By Anthoniraj Thumma
Bengaluru, Sept 14, 2024: Around 40 people representing some 20 Churches in India have resolved to assert Christians’ significant contribution to nation building and work towards dispelling wrong notions about the community in the country.
The National Ecumenical Bishops’ Fellowship meeting in Bengaluru on September 13 also expressed Christians’ “serious anxiety” in the wake of increasing attacks on the community and other minority groups. They demanded protection of the minority rights and the security of the minority communities in India.
The fellowship meeting convened by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) at the St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences was attended by heads of various Churches in the country.
“We wish to firmly assert the significant contribution of the Churches and Christian community to the nation building and to dispel the misinterpretation and false belief that Christianity is a foreign religion as it has been present in India for about 2000 years,” a press statement said.
The main purpose of the gathering was to promote the fellowship and fraternity among Church leaders at the national level.
It aimed to strengthen the ongoing ecumenical movement in India to address urgent national issues related to the Christians in India in the present scenario.
The office-bearers and some members of the CBCI Standing Committee Members were also present. CBCI president Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur chaired the session, while Bishop Joshua Mar Ignathios, the chairman of CBCI Office for Dialogue and Ecumenism, delivered the inaugural address.
The meeting comprised an ecumenical dialogue session and a prayer service for Christian unity and closed with a fellowship dinner.
The gathering resolved to meet often to foster the fellowship and fraternity among the Church leaders and strengthen the ecumenical federations of Churches at the state level.
It also mooted the formation of an ecumenical national federation of Churches comprising bishops and heads of various denominations.
The participants demanded immediate implementation of the community’s longstanding demand for the equal status and constitutional rights of the Dalit Christians.
They have decided to hold common ecumenical celebrations to mark the Jubilee Year 2025, and the 1700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed.
Sorry to say that this
news report on the ecumenical fellowship is itself anti ecumenical. There are the names of two Catholic bishops, but no mention of the names of those who represented other churches. When do we learn to give respect to bishops, pastors and laity of the sister churches?
Very well worded comprehensive statement. Prayers and regards.