Ramnadu Diocese continuously for 52 days so far. The church provided relief kits The Madurai-Ramnadu Diocese to 70 Narikuravars- nomadic extended help to about 90 poor families. Around eighty mission families in the 8 village churches workers were supported by the of the CSI Usilampatti pastorate church. With the help of the near Madurai District by providing missionaries, the church extended each family 5 Kg of rice and 1 Kg help to people in the mission fields of dal. of Gujarat, Mumbai, Godchiroli Malabar Diocese and Chattisgarh. The Correspondent and teachers of Erumalai Nayakkanpatti CSI Forty-eight schools under the CSI Periapakayam Pastorate joined school (Theni district, Periyakulam Malabar and Wayanadu School hands with the church to provide Taluk) supported economically Corporate Management of the food kits to the needy. downtrodden families of the same Malabar Diocese collected Rs. village while the entire state was 3,10,000/- (Rupees Three Lacs under Lockdown due to Covid19. and Ten Thousand only) from The help was extended to all the the teachers and students and students’ families of the school was handed over to the Calicut along with other poor people in District Collector as the donation the Village. This distribution to the relief fund as directed by the was presided over by the MLA of Diocesan Bishop. Periyakulam Constituency. Each kit carried 10 kg rice, Cooking oil, Centenary Memorial CSI Church, Rs.1000 worth spices and stuff, Pappinissery, distributed food CSI Immanuel church, 300 RS Snacks, Rs. 200 as cash, kits which included rice, pickles, Nerkundram pastorate of and vegetables worth Rs. 200. groceries and vegetables. They Madras diocese, helped people gave free masks also to the needy from all faith communities. The It is heartening to see that the people. Youth fellowship of the church diocese is continuing the relief enthusiastically took up the task work to help the poor and the Malabar Diocese is continuing the of preparing food and distributed needy during the lockdown. commendable work of relief during nearly 1800 food packets to people the lockdown. abandoned in roadsides, migrants and daily wage workers. This initiative was supported by the Men’s fellowship of the church.

CSI Holy Cross Church, Kamaraj Nagar Pastorate, Avadi, actively entered into the third stage of relief work. CSI Good Shepherd Church, Sekkadu, CSI St. Paul’s Medak Diocese Church, Anna Nagar, CSI St. Karimnagar Diocese Andrew’s Church, Oilcherry, and CSI Christ Church, South CSI Good Shepherd Church, Lalaguda, in Secunderabad A few families of Wesley Cathedral Arunachal Nagar, were also part of expressed gratitude towards of the Karimnagar Diocese of the these activities. Police, GHMC, and Community Church of South India sponsored workers for their tremendous one-month provision to 80 The commendable activities of service during this time of families (street dwellers, Asha the congregations of the Madras Pandemic. A fellowship lunch was Jyothi workers, and construction Diocese are continuing even when arranged with them. Essentials labourers). Mayor, Municipal Chennai is going back to strict were distributed to the needy Corporators and the Diocesan lockdown due to the increased people around the church. Bishop who is the Deputy number of COVID 19 cases. Moderator of the Church of South Medak Diocese is continuing with India, distributed at the CSI High the Relief activities is encouraging. School Compound, Karimnagar. www.csi1947.com June 2020 25 News CSI Synod Dept. of Communication

for the maintenance staff of the commodities, and financial college. support to a rehabilitation centre for the mentally challenged The Diocese is continuing the relief persons in Punalur. work in a commendable manner. In an initiative to ensure food Karnataka Southern Diocese security post COVID- 19, the joined hands with cashew Karimnagar Diocese of the Church The CSI Church in Rajeev Nagar, labourers to convert 50 acres of South India sponsored rice and Mysore, distributed groceries in of fallow land into farmland. provisions sufficient for one month different phases to support the While the green task force of the for one family. One of the State needy families during the COVID Kerala Cashew Development Ministers, Mayor, Corporators and -19 pandemic. Corporation (KSCDC) will be in the Diocesan Bishop distributed charge of the initial range of agro these provisions to poor daily The Diocese is continuing with the services, the parishioners and wage labourers, slum dwellers and relief work in various areas of the the clergy will actively participate pastors of various denominations Diocese. in the upkeep of the farms. The working in interior villages. Diocesan Bishop informed that sixty- two churches the Kollam- CSI - LMD – in the Karimnagar Kollarakara diocese spread across Diocese has been distributing Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam provisions including rice to people and Pathanamthitta will take up of all faiths identified as victims to organic farming vegetables and hunger during this CORONA Virus tuber crops will be cultivated period. along with cashew plants and farming will start on June 5, World The commendable activities of the Environment Day. Karimnagar Diocese to help the Kollam-Kottarakkara Diocese poor and the needy are continued. The Holy Trinity CSI Church, Karnataka Central Diocese Kuthirachira, extended help in various unique ways to the needy On behalf of the CSI Karnataka during the lockdown. There was Central Diocese, THE Diocesan a severe shortage of medicines, Bishop handed over a cheque of Rs especially life-saving drugs in the 25,00,000/- (Rupees Twenty Five State on account of the lockdown. Lakhs only) towards the ‘CMRF These lifesaving drugs Worth Rs COVID 19’ (Chief Minister’s COVID 7 Lakhs were brought from North The Diocese has been actively 19 Relief Fund) to the Karnataka India and handed over to Punalur involved in various ways to ensure State Chief Minister. The Officials Taluk Hospital Cancer Care Unit that the poor and the needy are of the CSI Karnataka Central in three phases by the church. benefited in special ways amidst Diocese were present at this The church honoured the health this pandemic times. occasion. care workers at the Punalur Taluk Hospital and provided food Krishna Godavari Diocese packets to Nurses working in the specialist Covid-19 wards and The Vishakapatnam Mission arranged a vehicle facility for many to Seafarers programme from patients who suffered to reach the Krishna Godavari Diocese hospital due to lock down and along with a few local churches delivered medicine to many bed have extended their support by patients. The Youth Movement of providing dry ration kits for a total this church distributed essential of 102 fishermen families from commodities and vegetable kits different villages in and around The St Mark’s Cathedral of to 1000 families identified as Vizag. the Diocese visited the United the victims of hunger during the Theological College in Bangalore COVID 19 Pandemic. They were The commendable service of the and distributed dry provisions also provided food, essential Diocese to help the people in www.csi1947.com 26 June 2020 Dept. of Communication CSI Synod News misery due to the COVID 19 is It is encouraging to see that the It is heartening to see that the CSI continuing. Diocese is continually supporting diaspora communities take up the the poor and the needy. social responsibility of helping the needy at this difficult time. Diaspora Churches The Dioceses and the local The CSI diaspora community congregations are requested to at the CNI Jubilee Malayalam share more these kinds of positive Pastorate in Sandpada and the news with us so that we will Panvel Worship Centre (Mumbai) document them by publishing it in continued distributing the the CSI Life Magazine. essentials to the poor people. Rayalaseema Diocese Hundreds of grocery bags were distributed at Gandhinagar The Youth Department of Colony, LP-Nerul MIDC & Nerul- Rayalaseema could complete the Sector 8 in Navi Mumbai. It task of thanking the pastors with was the fifth time the church financial support. They could give distributed grocery to the 1000 for each pastor and could children’s home in Sukhapur, give for 94 pastors. Panvel, Navi Mumbai.

The continual efforts of the The CSI diaspora community Diocese to help the needy is of the CNI Delhi Immanuel praiseworthy. church distributed food kits to 30 poor families in Chutmalpur Trichy- Tanjore Diocese village which comes under the Uttaranchal Mission by the The Diocesan Bishop led the Madhya Kerala Diocese. Corona relief work at Kannivadi.

Together Let Us Spread Good News! CSI Synod WhatsApp +91 9840 577 404 Website: www.csi1947.com

CSI lLife Advertisement Tariff CSI Life Subscription Rates Back Cover outside - Color Rs. 8,500/- India - 1 Year Rs. 150/- Back Cover inside - Color Rs. 7,000/- India - Life time Rs. 3000/- Front Cover inside - Color Rs. 7,000/- U.S.A $. 30.00 Balck & White Rs. 5,000/- U.K £. 30.00 Balck & White - Half Page Rs. 3,000/- Australia $. 35.00

www.csi1947.com June 2020 27 News CSI Synod Dept. of Communication

CSI Joins Hands with ECC for an Online Series of Bible Studies on Wider Contextualized Biblical Hermeneutics he Church of South India Tribal/Adivasi, epidemic/ in the process of searching for a (CSI) Synod joins hands with pandemic, missional, and other new hermeneutical paradigm. Tthe Ecumenical Christian issues and struggles of the Centre (ECC) in Bangalore for Indian church and the society. The members of the Church of an online series of Bible Studies The lectures are prepared with South India are encouraged to on Wider Contextualized Biblical the following three aspects in take part in this course. Hermeneutics. This online mind: first, the scripture shall course was inaugurated by Adv. be exposited by keeping the laity For more details, please contact: Fernandas Rathina Raja, the and the scholarly community General Secretary of the CSI alike. Second, the grass-root Prof. Dr. Johnson Thomaskutty, Synod on the 15th June 2020. realities of the Indian people Union Biblical Seminary, In the inaugural webinar, Rev. shall be incorporated within Bibsvewadi, Pune, 411037, Dr C. I. David Joy, the Principal the hermeneutical spectrum. Maharashtra, India. Cell: of Kerala United Theological And third, the biblical and the 9823797519 E-Mail: thomaskutty@ Seminary in Thiruvananthapuram hermeneutical skills shall be ubs.ac.in presented the keynote address brought to the foreground for on “Principles and Methods of practical application. Prof. Dr. Mathew Chandrankunnel Reading the New Testament”. CMI, Director, Ecumenical Christian Rev. Noah Vasanthakumar, an The course is ecumenical in Centre, Whitefield, Bangalore, Executive Committee member of nature as the resource persons India. Cell: 94484913131 E-Mail: ECC gave felicitation and Prof. Dr and participants together [email protected] Johnson Thomaskutty, Professor, attempt to interpret the New UBS, Pune, gave the concluding Testament writings and themes Mr. Thangminlun Vaiphei, Deputy remarks. Rev. R S V Sukumar from multiple vantage points Director, Ecumenical Christian Babu, an ordained presbyter of and to suggest a new paradigm Centre, Whitefield, Bangalore, the CSI, who is the programme for the Biblical Interpretation India. Cell: 9447881469 E-Mail: secretary of ECC, served as the in the contemporary Indian [email protected] Chairperson of this Programme. context. The lecture series aims to answer the following questions: Rev. R. S. V. Sukumar Babu, This online series is scheduled How can we conceptualize and Programme Executive, Ecumenical to be held every Thursday from interpret the New Testament Christian Centre, Whitefield, 6.00 PM to 7.30 PM. The duration traditions for a borderless spiritual Bangalore. Cell: 99602452801 of the course is over a period of formation and execution? How E-Mail: [email protected] twenty- two weeks. The lectures Biblical hermeneutics crosses can be enrolled by those who are the human-made boundaries graduates or above. Zoom has like caste, colour, ethnicity, been used as an online platform. gender, denomination, religion, and others? Can we understand This course aims at imparting Biblical Hermeneutics above biblical knowledge and to instil and beyond denominational and hermeneutical skills at the laity religious boundaries? How the New level. Twenty-Two New Testament Testament writings can be used as scholars shall deliver the lectures paradigms to cross the traditional by taking into consideration boundaries, create contextual the original background of the and ideological constellations, New Testament writings, the build dialogical relationships, The Cover Design of this issue contemporary background of the incorporate relevant Indian of CSI Life is a painting by Mr. Indian readers, and the feminist, categories, and rhetorize the Reji Peter, who is a member ecological, Dalit, discourse toward a ‘Third Space ‘? of the Malabar Diocese of the Answering these questions is key Church of South India. www.csi1947.com 28 June 2020 Dept. of Youth CSI Synod News Board for Youth Work of the CSI Diocese of Vellore Releases a Book on “Biblical-Theological Reflections on the Covid-19 Crisis” he Board for Youth Work of the Vellore Diocese of Tthe Church of South India (CSI) released a book, “Biblical- Theological Reflections on the Covid-19 Crisis,” on 11th June 2020 by the Rt. Rev. H. Sharma Nithiyanandham, Bishop in Vellore and the Chairperson of the Department of Youth, CSI Synod. The book is edited by Rev. A. Noyel Christopher the Director of the Board of Youth Work. Rev. P. Samraj Kumar-Chairman, Mr J. Joshua Stalin-Treasurer and all the Board Members of the Board for Youth Work -CSI Diocese of Vellore are instrumental in bringing out the Contextual Reflections.

Bishop in Vellore says that “The main idea in releasing this book is to view the multi-layered impact Hard copies of this publication of the on-going pandemic on each will be available soon to all the and every individual. We need to readers, at present this book acknowledge and appreciate that can be downloaded through the each and every individual is created PDF Link: http://csisynod.com/ uniquely and thus, it is important Admin/news/6133_covid%20 to understand COVID-19, not youth%2090%20pages.pdf only from the Biblical perspective but also from the perspectives of The CSI Synod Department of the elderly, the migrants, women Youth would like to acknowledge and so on. This will help us know and appreciate the tireless efforts the impact of this pandemic in all taken by the CSI Diocese of dimensions. Because I feel that Vellore – Board for Youth Work for knowing COVID-19 from different this thought-provoking Biblical- empathetic perspectives will help Theological Reflections on the us see through the optics of others COVID-19 Crisis. too. As a called-out community, it is our responsibility to know Rev. Ch. John Nischal Kumar how this pandemic is affecting the Director, Department of Youth, people around us. Let us be also CSI Synod. empathetic instead of being only sympathetic. I sincerely appreciate all, who all have contributed in writing these articles. Due to the present situation, we are unable to meet in person. May God help us to overcome this soon by His grace, for His magnificent glory.” www.csi1947.com June 2020 29 News CSI Synod Dept. of Youth “Prayer Instils Hope and Immunity”: CSI Synod Youth De- partment initiates ‘An Hour of Prayer’ he Department of Youth of At this point of time, an hour of representing four regions – Kerala, the Church of South India prayer made a deep impact on the Tamil, Karnataka and Telugu T(CSI) organized, ‘An Hour of young minds all over the CSI and in CSI, presented the theme in Prayer,’ an online prayer meeting, beyond. their regional languages for a contemplating on the theme ‘The few minutes and then prayed in Full Assurance of Hope (Hebrews The Most Rev. A. Dharmaraj English focusing on the stated 6:11) for Immunity,’ premiered on Rasalam, the Moderator of CSI, prayer points. An Hour of Prayer 7th June 2020, from 7 p.m to 8 and Adv. C. Fernandas Rathina was premiered in the ‘Church of p.m. This virtual hour of prayer Raja, General Secretary CSI, have South India-CSI Synod’ official appealed all the young people to inaugurated this virtual hour of YouTube Channel with the link, pray without ceasing at all times, prayer with their greetings. The Rt. ‘https://youtu.be/4sao8Q0imzw.’ especially during this time of the Rev. H. Sharma Nithiyanandham, Thousands of young people joined pandemic. The key concepts of the Bishop in Vellore and the in this virtual prayer hour in the theme such as Hope and Immunity Chairperson of the Department YouTube channel and many more were widely addressed in the of Youth, CSI Synod, preached are still getting benefited by this presentation. COVID 19 shattered on the assigned theme. To have a video. many lives and pushed us to wider understanding of the theme, struggle for survival. This crisis four Diocesan Youth Directors Rev.Ch. John Nischal Kumar, not only affected our physical – Rev. Shibu P. L., Rev. R. Duds Director, Department of Youth, health but also our psychological, Gnana Roby, Rev. D. Mary Shalini CSI Synod. spiritual and social well-being. and Rev. N. Vincent Raj Kumar,

News CSI Synod Dept. of Communication Kottayam CMS College Launches a Software Specially Prepared for Online Classes

he CMS College in Kottayam classes in the colleges and schools students throguh a dedicated under the Madhya Kerala across the country are impossible Television channel. Considering TDiocese of the Church of to be conducted because of the this situation, the IT department of South India, which is the first COVID 19 pandemic. The Kerala the college created and launched College in South India, launched State Government suggested the this software which will be helpful a software specially prepared for colleges to start online classes to make the online classes more the online classes. The regular and started classes for the school easy and attractive. www.csi1947.com 30 June 2020 www.csi1947.com Disclaimer : The Author of each article published in this magazine owns his or her own words. The opinions, believes and viewpoints expressed by the various authors on this magazine do not reflect the opinions, belief and view points of the official policies of the CSI SYNOD. June 2020 31 Date of Publication: First week of Every Month. CSI Life Monthly English News Magazine posted at Egmore RMS1/Pathrika Channel Registered with Registrar of Newspaper of India No. TNENG/2001/07245 Postal Registration No: TN/CH(C)/267/2018-2020 Licence to Post: WPP No: TN/PMG(CCR)WPP-452/2018-2020

CSI Joins Hands with ECC for an Online Series of Bible Studies on Wider Contextualized Biblical Hermeneutics

Edited & Published by Adv. C. Fernandas Rathina Raja, General Secretary, Church of South India Synod from CSI Centre, No. 5, Whites Road, Chennai - 600 014. Ph: 2852 1566 / 4166 32 Managing Editor: Rev. Sunil Raj Philip, Director, CSI Synod Communications. Printed by: N. Raja Singh at Mighty Rock Printers, 52, Nair Varadha Pillai Street, Royapettah, Chennai - 600 014. Mob: 99622 02158. Phone: 2860 2158