By Matters India Reporter
Kochi: Father Albert Nambiaparambil, one of the pioneers of interreligious dialogue in modern India and known as Kerala’s prophet of religious harmony, died on February 6 after a brief illness. He was 86.
The funeral is scheduled for February 8 at the Carmel Ashram in Vazhakulam near Kochi, some 50 km east of Kochi, Kerala’s commercial capital.
Father Nambiaparambil, a member of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate congregation, was the founder director of Chavara Cultural Centre in Kerala.
Its present director Father Roy Kannanchira says his senior confrere was inspired by Saint Chavara Kuriakose Elias, who respected different religions and culture and spread the message of tolerance and harmony through his words and deeds. According to him, Father Nambiaparambil’s initiatives in promoting interreligious harmony were unparalleled.
The Malayala Manorama, Kerala’s leading newspaper, hailed him as the “prophet of religious harmony” in the southern Indian state.
He was the brain behind the World Fellowship of Interreligious Councils (WFIRC), also based in Kochi, that organized several world conferences on religions.
Besides Upasana (worship) Cultural Centre in Thodupuzha, he set up Sopanam (sacred steps) in Adimaly and Sagamam (confluence) in Munnar, both in Idukki district.
He joined the CMI congregation in 1950 and was ordained a priest nine years later. He obtained a doctorate from the Gregorian University in Rome and taught in Dharmaram College in Bangalore, Karnataka, during 1963-1969.
He was then appointed the secretary of the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue and Ecumenism under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, a post he held for nine years.
He organized the Interfaith World Celebration of Unity and Life at Kochi in 1993 to mark the centenary of the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago, the United States. More than 360 participants from many nations, cultures and religions, attended the conference on “Religion and Human Solidarity.” It concluded that religion should lead to society´s transformation and resolved to form dialogue groups in areas where such groups do not exist.