Malankara Orthodox Church in the year 2008

Dear friends in Christ,

As the year 2008 leaves behind its memories, and we look forward to the year 2009 with hope, we must thank the Lord for guiding the
As the year 2008 leaves behind its memories, and we look forward to
the year 2009 with hope, we must thank the Lord for guiding the
Malankara Orthodox Church during the year.

There were many memorable events in the year 2008, some, we cherished
with joy and the sense of progress, some, we accepted with tears. The
church made progress in every walk of its life. The grace of the Lord
was with us in every moment. The signs of a strong leadership truly
emerged. The urge to reach out to the poor was ever more. The unity of
its people was evident.

There were many memories, big and small, some of them have been captured at
http://icon.org.in/php/2008.php

All in all, a memorable year. Thank you Lord.

We wish everyone a very happy new year filled with
heavenly blessings. May the Lord bless all of us.

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese

Remembering HH Baselios Geevargheese I

Dear friends,

The 80th rememberance perunal of the second catholicose of the
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, HH Baselios Geevargheese I is being
celebrated at Vallikat Dayara, Vakathanam from December 7th to
December 17th.

His Holiness was born in 1870. He was ordained as 'Koruya' on 13 June
1885, as deacon in 1892, on 16 August 1896 as priest and on 23 August
as Ramban(Monk) by Metropolitan Kadavil Paulose Mar Athanasios. He
served as the Manager of Thrikunnath Seminary, Aluva from 1908 to
1910. On February 1913, he was consecrated as Metropolitan Geevarghese
Mar Philexinos. He was the Metropolitan of Kottayam and Angamaly
diocese. He made Vallikattu Dayara his administrative headquarters. On
30 April 1925 at Niranam, the Holy Synod installed him as the
Catholicos of the East. Through prayer and fasting he achieved
spiritual strength, which helped him to guide the Malankara Church
into green pastures. He passed away on 17 December 1928 at Neyyoor
Hospital. He was laid to rest on the northern side of Vallikattu
Dayara.

The profile of HH Baselios Geevargheese I:
http://icon.org.in/icon_catholicosedetails.icon?method=getCatholicoseDetails&id=BaseliosGeevargheseI

The detailed program and flyer of the perunal is available at

http://augenthirumeni.com/images/notice1.jpg
http://augenthirumeni.com/images/notice2.jpg

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese

Unbelievable! - Malankara Sabha Maha Sammelanam

Unbelievable! - Malankara Sabha Maha Sammelanam

 

Unbelievable! Unbelievable! Unbelievable! is all I can say. My eye has never before seen anything close to what I saw at the St.Thomas Nagar, Baselious College grounds, Kottayam. It was indeed a maha sammelanam that many have seen for the first time.

 

Taking into account all the hardships that the church had to go through to get to this point and the time it had in hand to get the countless people from all parts of Kerala and beyond, it was a Herculean task to make this a grand success.

 

The grace of the Lord and the hard work of thousands and thousands of church loving people resulted in large number of people  showing up for a well organized peaceful and powerful meeting and making it an unbelievable success. Young and old, men and women joined alike to make this a memorable event.

 

This meeting was so well organized, its beyond words of appreciation. The thousands of volunteers did a amazing job that there was no visible police presence inside the grounds.

 

The Rally was led by H.H, followed by bishops, bishop elects, clergy. Behind the leaders, the students from Kottayam seminary, and sisters from various institutions followed. Behind them, the people from each diocese (in alphabetical order) followed. All in all, an amazing rally. 

 

The speaker stole every moment and crowd was jubilant all through the meeting. The association secretary started of with a highly energetic welcome speech. The speakers used the podiums to crush false propaganda and myths that are spread by various groups and societies. They used the occasion to educate the faithful of the true interpretations. The meeting was addressed by Dr. George Joseph, H.H (message read by H.G. Mar Coorilos), H.G. Paulose Mar Militios, H.G Thomas Mar Athanasius, H.G.Dr Thomas Mar Athanasius, H.G.Mathews Mar Severius, Rev. Fr Abraham Johns Konat, Rev.Fr. Mathai Edayanal, M.G. George Muthoot, Alexander Karakkal, Very Remban Thomas Paul and Smt. Priya Jacob. The words of each of the speakers were very much thought provoking.

 

The true sons of this church have once again shown everyone, that we listen to our H.H, and we are here to serve the church. All it takes is for H.H to send out the word.

 

If we could pull this through so successfully within 14 days of H.H's kalpana, it should only give us an idea of what this church is capable of. We proved once again that nothing can stop us. The politicians can play their games, prevent us from using stadiums and resources, but the Lord will give us what we need. 

 

Let's thank the Lord for the success of this meeting and continue to pray for this church.

 

Thanks,

Rajesh Vargheese

Reporting for ICON from St. Thomas Nagar

Mar Baselios College Grounds

Kottayam

Seminary Day - An interview with Rev. Fr. Johns Abraham Konat, Priest Trustee, MOC

The Malankara Orthodox church designates the first Sunday of October as the Seminary Day. This year it will be celebrated on October 5th, 2008. Our Orthodox theological seminary in Kottayam and the St. Thomas Orthodox Theological Seminary in Nagpur are providing exemplary service in training our spiritual leaders. In an effort to create a greater awareness about our seminaries, Rev. Fr. Johns Abraham Konat, Priest Trustee, MOSC and Professor, OTS shares few of his few of his thoughts on the seminaries.



Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese

ROOF Project May Update: Keys Handed over

The house that was being constructed as part of the ROOF project (part of the 10th anniversary projects 2007) at Cumbemettu, Idukki has been completed. The house was blessed and the keys were handed over to the benefeciary during the second week of May, 2008 by the vicar of St.Marys Church, Cumbemettu. In addition to vicar, Rev. Fr. K.T. Jacob and Rev. Fr. Kuriakose Varghese attended the blessing ceremony.

We thank Rev. Fr. K.T. Jacob, Grace Charities for providing us the follow-up on the construction progress.

We thank the Lord for the opportunity to reach out to this family in need. We thank all our well wishers for the prayers and support.

For more details about the project, please visit http://www.stgregoriosaustin.org/reachingOut.php

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese,
Austin, TX

ROOF Project March 2008 Update

The house that was being constructed as part of the ROOF project (part of the 10th anniversary projects 2007) is progressing steadily at Cumbemettu, Idukki. These are the pictures of the house construction as of March 2008. The internal wiring and flooring has been completed. Part of the exterior of the house has been plastered. The remaining plastering and painting work in under progress now. According to current plans, the house construction will be completed and keys will be handed over to the beneficiary during April 2008.

We thank Rev. Fr. K.T. Jacob, Grace Charities for providing us the follow-up on the construction progress.

For more details about the project, please visit http://www.stgregoriosaustin.org/reachingOut.php

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese,

Austin, TX

ROOF Project February 2008 Update

ROOF Project February 2008 Update

The house that was being constructed as part of the ROOF project (part of the 10th anniversary projects 2007) is progressing steadily at Cumbemettu, Idukki.

The roofing has been completed. Currently, (Feb 08) internal wiring and other flooring work are being carried out. These are the pictures of the house construction as of February 2008.

Thanks to Rev. Fr. K.T. Jacob, Grace Charities for providing us the follow-up.

For more details about the project, please visit http://www.stgregoriosaustin.org/reachingOut.php

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese,
Austin, TX

The Great Lent, Our traditions and our next generations

The Great Lent, Our traditions and our next generations

As we enter yet another Great Lent, it might be a good idea to ask ourselves and our children: how prepared are we for this great lent? How will we do during this great lent? Will we be successful in resisting the temptations to do the things that we gave up at the beginning of the great lent? Will we be any closer to Jesus? Will we take the extra time to pray? Will we pray for the less fortunate?...

Our church has a very rich tradition of special lent prayers, kumbidal and other traditions during the Great Lent. The special prayers during the great Lent have a lot of meaning in each word that is included in it. Our grand parents and our parents used to follow these with great
importance. As we disintegrate into nuclear families, will these traditions be handed over to the next generations? The more important question is: do we ourselves pray these special prayers, thereby giving our children a chance to hear these and learn these? Or do we think it's not important to pray these? Or even assume that the next generation is not going to be interested in it.

We must do everything to pass on these traditions to our next generations. If language if the only barrier, we must work to overcome it. It might be my ignorance, but I am not sure if there are English versions of these prayers for the children that do not know Malayalam.

Also, the great Lent is the time to build the character of our next generation to share and care for others. They must pray and help their less fortunate friends who are orphans and helpless.

In addition to our families, our Sunday schools and other spiritual organization's must take a proactive approach in passing on these valuable traditions to the next generation. We have to be positive in our thoughts that the next generation will be interested in these. It does not hurt to give it to try. I am sure our children will appreciate receiving these traditions.

Two years ago, at our Sunday school at St. Gregorios Church, Austin, TX, we created a guide called the Great Lent guide with some special lent prayers translated into English and made it interesting to the kids by adding activities for them every day of the 50 days of the Great Lent. We also used this guide to make them aware of the orphanages our church has. Each day was assigned to a charitable organization, and the kids would pay for them on that day. The children were really interested and excited to use this guide and hence we again did the same last year. The point that I'm trying to make here is that if we spend the energy and effort to make it interesting and informative for them, they will surely appreciate it.

If anyone is interested, please feel free to download this guide from our website [ www.stgregoriosaustin.org ] under the title 'The Great Lent Guide'. There are no copyrights, nor do we need any acknowledgments. Please feel free to change the church name as you need. A generation that strongly believes in our rich traditions and embraces the culture of caring and sharing is the biggest acknowledgment that one can ever dream of. May this Great lent help us
get closer to Jesus.

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
Austin, TX

(ICON repost from 2007)

H.H. Moran Mar Baselius Marthoma Mathews II in memories

H.H. Moran Mar Baselius Marthoma Mathews II in memories

January 26, 2008 marks the second anniversary since H.H.Moran Mor Baselius Marthoma Mathews II, the Catholicose of the East, the 89th successor to the Apostolic throne of St. Thomas and the 6th Catholicose in Malankara Orthodox Church joined the creator after finishing his mission on this earth.

HH was a great orator and possessed vast knowledge in many areas. On this day, we remember HH through his golden words through a documentary 'Thirumozhikal'.



Thirumozhikal is a documentary featuring the words of H.H. Moran Mar Baselius Marthoma Mathews II and was created by CROSS (Christian Revival for Saving Souls) Media.
Special thanks to John Thomas, CROSS Media, Dubai for this wonderful compilation and many other Christian productions.

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese