1. THE SO CALLED SYRO-MALABAR CHURCH SHOULD CHANGE ITS NAME AS MATHOMA NAZRANI CHURCH.
2. THE MARTHOMA NASRANI CHURCH MUST BE A PATRIARCHAL CHURCH. THE HEAD AND FATHER OF THIS CHURCH SHOULD BE CALLED 'THE PATRIARCH' , THE GATE AND THE HEAD OF ALL INDIA.
3. THE RESTORATION OF THE OFFICE OF “ARKADAYAKON” IN THE MAR THOMA NAZRANI CHURCH [IN THE TRUE TRADITIONAL SENSE]
4. THE MAR THOMA NAZRANI CHURCH SHOULD GET ALL INDIA JURISDICTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
5. THE LATIN HIERARCHY OF INDIA SHOULD HAND OVER THE “MYLAPPUR CENTRE” [CHINNAMALA AND PERIYAMALA] TO THE MAR THOMA NAZRANI CHURCH.
6. I DREAM ALWAYS ABOUT A DAY ON WHICH “ALL MAR THOMA NAZRANEES”[ MARTHOMA NAZRANI CHURCH, ORTHADOX, JACOBITE, ASSYRIANS OF INDIA, MALANKARA CATHOLICS] CELEBRATE THE HOLY RAZA TOGETHER, THE PATRIARCH OF MARTHOMA NAZRANI CHURCH AS THE MAIN CELEBRANT.
7. A TIME WHEN OUR BISHOPS AND PRIESTS KNOW THE IMPORTANCE OF ‘ VARTHAMANA PUSTHAKAM’ AND MAR YOUSEPH KARIATTIL AND PAREMMACKAL THOMA KATHANAR. A TIME WHEN OUR BISHOPS AND PRIESTS PRAYERFULLY ‘READ’ AND ‘MEDITATE’ AND ‘LIVE’ THE REAL ‘NAZRANI LIFE’ WHICH IS NARRATED IN THE ‘VARTHAMANA PUSTHAKAM’ .
CHAVARAPUZHA JAMESACHAN
EPARCHY OF KANJIRAPALLY
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I think the title which better suits our head is Kasolikos Metropolitan of Whole India & its gate.
ReplyDeleteDear Cyriac,
ReplyDeletethanks for the comment. A very detailed and deep study is needed about this subject.
Dear Father,
ReplyDeleteI am very much interested to read your dreams. Let me share my thoughts about your dreams.
Dream No 1. Name of our church
I fully agree with your dream. I think when Rome introduced the name Syro Malabar, our fore fathers were against it. Nidheerickal Mani Kathanaar and colleagues including priests and laity sent several letters to Rome against it and later Rome used the term “Syro Chaldeac” instead of “Syro Malabar”, especially in the bull erecting the diocese of Thalasserry etc. It is our own leaders- the native Prelates- kept the name Syro Malabar.
M Thomas Antony
m.thomas.antony@live.co.uk
Dream 2 Patriarchal status to the church.
ReplyDeleteThere is no point in upgrading the status to Patriarchal if we do not understand the identity of our church. Now, the most pity situation is that even our leadership doesn’t know the strength of the position. Still, no one calls the “Father and the Head” of our church, a Major Archbishop, he is only a Cardinal! If you read the “Missom” of the Arch Diocese of Ernaculum, you cannot find the title Major Arch Bishop. I think this attitude should change. At least we, have to understand that the title Major Arch Bishop is much much higher than a simple Cardinal priest in Roman Curia. (As far as I understand, our Major Arch Bishop is only a Cardinal priest.)
M Thomas Antony
Dream 3 & 6- Restoration of Arch Deaconate and unity of St Thomas Christians
ReplyDeleteI want to read 3 and 6 together. On the ecumenical point of view for St Thomas Christians, as a first step for unity, we should form a Confederation of St Thomas Christians with a common Archdeacon for all. We have to remember that when we had several Bishops in Kerala at a time, we only had a single Archdeacon. It is possible with several Bishops and Heads of churches like Major Arch Bishops, Catholocoses etc, we can have a SINGLE archdeacon for all, based at say, Kuravilangadu. This post may rotate between different denominations. We can have a common place built near Kuravilangadu church for this Arch deaconate. The present Inter Church Council can be a model for this Confederation of St Thomas’ Christians. But who is going to take initiative ? We do not have somebody like our beloved old leader Nidheerickal Mani Kathanaar who was the pioneer of ecumenism and unity among St Thomas Christians. (We can have our Arch Deacon based at Kuravilangadu and the Head Quarters of the Major Arch Bishop at Angamaly which was the first ever designated Bishopric see of St Thomas Christians.)
We can hope that once, we may have a Patriarch of St Thomas Christians rotated between our different denominations keeping our different liturgies and affiliations with different Catholicoses and Major Arch Bishops under him.
Dream 4. All India Jurisdiction
I agree with you. If we need all India jurisdiction, we should exert the jurisdiction all India. It has to be noted that Palliveettil Chandy Metran used the term Metropolitan of All India, even though, he was only a titular Bishop. If our leadership cannot implement the decisions of the Holy Synod of Syro Malabar church in all our dioceses, how can we exert power of jurisdiction all India ? If the Major Archbishop and Bishops ignore the decisions of the Holy Synod for whatever pastoral reasons be it, the priests disobey Bishops and the laity disobey the priests and so on, how can we expect other people to honour our church and leaders ?
Dream 5 Taking over of Mylappore centre.
ReplyDeleteWe can always ask. It is up to them. But why don’t we invite the Arch Diocese of Madras to join the Syro Malabar Church, if they can adopt our liturgy and traditions ?. There are evidences for widespread Syriac Christianity in the east cost of India also-even all India. Their ancestors were St Thomas Christians in the past who either returned to Hinduism and became Christians again by the Portuguese missionaries, or embraced the Latin rite on the arrival of Portuguese. They all can rejoin the mother church.
M T Antony
Dream 7- Lack of awareness of our Identity among the leaders.
ReplyDeleteThe curse of our church is the leadership of our church- including the Bishops and the Priests-who are unaware of our real identity. The laity always stood firmly for the traditions. Our forefathers stood for the ancient Indo Chaldean liturgy, even against the might of the Portuguese Prelates that Arch Bishop Ross had to write to his Jesuit General in 1619 “the Serra must be kept in its Chaldean form”. (History of Christianity in India, Joseph Thekkedathu p87). We have to remember, our community had refused to accept priests ordained by the Portuguese who were not trained in Syriac language in the past even when we were under Portuguese Prelates.
The leadership, including Bishops and Priests, stood for good certificate from the Europeans to get nominated as Bishop, Arch Bishop, Cardinal etc and forgot about our church. We can see in the history, our leaders sending letters to Rome against changing the Chaldean rite and after 100 years, our own Prelates sending letters to Rome stating that we are not Chaldeans. The leaders should understand the identity of our church.
Look at the matrimonial advertisements from the laity even from Ernaculum or Trichur, they are still from ancient Syrian Catholic families and looking for a bride/groom from ancient Syrian Catholic families. So, they declare that they are Syrian Catholics. It is the Latin trained Priests and Prelates who doesn’t understand our identity, want to make our church reduced to an offshoot of the Latin rite which was introduced in here by the European colonialists and call our “Father and the Head” of the church, a simple Cardinal.
M Thomas Antony
PS I had to break my comments to several parts as the system would not allow me to put all together. Sorry, I had to use anonymous profile also.
Father iam impressed with your attempt
ReplyDeleteIt is better that you voice out to the world the truth which few persons know Mar Sleeha is our Heritage from the very long back.May the lord shower his abundant blessings for your ministry.It is the time the church argument has changed even technologically with arguments and counter arguments I would like to give a suggetion that if you could include some church history for the public and also liturgy especially Rasa Qurbana