Commission on Justice, Peace
and Creation
National Council of Churches
in India
International Prayer Day for
Peace – Celebrations
September 21, 2015, Ranchi, Jharkhand
The
NCCI Commission on Justice, Peace and Creation (CJPC) organized its annual International Prayer Day for Peace
Celebrations on the 21st September, 2015 in Ranchi, Jharkhand, joining the SCM
Jharkhand Bihar Region, CNI Chota Nagpur Diocese, GEL Church and Christian
Service Agency on the theme ‘Peace and
Dignity on Earth’. There were 150 participants from the different colleges,
Churches and Civil Society Movements.
Rev.
Fr. Aswin Fernandis, Chairperson of NCCI-CJPC chaired the celebrations. He
called all the Churches to involve in doing peace and ministering for peace.
Rev.
R. Christopher Rajkumar Executive Secretary of NCCI–CJPC welcomed the gathering
and gave a briefing about the International Prayer Day for Peace initiated by
the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the United Nations (UN), and requested
remembrance of the victims of the conflicts all over the globe. Also, espoused
that, the Jharkhand and Bihar regions are found to be some of the most
conflict-affected zones in India in terms of Education, Employment,
Agriculture, Human Trafficking, Migration, Invasion of Extractive Industries
and the such. So, it is the right time to discuss on ‘Peace from Dalit and
Adiviasi Perspectives’. And this day paves a way for the faith communities and
the CSOs to initiate discussions and conversations on peace.
Rt.
Rev. B. B. Baskey, the CNI Bishop in Chota Nagpur welcomed the dignitaries and
the participants on behalf of the Chota Nagpur Diocese. Also Bishop presented a
brief background about the regions and the conflicts that ruins the harmony in
these regions. He also solicited an accompaniment with the churches in these
regions to work for holistic peace.
Rev.
Dr. Roger Gaikwad, General Secretary – NCCI opened up a discussion on the ban
of the hindi movie ‘Messenger of God – II’ in Jharkhand and Punjab, in which
the ‘Tribal and Adivasi’ communities are depicted as ‘god-rejected’, ‘evils’
and ‘anti-god’ communities. The concern was
about the rise of ‘rightwing fundamentalism’ that divides the
communities of people and creating ‘enmity’ among the communities with racial
profiling strategies. Also he referred to the struggles of the migrating
communities from these regions who struggle for ‘citizenship’ in Nepal and
other neighbouring countries, and also problems including discrimination and
statelessness that they face in several places in India itself.
Dr.
Sushant Agrawal, Director, Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action and the
Moderator of the ACT Alliance was the main speaker. Dr. Sushant identified and
highlighted the conflicts in four areas which make victims of ‘economical violence’ in Greece that
creates the whole issue of migration and the refugees in the European region and
their economy, the ‘faith conflict’
victims in Syria and the entire African regions, the increase of human-made ‘ecological conflicts’ by the extraction
industries, climate change and carbon emission, and the ‘conflicts among the peoples communities’ such as caste conflicts.
He challenged all the faith communities and the CSOs to join together in
ignoring our differences to become ‘channels of peace’ and ‘peace-makers’.
He further emphasized those faith communities to radically depart from their
traditional ‘inward looking’ practices and move towards being ‘outward looking, ’ facilitating ‘holistic
and inclusive’ communities of all. And finally he suggested all the
well-wishers of peace to work together with a common minimum programme to
address conflicts by educating and emancipating the youth and children at
grassroots.
Rev.
Dr. A G Augustine Jeyakumar greeted the participants and the church leaders
urging them to become ‘peace-makers.’ He said, it is a challenging ministry but
the churches are mandated to be ‘peace-makers’ and Jesus says 'blessed are the
peace makers’. So peace-making ministry is the blessed ministry and we all need
to work together forgetting our ecclesial and theological differences.
Mr.
Suman Biswas, Vice-President – NCCI, Rt. Rev. Dr. Nelson Lakra, Chairperson of
the NCCI – Commission on Tribals and
Adivasis, Mr. Inbaraj Jeyakumar, General Secretary SCM India and Mrs. T P
Agrawal brought greetings. Rev. Dr. Samuel Meshack, President, World
Association of Christian Communication and the Chairperson of the NCCI –
Commission on Communication and Relations graced the occasion along with other
several NCCI Executive Committee and General Body members.
Mrs.
Ramani Dyvasirvadam, the Chairperson of the NCCI - Commission on Dalits,
led in the ‘candlelight vigil’ remembering the ‘conflict victims’ all over
the globe’ and a special prayer was offered for the conflict victims in
Palestine suggested by the World Council of Churches. All recited the ‘Prayer
for Peace’ by St. Francis of Assisi. All the participants solemnly prayed for
peace with lighted candles.
Mr.
Ranjit, Programme Secretary -SCM Jharkhand proposed the vote of thanks and
Bishop Baskey offered a closing Prayer and Bishop Collins Theodore pronounced
the benediction.
NCCI - Commission on Justice, Peace and Creataion
