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

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pakistan-articleLargeNagpur, 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!!!

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COMMEMORATING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

NEWS FROM ALL INDIA COUNCIL OF CHRISTIAN WOMEN

pic1As 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.

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.

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Diaconal Church in a Radically Changing India.

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Chennai Affirmation

We, the participants of the National Consultation on ‘Diakonal Church in the Radically Changing India’, held at Chennai on the 23rd and 24th 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.

This ‘diakonia‘ demands not only the ‘service’ but also preparation of the space to create communities of equals and dignity as described in Nazareth manifesto (Luke 4: 61-21). It is to explain the vision of God and symbolize the ‘reign of god’ with the values of Love, Justice and Peace by prophetically healing, restoring and reconciling the societies of conflicts and disparities towards fullness of all lives.

Context

We realize that, the ‘mantra’ of Economic Globalization and Developmental paradigm of the States change the whole world to be  ‘flat’ through communicating and consolidating the capital accumulations of wealth through trans-national corporatism, extractive industrialization and ecological exploitation and victimization of the earth communities by uprooting of habitats from their traditionally living and culturally rooted environments.

These ‘flattening’ policies and principals of the ‘Economic Globalization’ are creating the tailor-made ‘flat’ societies and communities by  inculcating the values such as ‘consumerism’, ‘privatization’ , ‘individualism’, ‘competition’ and ‘inequality’.

We observe that,  in the context of radically changing Indian contexts, the  ‘majoritarianism’, rise of  ‘right-wing ideological fundamentalism’ and hate campaigns are creating panic and insecurity among the ‘minority communities’, ‘economically poor’ and ‘religiously and culturally excluded’, such as Dalits, Adivasis, Tribals, Women and Children. They turn the communities to be against one another with hate and hostility.

In this context of crisis, the churches as called and committed faith communities are to be prophetic and mandated to work ‘on’ equality and ‘for’ equality. The 2010 Edinburgh declaration calls the churches of our times to re-look and review our vision, theologies and ministries from the growing influence of ‘prosperity theologies’, ‘individualistic eschatology’, upholding caste and patriarchy, and becoming the mammon worshipers.

We affirm that…

  • The Diakonal Church as a prophetic community, is called to ensure respect, dignity and life of the earth communities including the human communities through the appropriate interventions and encounters with the oppressive attitudes of the  ‘Powerful, Dominant Empires and States’ by engaging in ‘diakonia’.

  • The Diakonal Church is a conscious servant ‘of’ and ‘to’  all by prophetically engaging and encountering conformity with the Powers
  • The Diakonal Church is called to promote and prorogate the liberative and transformative Gospel values of Love, Justice and Peace in combating the exclusivism,  fundamentalism and economy based prosperity gospel and theology

We Confess that…

  • the ‘diakonia’ today is mainly dependent on funded projects and serving from comfortable zones
  •      the Indian Church today is panicked and suffocated  by the ‘minority phobia’ with  exclusive demands of ‘minority Rights rather than working towards promoting, defending and affirming the fundamental rights of every individual
  • the churches today are mostly crawling with the exclusive and prosperity theologies rather than having faiths on ‘theology of fullness of life and Economy of Life’.

   the diakonal expressions were initially founded to serve the poor and the excluded communities but now it meets the expectations of the elites and rich involving in commercialization and comodifaction of knowledge  through our Institutions

  • the Churches today are strategically made silent by the law enforcement of States while it is supposed to be prophetically accompany the journeys with the victims.

We are committed to…

  • charting a discourse on vision, mission and diakonal expressions of the churches today in  terms of Kerigma,  Metanoia  and Koinonia as embedded in the Scripture.

    envisioning a world with fuller humanity and fullness of life by enabling truth and  reconciliation with the entire earth communities towards Just-peace

    ensure the ‘transparency, accountability and responsibility in all our structures and institutions and launch a campaign for ‘transparent India’

  • listening stories of the ‘diakonia’ of neighbors of other faiths  to encompass the diakonia ‘of’ all and diakonia ‘for’ all

We call upon all the churches and ecumenical movements:

  • to draw  a creative and relevant, radical and prophetic ‘diakonia’ for today
  • to strategically plan and execute ‘prophetic ‘diakonia’ by facilitating the local congregations  for public witness

    to be united in combating the hate campaigns such as ‘Ghar Wapsi’ constitutionally and politically.

Proposed Activities

  • Net-working with the churches, Christian Institutions and Ecumenical Movements to         promote a relevant ‘diakonal Church’

      Initiate the process of organizing conversation with the church leaders and ecumenical   bodies at the regional level enhancing the capacities of the laity and clergy engage in the  ‘prophetic-dia’konia’ towards transformative mission in the Socio Economic and Political   Context of  India

  • Initiating process to develop, articulate and promote a new context specific and relevant ‘diakonia’ for all
  • Facilitating the theological fraternities and local congregations to move from the prosperity theology to ‘economy of life’ and to move from charity to solidarity and accompaniment

  • Promoting the holistic vision of theology of life as a pilgrimage of justice and peace

Life Giving Agriculture Forum India Launched

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‘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 2nd to 6th 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.

We do inform that, large segment of Indian populace is facing critical questions of food sovereignty and food security since the corporates’ plunder of land, water and other natural resources continue unabated. Initiatives of low external inputs and sustainable agriculture experiments are mostly limited to the land-owning farmers, whereas such initiatives could not be practiced by Dalits and Adivasis who are marginal farmers and landless.

II-              LEARNING FROM SOUTH KOREAN FARMERS:

We do learn from South Korean farmers that,

  • Korea has experienced land reformation in 1950s.  However, the government adopts the globalised economy and World Trade Organization (WTO) and, thus, imports food grains at a large scale. This results in an open confrontation between the imported GM grains and the produce of organic farmers of Life Giving Agriculture Forum. Even so, most of the Korean youth are leaving agriculture for softer options.
  • The LGA movement promoted new strategies to popularize the traditional farming methods and knowledge systems with a view to recapturing the youth for farming. The Church in Korea is also actively involved in efforts of promoting LGA and exploring alliances with similar movements in other countries. In Korea, responding to the present oppressive conditions faced by farmers, a movement forLife Giving Agriculture was initiated which faces stiff opposition from GM Corporate giants supported by the Government Machinery. Even, in this adverse context, Korean Life Giving Agriculture Forum continues with its struggle to strive for better food security, ultimately leading to food sovereignty with a priority for the marginalized.

III-           A CALL TO THE CHURCHES & CIVIL SOCIETY:

In this hostile situation against marginal farmers prevailing in the two countries, the participants deliberated on the role of the Churches in promoting Life Giving Agriculture. Bible Study inputs helped to understand Faith response to present crisis in agriculture. There were also efforts to understand civil society initiatives and peasant movements both in Korea and India.

We the participants therefore call upon both the Indian and Korean Churches and Civil Societies,

(a)   To bring to the centre the rural Dalit and Adivasi Churches which are predominantly agrarian and who constitute eighty percent of our congregations but have been pushed to the margins for generations;

(b)   To re-read the Bible through the eyes of the marginal farmers and evolve liturgies that reflect agricultural motifs, seasons and festivals.

(c)    To lobby with the Government to implement radical land reforms and sustainable agriculture in the society-at-large.

(d)   To plead with Indian Churches to entrust vast tracts of land in their fold with local congregations promoting LGA rather than keep the land idle.

(e)   To motivate Churches in India to campaign for Food Sovereignty and negotiate with their respective States to ensure the just and fair public distribution system, and draw up schemes to eradicate hunger, malnutrition, and hunger deaths.

(f)    To organize Indian Churches to lobby for just and pro-farmer Land Legislations, and also reject the Land Acquisition Ordinance, 2014 introduced recently that supports multinational industries and corporate houses, and takes away the fundamental rights of farmers.

(g)   To promote alliance building with neighbouring South Asian countries so that churches and farmers’ movements learn from each other through exposures, joint consultations and best practices in Life Giving Agriculture.

(h)   LGA in Korea and India to address the serious problem of youth abandoning agriculture in villages and address the same on war footing.

(i)     LGA in Korea and India to explore new ground for ecumenical cooperation and collective action between rural and urban churches and between diverse denominations with LGA as focal point for the ecumenical journey tomorrow.

(j)     LGA in Korea and India to influence Seminaries to adapt theological education per se to include LGA in their regular courses as part of Ministerial Training.

IV – WE RESOLVE:

With regard to mainstreaming LGA in India, we resolve that the NCCI- CJPC promote Life-Giving Agriculture in India, and continue to dialogue and partner with LGA-Korea and promote Joint solidarity struggles and exchange of information on Life Giving Agriculture.

===================================================================

Contact:

The Executive Secretary,

Commission on Justice, Peace and Creation,

National Council of Churches in India,

<ncci.cjpc@gmail.com>, <ncci@nccindia.in>

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

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aiccwzerotolerance365 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.
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Prof. Dr. Ninan Koshy passes away

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drninankoshyThe 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.

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NCCI Statement: Secular Character of India under Threat!

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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 Read more

Rev. Dr. James Massey passes away.

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

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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.

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NCCI Centenary Celebration 2014 – Glimpses

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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: