1) It was very painful to see the sad end of the lamented HH the Catholicose on 12th July and the funeral supervisions etc held on 13th July. He deserved a better deal of farewell by any yardstick as he was a simple, rustic, nice village soul and affable to millions and to the marginalized who are in agony regardless of caste color or creed, judged by his benevolence and magnanimity. Both at Parumala and Devalokam the funeral arrangements were good taking into consideration the covid-19 pandemic situation.
2) The condolence messages poured in from the world over including the spiritual and secular leaders like HH Pope Francis, HH Patriarch of Antioch ,HH Russian Patriarch, HH Bartholomew the economical Patriarch ; US President Mr. Joe Biden, Hon President of India, Hon PM of India and a host of dignitaries from within the country and abroad, mostly facilitated by HG Zachariah Nicholvas is commendable to show us our Catholicose was a world respected leader of some values and moral authority.
While praying for heavenly eternal rest for our departed father, let us strive to foster unity and vision for the church now. The church needs now than ever, unity in action and vision. Let us recall the old saying, divided we fall, united we prosper.
Soul Searching Questions–Options
a) Did we conduct the funeral service with dignity, respect for the hitherto followed traditions, and solemnity is the moot question in introspection. Under the present coivid-19 restrictions the government of Kerala was more than forthcoming to facilitate it as peoples function and the large participation by the officials and the ministers including the Governor was a big testimony to it.
b) Both at Parumala and Devalokam, one could see the total absence of sane considerations of the time honored traditions of the church and the deliberate avoidance of the guru like older priests like Rev TJ Joshua , Rev PC Cherian, Rev O Thomas, Rev Jacob Kurian, and very many others.
c) It was not supposed to be a show of the power of lungs while singing songs, hymns etc as if to make good Bava’s lost lung power (Bava died due to lung cancer as his lung was not at all normal for nearly 28 weeks).
d) What we need is a solemn function in readings and singing. It is meant for the occasion. Please know for certain, one size does not fit in liturgy. You open widely the lung power for weddings, funeral and even for child baptism– do you have any semblance of propriety at all. Look at the Anglicans or the Russian –Greek- Slovakian funerals of the Orthodox fraternity to learn better lessons in observing solemnity and serenity according to the occasions. At best take advice from Rev Dr. MP George, who is a doyen of music ministry.
e) I am not a fan of any bishop or group in the church politics. Let us be more professional in our outlook and approach. We need to be more objective. If we respect orthodoxy as our creed, let us go by the traditions well established from time immemorial .
d) Why is that the website page seniority shown was given a miss in the funeral by hijacking the time honored traditions? Is to suit the sordid vested interests of some one who wants to usurp the chair of the Malankara Metropolitan and Catholicose?
e) Why the Priest Trustee was slighted by the master of ceremony? Is it part of a grand design to slight every one? Was he only to express the condolence of the church as done by the sawmyjee of Shantigiri Trivadnrum? Why did we go out of the way to express vote of thanks to one Jojo and family even out of context by Adv Biju Ommen?
e) Why readings were not assigned to the most deserving respected bishops like Anthasious , Gabriel, Anthonius, to mention a few notable names? Incidentally Athanasius is the senior most as I checked the website even now!
f) The palace coup was very well schemed, plotted ,designed and executed. They outsmarted William Shakespeare. My special congratulations to the master of ceremony and his masters.
g) The condolence oration by our most respected self-appointed Catholicose was fantastic as it was mostly from the so called last bull number 136 of our diseased Bava thirumnei! Whether our Bava was healthy enough to even to sign that bull is a question to be investigated by people of integrity so is the will of Bava, if any left behind. It seems by camping at Parumala, we did get time to manufacture all such clandestine documents to be assigned to the name of our Bawa, as he was no more capable of defending for himself. Even the date of declaration of his death was pre-determined to coincide with the passing away of Pulikottil Thirumeni on 12 th July. What a wonderful management decision by design. I salute such schemers in our church higher ups. Are we really the Church of God or a crowd of devils servants?
Let us recall the most unfortunate incident of the 40 th day of the death observation of the lamented Pachomius Thirumeni decades ago and the Kaimouth received from 7500 plus people was officially only as Rs 3000 plus. Where did the remaining Rs three lakhs plus disappear ? This shows the integrity of the people in high offices of the church now boast of transparency and honesty , even while running around America etc with begging bowls for various charity.
3) Let us hope and pray that God almighty would bless this Church, if it is the body of Christ. If there is a living God, I am sure he would intervene for certain.
Dr. KM George