Letter to the Indian Prime Minister expressing concern over the “good-days” and “good-governance”

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To

Shri Narendra Modi,

Prime Minister of India

Honorable Prime Minister,

This letter is a continuation of the concerns expressed in the letter of 2ndDecember 2014 sent from the NCCI Secretariat. The NCCI is a council representing about 14 million Christians in India belonging to the Protestant and Orthodox Traditions in India. We are committed to unity, witness, service and exemplary practice in the country. As a well-read person, you are certainly aware of the tremendous contribution made by Christians of all traditions (Including Catholics), in history and up to the present, towards nation building through education, health care, orphanages, old people’s homes, counseling ministries, relief services provided during natural calamities, and the ongoing work for rehabilitation and development. The Church in India continues to be committed to the cause of dalits, tribal/adivasis, women, youth, children, the disabled, PLWA, mother earth – indeed all creation, particularly those who have been marginalized. We are committed to an India developed on the principles of justice and peace.

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We weep with you oh Mothers, Sisters and Brothers of Pakistan – A letter from AICCW

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“Guns of Darkness! Why would I not curse you?

You turned love-filled homes into broken debris” (Pashto Couplet from Book ‘I am Malala’)

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18)

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

__________________________________________

My Dear bereaved Mothers, Sisters and Brothers in Pakistan,

We cannot wipe away your tears but we want to let you know that we weep with you and feel your pain.

1We are shocked and pained to know about the murder of 132 innocent students and nine staff members who were killed on 16th December 2014 Tuesday by Taliban terrorists who entered a school in Peshawar. We are horrified to know that teachers were believed to be burnt alive while students were forced to watch as Taliban gunmen stormed the school in Pakistan. We can only imagine what trauma these innocent children might have gone through and what trauma you all and your country is going through now.

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Message from NCCI General Secretary for Christmas and New Year 2015

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God with us: Gospel in a Groaning World

Our Groaning World

We live in a world marked by several sufferings: “Many continue to reel from the impact of wars; ethnic and religious animosity, discrimination based on race and caste mar the façade of nations and leave ugly scars. Thousands are dead, displaced, homeless, refugees within their own homeland. Women and children often bear the brunt of conflicts: many women are abused, trafficked, killed; children are separated from their parents, orphaned, recruited as soldiers, abused. Citizens in some countries face violence by occupation, paramilitaries, guerrillas, criminal cartels or government forces. Citizens of many nations suffer governments obsessed with national security and armed might; yet these fail to bring real security, year after year. Thousands of children die each day from inadequate nutrition while those in power continue to make economic and political decisions that favor a relative few.”
(An Ecumenical Call to Justice and Peace, Resource Material for International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Kingston, Jamaica, in May 2011, under the theme “Glory to God and Peace on Earth”)

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For our ongoing Solidarity and Commitment

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Life with Dignity: Kairos Palestine 5th Anniversary
Kairos Palestine | Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum | Alternative Tourism Group
Conference Statement  

From December 2–4, 2014, over 250 participants from Palestine and many other countries[1] gathered in Bethlehem to commemorate the 5th anniversary of “A Moment of Truth: A Word of Faith, Hope, and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering,” known as Kairos Palestine. The document,[2] produced by a broadly ecumenical group of Palestinian Christian leaders, offered a word of hope in a hopeless situation. It signaled a strong commitment for Palestinian Christians to participate fully in creative resistance to end Israeli occupation, a reality we again describe as “a sin against God and humanity.”

The document has developed into an active global movement. People in many other contexts, inspired by Kairos Palestine, have linked their local struggles for justice with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity for all peoples in Palestine and Israel.
We thank God for the many churches that have received, studied, and offered comment on the document. We thank God also for the many ways Kairos Palestine is accompanied by so many Kairos movements around the world, each seeking justice in their own context, joining their struggle to that of the Palestinian people.

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People’s Reporter features NCCI’s Centenary Celebrations Finale

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National Council of Churches in India Centenary Celebrations Finale featured in People’s Reporter Volume 27, Issue 22 (November 25 – December 10, 2014).

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Homage to Justice Dr. V. R. Krishna Iyer

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iyerThe National Council of Churches in India is deeply saddened by the demise of the world renowned and a genuine Indian Human Right defender Honourable Justice. Dr. V. R. Krishna Iyer.

Dr. V R Krishna Iyer was socially sensitized and spiritually kindled judiciary and a moral rebel against human injustice. He was a peace lover and a visionary.
Without being a member of any political party, he associated himself with political figures, freedom fighters, social reformers, constructive public workers and, with his wife, helped women’s organizations and backward classes including fishing communities. Compassion was his passion.  He identified himself with human rights causes and poor litigants found a defender in him.

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NCCC-USA calls for accountability

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 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them

is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are
all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
-Jesus, as recounted in Luke 12:6-7 (NRSV)

The decision of a Staten Island grand jury not to indict police officer Daniel Panteleo in the death of Eric Garner, coupled with the recent decision of a St. Louis grand jury not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, has sparked nationwide outrage and protests.

The National Council of Churches calls upon prosecutors and police forces, juries and judges, to hold police officers accountable when they kill.  The appropriate place to judge innocence or guilt is not in the grand jury but in a trial setting where defense and prosecution come together to carefully present the facts of a case.

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Dalit Liberation Sunday 2014_Worship Order

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“Dalit Culture, Dalit history, Dalit pathos:

Regaining the lost identity in Christ”.

Dalit Liberation Book 2014 coverWe are in a crucial point of time in the Indian history, while we celebrate the Dalit Liberation Sunday in 2014. The grip of fascism and communalism becomes firm on Indian society. These regressive and dangerous elements are only the tip of the iceberg and the undercurrent of all these elements in India is casteism.

Forceful reconversions of the Dalit Christians, adamant denial of any possibility to extend Scheduled Caste status to Christians and Muslims from Dalit origin by a Central Minister of India, brutal killings of Dalits- in which Ahmednagar killing was the most brutal- and the lethargic attitude of police and the state in rendering investigation with justice, and the result of the survey conducted by the Merry Land University of US and National Council of Applied Economic Research that every fourth Indian still believes in untouchability are pointers to the dangerous shift in the Indian social matrix.

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Fire destroys St. Sebastian Church in Delhi. NCCI Letter to Prime Minister

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Below is the text of a letter written to Indian Prime Minister by Rev. Dr. Roger Gaikwad, General Secretary of National Council of Churches in India.


December 2, 2014
Honorable Prime Minister,
288700-delhi-church-burntOn behalf of the NCCI, I strongly urge you to take immediate measures to ensure that minority communities are not subject to attacks by fundamentalist communal groups. The Christian church in the country wants to see that democratic secularism in spirit and practice is strengthened by your government.
Instances of atrocities against Christian communities are on the rise in the country. Earlier in November, Catholic priests in the Bastar region in Chhattisgarh were told that all their schools were to install statues of Goddess Saraswati and they would not be allowed to be called “Father”, the usual honorific, by the students, but would be called “Pracharya” and so on. In other districts of Chhattisgarh, village panchayats under political influence have passed regulations banning non-Hindu religious persons from organising prayers or opening places of worship in their territory. On 16th November 2014 a Mar Thoma Prayer House was attacked during Holy Communion Service at Kongalnagaram, Udumalpet, Tiruppur District, Tamil Nadu. On Sunday, 30th November 2014, two house churches in Annupur district of Madhya Pradesh were attacked. We are aghast that St. Sebastian Church in Dilshad Garden, East Delhi has been gutted by a fire set off by miscreants on 1st December 2014.

NCCI urges Responsible Journalism

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Nagpur | November 21, 2014

STATEMENT | NCCI URGES RESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM

The National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), the apex body of the Protestant and Orthodox Churches which represents 14 million people around the country registers its protest against the irresponsible use of press freedom. The Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar (Nagpur | 11-11-2014) printed some speculative claim made by a scholar about Jesus and Mary that has caused immense grief to the Christian community at large.
In a pluralistic context of India where not only freedom, but also respect for all religions and religious sentiments is both taught and practiced, such insensitivity on the part of the publishers is intolerable. While we respect and support the freedom of press, surely it must be used responsibly. It may be seen as an irresponsible act purported to incite the feelings of the Christian community. Such provocation must cease in the interest of upholding the cherished secular fabric and principles of love and unity that our Country proudly professes to have had since ages and indeed does.