Vicar’s Desk

Dearly beloved in Christ,

Greetings to you all in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We have celebrated Christmas last week and it was a joyful occasion for each one of us. I thank God Almighty, who helped us and continues to help us enjoy the blissful moments in our life. I remember and thank all our Members who toiled hard for the successful conduct of the Carol Night, especially the Choir, the Youths, Sunday School Children, Sevika Sangham, Edavaka Mission and all those who participated in the Carol rounds and Carol night. As we come to the close of the year, I hope the New Year will be a great blessing to all of us, to our families and to all our dear ones. I wish all of you a very Happy and Blessed New Year 2018!

We are going to enter into one more Great Lent. Lent is a season of forty days, (not counting Sundays), which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. Sundays during Lent are not counted in the forty days because each Sunday represents a “mini-Easter” and the reverent spirit of Lent is tempered with joyful anticipation of the Resurrection. The word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencte, which means “spring”. It reflects the new life in Christ – the Eternal Life. The forty days represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, enduring the temptation of Satan and preparing to begin His Ministry.

Lent is a time of Repentance, Fasting and Prayer. It is a time for Self-examination and Reflection. It is a time to make the Right Relationship with God and His Creation. It is a time to give up something we are very much attached to or to volunteer and give ourselves for others. Let us prepare ourselves to observe the Lent meaningfully and to share the sufferings of Jesus on the way of the Cross. Surely, we will enjoy the Cup of Salvation – the Resurrection. May God Almighty bless all of us during the coming days of Lent and Resurrection.

The ‘Parish call’ is a periodic publication of our Parish which gives information about the activities for the coming four months. I request all the Parish members to participate and partake in all the activities of the Parish.

May God keep us all safe in His arms.

Yours in God’s Love,

Rev.Joymon S.K

Dearly beloved in Christ,

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

My dear parishioners, our parish convention and parish day was celebrated on September last and October 1st week. I hope the word of God which echoed in our hearts and minds renewed our personal life. On October 5th we are going to celebrate our Family Sunday and Harvest Festival. This is a time to rededicate our family before our Lord. Today we are facing a lot of stress and struggles in our family life. We should be aware about our family and recognize our responsibilities to make a healthy Christian family. It is characterized by constant family prayer, worship, and personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Beside these, we need to have a steady and healthy communication, respect for each other, a sharing mentality with no hidden interests, unconditional trust and love for each other to promote a meaningful Christian family. There should be a strong bond between the husband, wife and with their children. Each one should purposely nurture the relationship. Family members never make disparaging or negative remarks about one another. A disagreement with another should not lead to conflict and chaos within the family. Everyone should respect each other and make healthy changes in their life. In our families there should be freedom and safety within the family for mistakes and failures. Parents should correct our children when they do mistakes. Children should realize their parents, their love, care and support. I hope and pray that our family could lead a healthy and spiritual family life. May God Bless us all.

I personally wish that all the parish members may participate and partake in all the parish activities. It is place for nurturing our spiritual life and to develop personal relationships. The ‘Parish call’ is a handbook of our parish which gives information about the activities for the coming three months. May God Almighty keep us all under His gracious wings at all times.

Your’s in God’s Love

Rev. Joymon S K

 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”  Isaiah 43:18-19  “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.  Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,…”  1 Chronicles 16:11-12

Beloved in Christ

I wish the community of St. James to whom I belong for the past 3 and a half years a Blessed year ahead!

There is an indefinable, overwhelming feeling of the “sweet” pain of loss of something, which gives way to the joy of New Year bells, so fast! The all-round enthusiasm, welcoming the new future, with the attendant feel of something disturbingly new, overwhelms every other feeling in all hearts and minds. Invariably, there is an air of hope- hope for better days, better opportunities and greater achievements. Truly, hope springs eternal in every human heart! Surprisingly enough, without this hope and guarantee of the new and better days, no one would have survived the “shock” of the frustrations and displeasures of the past. The door is slowly opening for the new year, like the deceptively simple spread of light and colour, steadily increasing at every dawn.  The stars of Christmas are still shining on to the portals of the new year. It is a slowly opening magnificence. As we get to our feet after worshipping the Babe of Bethlehem, the New Year arrives. It seems highly symbolic that the new year and order get inaugurated at the worship of the Incarnated Son of God.

But for the imaginative charm of the New Year, there is nothing new about the Day! It is just like any other day. The newness is in the minds and thoughts of those who welcome it – the wait with the “past tense, present perfect ” kind of feeling. The year past has seen violence and terror all over the world. No part of this planet today is free from disturbances and fear. Yet as in the days of Noah, people go about their ways, celebrating and making merry! By the way, what are we celebrating today, at the face of the New Year? Do we have yet something left to celebrate?

The world has greatly lost the culture of innocence and selflessness. Everyone wants to be happy, at the expense of anyone or anything. The Bible tells us that novelty of all hues come from God only. Along with Nature, we too are challenged to be new every day, shedding the evils and frustrations of yesterday. And that seems possible only and only if we are mentally prepared to hand over not only our anxieties, but the actual bridle of our lives in to the willing hands of the Babe of Bethlehem, “in whom we live, move and have our being”. The moment we are mentally equipped and hand over the control buttons of our hearts and lives to him, then comes the feeling of relief, a great burden off our back!

Newness is about convictions and the selfless human relationships. It is the company of those you mind in your life and the tenderness with which you care for the less fortunate around you! The new year is for becoming new at heart and doing new things to bring hope in the life of someone around you to tell somebody in all earnestness, “yes, I care…” In theological parlance it is the time to restart our endeavour to regain the lost innocence, holiness and wisdom with which God entrusted us in the beginning.  We need to build and rebuild structures of justice and innocence all around, where the human person can live in dignity, without fear and true to one’s convictions. The culture of violence and exploitation and flexing of muscles by the mighty…the list goes on, but there is still hope, so says the rays of Light emanating from the Manger!

Bethlehem tells us “still there is hope”. Let us hold on to it. The Chinese do it literally, by throwing out all old things out of their houses at the time of the Chinese New Year. It is time for us to ponder and attempt to effect changes in our lives, and do things to make change for the better in someone else’s life!

“Behold, I make all things new, says the Lord”.

WISH YOU ALL A BLESSED AND FRUITFUL NEW YEAR

In His Office,

Rev. Johnson M. John

Beloved Parishioners in Christ

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

As we enter into the last quarter of the year, let me wish you all great time ahead. May God bless you in all possible way.

The last quarter of the year has to be a time of introspection. How far, we as a Parish, has been able to join God’s Mission in God’s world. What is a Parish? Many a time, we perceive Parish as a small unit of the greater reality, Church. But a local parish is much more than that. Every local parish has the fullness of Church, why because Parish is the place and reality where People of God celebrates the life and salvation in Christ. Church understands herself as a community who remembers Christ’s death, celebrates his resurrection and hopefully wait for his second coming. This is reminded and celebrated on every Sunday in every Parish. Thus every parish inherits the nature of the Church from this repeated celebration on all Sundays. In the New Testament each worshipping community is called as a Church. But for a parish to be incorporated into the fullness of Church; a parish should engage into active relations with other parishes; a parish has to dynamically correlate with the space and time in which it is placed.

A Parish is not only for the people who find their name in the registers of the Parish. But it has to understand and accept the people and circumstances surrounding it. A Parish is supposed to show interest in the rights of communities around it and in the deliverance of justice to the people. A Parish has to ensure that the harmony that a Parish enjoys as the body of Christ has to be delivered to the world surrounding it. The two examples that Christ has given us is very apt and relevant in this context. ‘You are the light of the World’; ‘You are the salt of the earth’. A Parish has to lighten up all the darkness in which it is placed and speed up all sorts of growth and changes through this light. As salt dissolves and becomes invisible and gives taste, the Worshipping community is supposed to witness Christ not through its paraphernalia or gigantic institutions. Rather, through the gentle process of dissolving and self-giving, the worshipping community becomes a witnessing community. My dear sisters and brothers in Christ, I wish and pray that God may use us more in these days in delivering God’s kingdom on this world.

As we all know, the last quarter is full of activities. It is only through the whole-hearted support of all our members that we can carry on these tasks. I urge all our members’ support and presence in the activities of the parish. The Church enter into new liturgical year in the last week of October. Through the season of Advent we wait upon the Lord’s arrival. It is with the God-incarnate we enter into the new year.

May God bless us all

In His Office,

Rev. Johnson M. John