Anti-Christian violence in Orissa reverberates at CNI Synod
CNI delegates brought soil and water from each diocese and poured it into a large earthen vessel symbolizing the unity of their church.
By Anto Akkara (*)
The Church of North India (CNI), which is currently going through the hardest times in its history, with many church members suffering persecution, has demonstrated its unity at its 17-21 October synod meeting in Pathankot, Punjab state.
The meeting began with a minute of silence as more than 400 delegates representing the 26 CNI dioceses remembered the victims of anti-Christian violence in the eastern state of Orissa. Three of the CNI's dioceses are located in Orissa.
In the diocese of Phulbani, capital of Kandhamal district which is at the centre of communal violence against Christians, most of the CNI church structures have been destroyed.
The CNI embraces several ethnic and linguistic groups in an area covering three-fourths of the territory of India. The church came into existence in 1970 through a merger of six churches including Baptists, Anglicans, Methodists, Brethren and Disciples.
The first speakers at the synod meeting where Christians from Orissa.
Victims speak out
"I pleaded for mercy, and they hit me with an axe on my neck. I cried. They hit me again and left me in a pool of blood to die. My wife found me, took me to the hospital. After a few days the hospital refused to treat me free of cost. I had to sell my wife's ornaments, and two goats, to survive," recounted Gonda Diggal of Barakhama village in Phulbani diocese.
"All this for what? Only because I believed in Jesus. Have I committed a criminal act by doing so?" asked Diggal.
Priya Ranjan Pradhan of Baliguda told fellow church members at the synod how his house had been looted. He and others were forcefully taken from their homes and threatened in an attempt at re-conversion to Hinduism.
Rev. Enos Das Pradhan, the CNI general secretary, complained that in the name of freedom of religion several Indian states have passed anti-conversion laws. However, he added, they had kept re-conversion to Hinduism out of the purview of these laws on the pretext that "reconversion is returning home".
"God is our strength"
Bishop Bijay Kumar Nayak of Phulbani diocese called on Christians around the world: "God and prayer are our strength. Please pray for us."
Bishop Nayak explained that at least six CNI members including Thomas Nayak, a diocesan executive committee member, are among the 54 Christians who have died at the hands of Hindu fundamentalists in Kandhamal.
Thomas Nayak, at 46 years of age the superintendent of the CNI hostel at a mission compound with 300 students, was killed by a mob in the village of Gudrikia on 27 August, the bishop said.
Twenty of the 32 ordained CNI pastors and four dozen presbyters working in troubled Kandhamal, he pointed out, have been on the run since late August as Hindu fundamentalists target pastors in order "to strike at the foundations of Christian life".
"By the power of God, peace will overcome violence," the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia wrote on the "peace canvas" on which church leaders and delegates expressed their anguish over the continuing violence against the Christian minority in Orissa and other parts of the country.
Kobia was in India 16-18 October at the invitation of the CNI, completing a round of visits to all eight WCC member churches on the subcontinent. The series of visits had already taken him to the southern part of the country in February 2007.
Diversity and change
In his keynote address to the CNI synod on Friday, Kobia said: "Communal violence and the continuing existence of poverty overshadow the image of India in other parts of the world. This must not continue. A nation so rich in its diversity, with such highly educated people and a strong economic base could demonstrate to the world how positive change can happen."
In an audience with Prime Minister Singh on 18 October, Kobia expressed his "deep concern" at the violence and was told about actions that the federal government is going to take in favour of the victims.
The same day, Kobia met the six bishops of the Methodist Church in India led by Bishop Tharanath Sagar who is also the president of the National Council of Churches in India.
The CNI synod in Pathankot appealed "to the central and state governments to ensure that Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and other minority religious communities are not denied" their constitutional right "to 'practice, preach and propagate' their faiths."
The synod also elected a new moderator, Bishop Purely Lyngdoh of the North East India diocese.
(*) Anto Akkara is a freelance journalist from Bangalore, India. He is currently a correspondent for Ecumenical News International (ENI).
Additional information about the WCC general secretary visit to India
