NCCI Stands with the Grieving and Suffering Bomb attack Victims in Pakistan

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN INDIA

Commission on Justice, Peace and Creation

PRESS NOTE

NCCI Stands with the Grieving and Suffering Bomb attack Victims in Pakistan

Nagpur, March 16, 2015: The National Council of Churches in India expresses its deep shock and painful concern over the continuous attack on innocent public, including Christians, in Pakistan.

As reported by the Media at least 70 people were injured and 15 lost their lives to these inhuman assassinations yesterday ( 15 March 2015) in a Catholic Church and the Christ Church in Youhanabad near Lahore City, where Christians have lived together for years in amity and peace.

The NCCI considers these assaults not merely as attacks on public and innocent citizens of Pakistan, but rather as intentional attacks on 'Pakistan’ itself'.

MAKE IT HAPPEN NOW!!!

Women Police promoting the campaign
365 DAYS "ZERO" TOLERANCE TO GENDER BASED VIOLENCE, 

COMMEMORATING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

NEWS FROM ALL INDIA COUNCIL OF CHRISTIAN WOMEN

As the world commemorated International Women’s Day All India Council of Christian Women the women’s wing of National Council of Churches in India launched the campaign 365 Days  Zero Tolerance To Gender Based Violence: Make it Happen Now!!! IWD was also commemorated in different churches all over India.

Conscientising Police Officers

The Executive Committee members of AICCW along with women leaders from Diocese of Nagpur, Church of North India visited different police stations in the city of Nagpur to honor the women police for the contributions. “This is the first time in my life someone is honoring me on International Women’s Day. Such event has never happened in any Police station in Nagpur.” opined Shefali Police woman serving in Sadar Police station Nagpur. Certificates of appreciation, trophies were distributed to police women in different police stations in Nagpur. “In our country where women are regarded as a burden and suffer discrimination and violence from womb to death it is not easy for a woman in India to be a police woman. Yet there are women who dare to risk their lives and overcome all challenges to become police women. They deserved to be honored” states Moumita Biswas Executive Secretary of AICCW.

 Dr Saramma Vargehese – President of AICCW states “India has become the fourth most dangerous country in the world for a woman to live in. Every 20 minutes a woman is raped in India. Many of our streets are not safe for women and girls even to walk. It is in this context of growing violence in India we also need support of police to maintain law and order. Hence we need the support of police also to promote this campaign” 

Diaconal Church in a Radically Changing India.

Chennai Affirmation

We, the participants of the National Consultation on 'Diakonal Church in the Radically Changing India', held at Chennai on the 23^rd and 24^th February 2015 jointly organized by the Church of South India Synod and Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society hereby declare that...

The ‘Diakonal Church’ is the one that is sensitive to the concerns of poor, oppressed and socially, traditionally and historically excluded communities.  It is to prepare a Table for 'all' to join the 'koinonia' of the resurrected Christ's community without any discrimination by affirming everyone's dignity, respect, identities and  differences.

The motto of ‘Diaconal Church’ is to serve but not to be served (Mark 10: 45). It facilitates the Christian faith communities to embark on a journey to serve the earth communities leaving the comfort zone to take up a 'kenotic' and servant leadership. It is to bear a public witness politically in the presence of resurrected Christ and to re-embark on a journey of accompaniment with the struggling communities for fullness of life and livelihood.  

Life Giving Agriculture Forum India Launched

‘Life-Giving Agriculture’ Forum - 2015

Theme: “Agriculture is Life - Agriculture is Right"

2 - 6 Feb 2015, ECC, Bangalore, India

Jointly organized by:

Commission on Justice Peace and Creation - National Council of Churches in India - NCCI

Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society - CISRS

Ecumenical Christian Centre - ECC

Korean Christian Life Giving Agriculture Forum - KCLGAF

Mainstreaming Life-Giving Agriculture in India & Korea  

(Statement Issued by the Participants)

We, the 55 participants representing various walks of life such as farmers, activists, theologians, clergies and academicians from India and South Korea meeting at a National Consultation on 'Life Giving Agriculture' from 2^nd to 6^th February 2015 at the Ecumenical Christian Centre, Bangalore, India, deliberated on important concerns and issues affecting farmers in India and Korea, and have issued the following Statement:

I-                Life-Giving Agriculture - Threats & Challenges

Through the deliberations, exposure, sharing and interaction discussion we  realize that, the Life Giving Agriculture Forum meets in the context of adverse effects of the Economic Globalization and Market Economy faced by farmers in both countries (and elsewhere) wherein agrarian communities have started moving from ‘agri-culture to agri-business' by paving ways for Genetically Modified (GM) technologies to the cash crops and high-yielding variety and, often, termination seeds, mechanization for ploughing and harvesting, and chemical fertilizers and pesticides aiming at quantity rather than quality.

Secondly, the States' pro-corporate stance leads to enforcing anti-agriculture and anti-farmer policies having adverse affects on the peasants, resulting mostly from agri-based debts, leading to migration and reducing their status to argi-refugees, as well as a major cause for forcing farmers to commit suicides. India is now opening up to corporate pillaging like never before.  Traditional knowledge Systems and indigenous practices are being snuffed out. The poor and the marginalized which are solely dependent on agriculture as a means of livelihood, have been forced to abandon their traditional sources and resources for life and livelihood, and migrate to cities.  Such onslaught affects mostly the Dalits, Adivasis, Women and other marginalized and excluded communities, especially the landless agricultural labourers in India.

INVITATION TO COMBAT THE PANDEMIC OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN INDIA

365 DAYS ZERO TOLERANCE TO GENDER BASED VIOLENCE: MAKE IT HAPPEN NOW is a campaign launched by All India Council of Christian Women (AICCW) which is the women’s wing of National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) in response to the increasing Gender based violence in India. 

The campaign was inaugurated by Rt. Rev. Dr. Taranath S. Sagar, President of NCCI during its Executive Committee meeting in Bangalore on 27th February 2015. "Prophetic church cannot remain silent when our daughters and mothers are being raped, when our roads are becoming unsafe for our daughters to go to school, when our indigenous sisters are trafficked and displaced from their home as forests are bought by multi-national Companies, when our children are sold for a sack of rice, when women are battered by their loved ones at home, or burnt for dowry, or our daughters are deprived of food and education" asserts Dr. Saramma Varghese, President of AICCW. "We have chosen International Women’s Day to promote this campaign" states Dr. Varghese.

Prof. Dr. Ninan Koshy passes away

The National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) is grieved to hear about the sudden death of globally celebrated ecumenical leader Prof. Dr. Ninan Koshy on 4th March 2015.  

Prof. Dr. Ninan Koshy will be remembered as a noted political thinker, foreign affairs expert, theologian and social analyst. He started his ministry as President of the Youth movement of the Church of South India (CSI) Madhya Kerala Diocese, later going on to be Professor of English at the CMS College, Kottayam.  He was also the founder Vice-Principal and Head of the Department of English at Bishop Moore College, Mavelikara, and member of the Syndicate University of Kerala.  Later on he taught in Changanassery S.B. College, and Thiruvalla Marthoma College too.

NCCI acknowledges his leadership in global ecumenical circles as well as through its constituent members.  He served as General Secretary of the Student Christian Movement of India (SCMI) and also Director of the Ecumenical Christian Centre (ECC) in Bangalore. He moved to the World Council of Churches (WCC) eventually becoming the director of the Churches Commission on International Affairs (CCIA).  His work in the area of critical international affairs included ecumenical diplomacy, drafting public statements on behalf of WCC, policy making on public issues, and various other interventions that earned him the trust and acclaim of various countries and global organisations.  He was a political analyst par excellence.  

Rev. Dr. James Massey passes away.

Rev. Dr. (Habil) James Massey, one of the greatest champions of the Dalit cause in India, passed away on 2nd March 2015 in Patna where he was undergoing heart treatment. 

As one of the strongest voices for rights of Dalits, especially the Christians of Dalit origin, and having dedicated his life for the subaltern communities in India, his passing away is a great loss and has shocked the Indian Church and society. Being one of the pioneers and proponents of Dalit Theology, his contributions are immense to the field of theology and theological formation. He will be remembered as a “mentor to a generation of upcoming Dalit Theologians”. Rev. Dr. Massey, who was originally from Punjab, translated the Bible in Punjabi. He authored and edited more than twenty books, most of which are in-depth studies on Dalits and other subaltern communities in India. One of his major contributions is the Dalit Bible Commentary. He also served the minority communities in India in the capacity of member of Minority Commission. 

NCCI Statement: Secular Character of India under Threat!

SECULAR CHARACTER OF INDIA UNDER THREAT!

The National Council of Churches in India expresses its deep concern over growing religious intolerance in our country, and targeted violence against the Christian community. The sustained hate campaigns have resulted in vicious attacks on our people, places of worship and our institutions. Such incidents of violence are taking place right across the country—Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. In the recent past, they are even happening in the national capital.

In addition to such attacks, there are other strategic ways in which efforts are being made to destabilize Christian faith and witness:

• Declaring 25th December, one of our holiest days, as ‘Good Governance Day’, showing no regard for the long standing tradition of the celebration of Christmas in the country, which has been a public holiday;
• The ghar wapsi campaign promoted by Hindutva groups is an overt and aggressive attempt to convert Christians and Muslims to Hinduism, portraying Christianity as a ‘foreign’ religion, despite evidence that Christians have been living on the sub-continent right from the first century.
• Though the Prime Minister had assured the Christian community of ‘freedom of choice’ regarding religion on 17 February 2015, and had earlier called for a 10 year moratorium on communal disharrmony in his independence day speech of 15 August 2014, he has made no explicit condemnation of the attacks on Christians and the increasing Hindutva propaganda
• The recent comments of Mr. Bhagwat about Mother Teresa are unwarranted
• The government under the pretext of stopping forced conversion (which Christians do not advocate or practice) seems to be intent on enacting an anti-conversation law, which we discern will be used against Christians, primarily to intimidate and to harass. It is against the spirit of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the freedom to profess, preach and propagate one’s religion.

NCCI Centenary Celebration 2014 - Glimpses

National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) celebrated its centenary in 2014 in a series of regional programs all over India. This video is a a compilation of the highlights / glimpses of the year-long celebration.

Check out the video from our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zhg3fS32zo

NCCI Condemns Attacks on and Abduction of Christians in the Middle-East!

NCCI Condemns Attacks on and Abduction of Christians in the  Middle-East!

The National Council of Churches in India expresses profound sorrow and strongly condemns  the continuing abduction of Christians by the IS jihadists in North-East Syria, Iraq, Egypt and other Middle East countries generating a terrorizing situation of violence and death, thereby forcing people to relocate with a feeling of abandonment and hopelessness.

We strongly denounce the continued attacks on minorities, especially the recent attacks on churches in villages, the indiscriminate bloody annihilation of innocent lives, and the rampant abduction that is taking place in Syria, Iraq and other countries.

We resolutely condemn such hideous actions and stoutly challenge the ideologies of terror and violence guided by the fundamentalist communal misinterpretation of religious beliefs.

While we express our solidarity with our abducted fellow believers and their grieving families and churches, we demand the release of all  the hostages.

We sincerely commit ourselves to work with all peace-loving agencies for the rescue of the victims and for bringing peace in Middle-East Nations.

(This statement is adopted by the Executive Committee of the National Council of Churches in India on the 27 Feb 2015 in Bangalore initiated by the Commission on Justice, Peace and Creation).