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by Rev. Kumara Ilangasinghe, Bishop of Kurunegala

Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe

Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe of the Diocese of Kurunegala in the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka was called to the nearer presence of his Creator, twenty years ago on October 23, 1983. It is an amazing experience for many of us to realise that he has always remained in our hearts in spirit and has inspired us to face the challenges of these difficult days. It was a vacuum that could never be filled or replaced. However he left behind for us a great example and a vision that has been clear enough to guide and strengthen us in our creative response to the challenges of our time.

The memorial that has been erected in his memory is not only the building of the Lakshman Wickremesinghe Centre but the programme that carries forward the vision of Bishop Lakshman in equipping young and old in social awareness, human rights, leadership etc.

His impact was total; and the quality of his personality cannot be accounted for by this or that particular trait. And that personality was enchanting, almost mesmeric in its influence. It was incapable of analysis; it was there, seeming almost ethereal. You could not go beyond it.

What is the secret of his greatness? It was greatness. What is the secret of his goodness? It was goodness. There our attempt at analysis must stop.

So wrote the late Bishop Sabapathy Kulendran of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India in Sri Lanka after the death in October, 1983 of the Anglican Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe.

Born on March 25, 1927 to an affluent family, Lakshman Wickremesinghe had a distinguished academic record. Educated at Royal College and excelled in both academics and sports. He won school colours in rugger and athletics and won many prizes. He was awarded the most coveted prize, the Donhorst Memorial Prize for the most outstanding and allround student. He was Head Prefect before entering the University of Ceylon, Colombo.

After completing his University of Ceylon Degree in Economics and Political Science with first class honours, he studied political philosophy at Keble College, Oxford. Setting aside what could have been a remarkable political career, he decided to dedicate his life to the ministry of the church and was formed at the Ely Theological College.

He was ordained priest in England where he gained experience and training in English Parish work. On his return to Sri Lanka he first served in the Cathedral Parish of Christ Church in Mutwal where he was particularly interested in caring and serving the poor in the Kotahena area. Following period of pastoral ministry and University Chaplaincy at Peradeniya where he was able to cut across all sections of staff and students and engaged in dialogue among them. He was closely associated with the Students Christian Movement of Sri Lanka during this period.

The youngest Bishop

Lakshman Wickremesinghe was later consecrated as the Bishop of Kurunegala, Sri Lanka on December 16, 1962. At thirty five (35) he was the youngest Bishop then, in the Anglican Communion. Lakshman already had a set agenda and a tradition set by his formidable predecessor but ably made his own creative and constructive contribution. While continuing the emphasis on indigenisation of the church in all aspects he introduced a sense of social importance to the mission of the church. He was well known for his radical views on church and society.

He was a very diligent pastor to his flock not only within the Diocese of Kurunegala but even beyond the boundaries of the Anglican Church. He was able to maintain personal contacts with a large cross-section of people. Only a very few leaders of the church had the wide network of contacts that Bishop Lakshman had with clergy and laity from denominations of the church other than their own.

Bishop D. J. Ambalavanar of Jaffna who was a long time friend and a respected colleague spoke of him as "a fine Christian gentleman, a great servant of God, a noble leader of the Church and an ecclesiastical statesman of the highest quality". At his ordination Bishop Lakshman was presented as a "godly and well learned man". Many would recall his "eloquence, honour, charisma, magnetic personality, and the devout life rooted in prayer and fasting". Yet the title he himself most appreciated was that by which the people in the villages of Sri Lanka knew him; the "people's bishop".

Bishop Lakshman chose the people and the nation as the primary focal points of his ministry. By "people" he meant all people irrespective of their religion, race and caste or for that matter anything that divided them. Belonging himself to the majority Sinhalese community, he refused to accept the idea of a nation that was less than fully and justly inclusive.

The wider ecumenist

He was a true ecumenist. He worked hard to bring about a planned union of churches in Sri Lanka but when the scheme for the organic union of the church did not materialise, he decided to put ecumenism into practice in every way possible.

He successfully gave leadership for the organic union of churches in Sri Lanka within his own diocese. With his positive and enabling leadership Bishop Lakshman managed to pass all the resolutions on church union at the Diocesan Council with near one hundred percent unanimity. All his attempts failed in 1976 when the scheme for union had to be abandoned due to legal impediments.

However, his ecumenism went beyond the limits of the different Christian denominations, to the 'whole inhabited earth', which included the whole of God's world and the rest of God's creation. His love for Sri Lanka and for his own Sinhala culture found concrete expression in worship, liturgy, preaching and in the observance of national festivals. He maintained close relationships with the Buddhist community.

Many Buddhists, from the hierarchy who had considerable say in the affairs of the nation to the village priests in his rural diocese, looked upon him as a close friend. He was vigorous in his determination to change the 'British image' of the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka. This he accomplished by giving importance to Tamil and Sinhala languages and culture in every aspect of church life.

The voice from Asia

His was a much-respected voice in Anglican meetings and Lambeth Conferences and in the Christian Conference in Asia. Lakshman spoke with much first hand experience.

He had a deep vision of church and society. He spelt out his experience and thinking in the three celebrated lectures. The first was the 1979 CMS annual sermon on 'Mission, Politics and Evangelism' and the second was the Lambeth Inter-faith Lecture in 1979 on 'Togetherness and Uniqueness: Living Faiths in Inter-relation'. The third was the Niles Memorial Lecture at the CCA Assembly, Bangalore India in 1981 on 'Living in Christ with People'.

The significance of his thought especially in these papers is the firm foundation on bible-centred theology in dialogue with the teachings of the other faith traditions and modern secular ideology.

His deep commitment to the radical cause was amply voiced when he wrote, "My own conviction is that the church must opt for the ideology, programme and strategy covered by the term, 'indigenous marxist socialism'." He was keen to lead his people and teach them how to relate the bible and theology to the ancient religious traditions and to modern secular thought without sacrifice or compromise of the basic essentials of the Christian faith and church practice, to which he was deeply committed and devoted.

From his very young days Bishop Lakshman was heavily involved with the Church of Ceylon Youth Movement. His commitment to develop the youth and form them was shown clearly when he initiated a programme to set up a youth movement in the diocese which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary recently. His concern was that the opportunities for the youth from the diocese were not sufficient for their own personal and corporate development.

He also offered leadership to the women in the diocese when he formed the Board of Women's Work of the Diocese. In many ways he also encouraged the process of mobilising the adult men and developing their organisations in the diocese.

He was very conscious that his primary responsibility was within the Diocese of Kurunegala, of which he had become the chief shepherd. For this very reason he launched all the people based experiments in partnership with his diocesan flock.

The several new ventures during this period received his constant support and guidance. For young people he experimented the concept of the then popular community farm concept in Christodaya. The vocational training Institute for girls leaving schools was linked with the Kandy Industrial Institute at Talwatte. The weaving centre in Hewadiwela and the credit scheme in Talampitiya were tried out in the rural setting itself.

The activist

While remaining a nationalist, he also showed an intense quest for justice in national life. He supported social movements, which stood for justice in all aspects of society. He was a founder member in the late fifties and later a patron of the Christian Workers Fellowship, which struggled for the rights of the labouring workers in all spheres.

For some time he was closely associated with the work of the Sarvodaya movement. He was Chairperson of the Civil Rights Movement of Sri Lanka, a position that brought him into prophetic confrontation with the political powers.

Somasiri K. Perera, former president of the Methodist Church and a long-time partner with Bishop Lakshman in the struggle for justice, says that the bishop will be remembered "for his vigorous leadership (of the Human Rights Movement), his forthright utterances, his bold stand on public issues and his defence of the civil rights of the citizens of his country on issues like fair and free elections, the prevention of terrorism act, fair trials for political prisoners, rights of minorities and torture". On all these matters he spoke with courage and prophetic clarity.

Bishop Lakshman always believed in partnership and cooperate effort. The sincerity of his ecumenical commitment demanded that anything that can be done together should never be attempted individually. It was a long time dream of the Bishop to bring together the Christian organisations, movements and persons of all Christian denominations involved in development and human rights activities and struggling for justice and equality among all people, under one umbrella.

This was made a reality on Hartal Day (August 12, 1982) at the Bishop's House, Kurunegala when he together with other colleagues formed the movement of 'Christians in the Struggle for Justice'. The year 1980 saw the greatest suppression of the workers in Sri Lanka. The General Strike ended with a large number of striking workers losing their jobs. Bishop was deeply disturbed by this unholy act on the part of those in power. He was able to give leadership to the formation of the 'Organisation for Obtaining Justice for Strikers'.

He worked hard with many others in mediating and agitating to reinstate the workers who lost their jobs. Together with trade unions, political groups, religious and other civil organisations and also with many individuals he struggled hard. In participating and sharing in the Worker's Mass, the Eucharist for the workers cause he expressed his spiritual solidarity. However, in addition to all these the greatest passion of Bishop Lakshman's life was reconciliation and peace among the two Sri Lankan ethnic communities.

Peace with Justice

The communal strife took a roll on his spirit. No Sinhalese visited Jaffna, the heartland of Tamil aspirations, more often, especially after eruptions of communal conflict.

The vicious outbreaks of strife between the two communities in July 1983, which brought immense suffering on the Tamil people, deeply grieved him, for he saw the unleashing of such brutality on innocent people as the sign of the spiritual decadence of the society as a whole. While the wounds were still fresh, he made a bold and courageous visit to Jaffna with no consideration for his personal security or health.

On his return, he made national reconciliation, the theme of the pastoral address to the annual council of his diocese, which is made mostly of Sinhalese clergy and laity. In a bold impassioned speech he challenged the council to share the shame and guilt of what had happened and insisted that they must apologize to the Tamil people as the first step towards national reconciliation. Tracing the history of the conflict and the immediate factors that led to communal riots, he contended that the suffering inflicted on innocent Tamils was morally indefensible.

We must admit this and acknowledge our shame. And we must do so for the right reasons. It is not enough to be ashamed for the reason that inhuman passion enslaved a section of the Sinhalese for a short period. Nor must we be ashamed because our sense of moral outrage will improve our image abroad. We must be ashamed because what took place was a moral crime. We are ashamed as Sinhalese for the moral crime other Sinhalese committed.

We must not only acknowledge our shame. We must also make our apology to those Tamils who were unjustified victims of the massive retaliation. An apology must be made for three reasons. First, as Sinhalese, we share in the total life of our people.

We share in all that is good and great in our Sinhala heritage... In the same way, when a section of the Sinhalese do what is morally wrong or bad, we share in it. As members of the whole group, we claim that what one section did belongs to us all... Secondly, it is a mark of moral maturity to acknowledge a moral crime on behalf of those closely knit to us who do not realize that they have done so.

An apology is made on their behalf... Thirdly, there is the example of Jesus in the midst of brutality and suffering. He shared in the guilt of all those who were involved in the moral crime of bringing about his unjust death. Because he shared in our humanity, he apologized for all those who did not know the moral evil they were doing. His compassion acknowledged both shame and guilt.

He apologized so that he might begin the process of setting right what was wrong in a broken relationship.

Only those who are aware of the socio-political climate of Sri Lanka in September 1983 would known the courage, spiritual stamina and pastoral passion that was needed to make this appeal to his own Sinhala community.

Those who were close to Bishop Lakshman during those months realized that in keeping with his own words, he carried in his heart and mind this tormenting sense of corporate responsibility and the burden of the need to reconcile the strife-torn nation.

Only a few weeks later, on 23 October 1983, he succumbed to a massive heart attack.

Bishop Lakshman was always a sign of hope for all who have lost hope.

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