By Varghese Alengaden

(This article was written by Father Varghese Alengaden on March 2, a day before his hospitalization for heart surgery. “If anything, unexpected happens to me during the surgery, let this be my message to the Church and all who have worked with me,” he wrote in his daily journal.)

Indore, April 1, 2023: After the demolition of the disputed mosque in Ayodhya by Hindutva forces in 1992, the BJP-RSS started growing and expanding all over India. The influence of the Hindutva forces, which started in 1925 with the foundation of RSS, grew gradually and steadily. Opposition and banning of RSS thrice did not stop its indomitable spirit and strategies.

Besides the hostility against Muslims, these forces attacked Christians. Christian institutions and several missionaries were attacked. Foreseeing the further attacks and hostilities USM (Universal Solidarity Movement) had proposed to return to the original way of Christ by the new paradigm Jesus himself had proposed two thousand years ago , i.e. “Put the new wine in a new wineskin.”

In the past, when the rich and the powerful countries of Europe went to countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America to conquer for economic exploitation and political expansion, missionaries who went with them converted the poor and the weak natives to Christianity.

They were doing it with the support of the colonial governments. The poor people accepted the faith of the colonial masters because of the favors received and status they got. They were made members of the church by teaching them external rituals and prayers. They were not taught the way of Christ by following His values such as forgiveness, loving their enemies, fraternity, selfless service and sacrifice.

In many places missionaries with the support of the colonial government forced natives to abandon their faith and culture to become Christians. Refusal was met with violence and destruction of their worship places.

When the colonial government left, the Church still enjoyed protection from the local governments for some time. When the Hindutva forces gradually became prominent and started forming their governments, they started reacting against Muslims and Christians for the atrocities committed on Hindus in the past.

Thirty years ago, the USM started identifying these militant Hindutva forces and their strategies as ‘new wine’ and the urgency of finding out ‘new wineskin’ ways of containing the new wine. The changing sociopolitical realities are new wines and the Church has to explore new wineskin-ways to remain relevant.

For the last thirty years we have been speaking and writing about the need for making the Church and its institutions ‘new wineskins’ with many practical proposals. Yet the Church leaders: bishops, priests and nuns continued using the ‘old wineskin ways’ in their life and activities.

During the last 30 years we have conducted more than 247 seminars with the theme “Paradigm shift in evangelisation.’ More than 18,600 priests, nuns and bishops had participated in these seminars all over India. Though they all made many practical action plans, they failed to follow them up to bring changes.

After a few years Paradigm Shift Seminars were updated and made into Christo Centric Leadership Retreat. This was held in the USM community at Indore to give an exposure into the Christo centric way of living a community mission. A pilgrimage with Jesus by watching the movie, Jesus of Nazareth, was added to all topics of Paradigm Shift Seminar.

More than 1,200 priests and nuns of several congregations and dioceses in 80 groups participated in them. Three archbishops and 15 bishops participated in these retreats. They all were happy and made many resolutions and action plans.

Despite all these efforts, they continued their old ways because people like the old and the routine ways because they are familiar and easy. The sad thing is that neither the congregations nor the dioceses organized discussions about the changing sociopolitical context.

Even now the dioceses and congregations are not thinking of holding any serious discussion and analysis about the political developments in northeastern states after the recent elections where BJP is forming governments with the support of Christians. Christians of the northeastern states have accepted BJP as the best party and Narendra Modi as their favorite leader.

Those who were converted to Christianity in the past were faithful to the Church and its celebrations because they benefited from the Church. They got social status and favors because the Church was respected by the government. Today the Church is facing hostility both from the people and from the government. People shift their loyalty to people and parties which give them money and other benefits.

Faith is limited to social gathering. They shift their loyalty to the parties from where they have monetary benefits and social security. What has happened to all the pastoral works the Church was doing all these years? It is time for the Church to review its pastoral and evangelical activities.

How many Christians will remain loyal to the Church and its leaders when they are given perks and privileges? Will they be ready to face persecution? Today what we see is that the Church leaders themselves are compromising the values of Christ to safeguard their institutional interest. We should not be surprised to see the leadership of the Church making compromises with the political leaders for their own security and safety.

For the past thirty years, I have been writing several articles and books explaining the urgency of following Christ and his solution of “putting the new wine in new wineskin.” The small book, “The New Wine in New Wineskins, Urgent Need for Paradigm Shift in Evangelisation” (112 pages) explains how to become new wineskins. The other books explain the same theme are “ Vision 20203”, “ Ho Jayega” and “God in Flesh and Blood” (10 Volumes of daily Gospel reflections).

The USM community which consists of people of different faiths and walks of life is an example of ‘new wineskin’ and Christocentric way of life. Even those who have witnessed the positive impact of this ‘new wine skin’ mission and the ‘Christo centric way of life’ have not made any effort to experiment with this new paradigm.

I do not stop speaking and writing, though at times I feel that it is like a cry in the wilderness. I believe that prophetic life is a cry in the wilderness.

I am writing these thoughts just a day before going to the hospital for an open-heart surgery. These are reflections I have often repeated many times. If anything unexpected happens to me during the surgery, let this be my message to the Church and all who have worked with me.