Christian Perspectives

Weekly devotions:

Find shelter under His wing

Complaining about life is really complaining against God. This shows distrust in God. As a child of God every situation has to be accepted as God's best for you. He is perfecting His plan in your life. The secret of good living is to find shelter under His wing. God has promised to give you His strength in areas in which you are weak. A Christian has to learn to rejoice in His weaknesses as this means God will supply His strength to compensate whatever is lacking.

Wonderful, is it not? No wonder James says 'consider it pure joy when you meet with various types of trials - as this results in maturity and completeness!'

God's strength is fantastic! Therefore, we can rejoice in every difficult situation as God will supply what is required to meet our needs. This is a promise and the word of God is truth. Phil.4: However, through it all we must learn to trust God. This is a daily practice. Fail in this area and life's many trials will overwhelm you. Continue your daily walk with Christ.

Prayer:

Father, teach me the techniques of riding over life's many scares on wings of an eagles. Holy Spirit you are the one person who has this power and Jesus' words clearly teaches me this.

Help me Lord and show me how to overcome the world by living in Christ as I know without Jesus I can do nothing. Teach me to abide in you and experience the sheer joy of smiling at any trial that will come my way. Amen

Sunitha Sahayam

Indian priests on pilgrimage to Sri Lanka

A group of priests from Mangalore in the Karnata State came on pilgrimage to Sri Lanka recently and they visited some of the places hallowed by the presence of the zealous missionary, Blessed Joseph Vaz, the Apostle of Sri Lanka. Very Rev. Fr. Andrew De Souza, the Parish Priest and the Director of the Shrine at Mudipu, and Dean of the Deanery led the group of 12 priests to visit the country, it being the very first venture initiated by them.

The group of priests visited Bolawatta, Wattakkuliya, the Joseph Vaz College, Wennappuwa, Kandy, Weuda, Wahakotte and Galgamuwa within three days they were in the country. Fr. Andrew told the media that although they had read about the 24 year long missionary work of the Blessed Joseph Vaz in Sri Lanka, they had never been to the country.
Rev. Fr.
Andrew De Souza

"This is our very first visit to Sri Lanka. We paid homage to the places we visited in our brief visit. We plan to send pilgrims from our country in the near future as it is now possible and safe for visitors to come to this beautiful country and enjoy the hospitality of Sri Lankans."

He added saying that he had impressed on his Bishop of the Diocese the importance of making a pilgrimage to Sri Lanka.

The 12 priests who joined me work in and around the Mudipu Shrine, which is a hallowed place where the Blessed Vaz was assaulted by the people who could not tolerate the advice given to lead a good moral life by Fr. Vaz during his three year service at Mudipu. "The spot where the Blessed Vaz knelt while he was been assaulted there sprang miracle waters and even today that water spot is vivid and flourishing. That is where we have built the Shrine" Fr. Andrew added.

Mudipu, is a tiny village, 25 kilometres away from the City of Mangalore-Vittla Road, has the first church dedicated to Blessed Joseph Vaz in India.

The scenic beauty of the serene atmosphere, the clean and caressing breeze of the miracle hill has made it an attractive centre of pilgrimage. Rev. Fr. Alex Dassanayake, who led the pilgrim priests from India took them to shrines built in honour of the Blessed Vaz, visited Galgamuwa Shrine in the company of the Parish Priest of St. Benedict's Church and the administrator of Shrine Rev. Fr. Edmund Muruggupillai.

Fr. Dassanayake who assisted Rome in providing information for the process of Canonisation of the Blessed Joseph Vaz said the visit had nothing to do with the "Road to Sainthood of the Blessed" but the pilgrim of the priests was the first step of bringing down more and more pilgrims to hallowed places in Sri Lanka to pay homage to the zealous missionaries who toiled under guidance of Blessed in the spreading of the Good News of Salvation to the people of the country. - Wiruma

Sacerdotal Silver Jubilee of Rev. Fr. Andrew Anthony

He was endearingly Andres to all of us at the college and a three-year senior to me, an unassuming soul, who mostly dwelled in the Mission House of St. Jame's Church, Ilavalai, with the Pastor and assisting him in the liturgical services and in the evenings we always played whatever: football, cricket or volleyball in the sprawling church compound. Those were halcyon decades of normalcy. He hailed from a humble, pious family of St. James Parish; he was the youngest in the family of five, of two older brothers and two sisters.

At St. Henry's he excelled both in sports and drama. Of the latter, the teacher of our time and dramatic genius P.A.C. Anandarajah, who unearthed Andrew's histrionic ability in a play presented for the district dramatic competition in mid 1960s, depicting the malady of tuberculosis, the lead role that Andrew played made him prominent winning a gold medal for St. Henry's College.

St. Henry's football is a legend, any player of astound repute is too well known then and now. Young Andrew was one among them then, from a very young age; so much so, he was the youngest player of the II Eleven Team when he was at Grade 8, the year was 1964. From there onwards he remained a permanent fixture on Henrican soccer teams from IInd Eleven to Ist Eleven until he left the college. He simply proved to be a seasoned footballer and entertained the spectators with sterling display of his soccer-rite talents, crowning of which was his Captaincy of 1st Eleven team in 1967, under the energetic, able Coach P. A. Mariathas, who firmly believed that only the talent was what mattered in the playing field, the linkage of which brought crowning glory to the College football teams to stand tall even on national level in later years of 1976/77 led St. Henry's winning the coveted Singer Shield All Island Soccer Cup.

But what remained with young was the call for the vocation, like a beacon in his boyhood, years. It was Fr. Pomikol, a Polish priest who was the Pastor of St. James Church Ilavalai, who sent young Andrew to the Primary Seminary of Maggona. From there he came down to St. Joseph's Juniorate, Colombagam for two and half years. He was then sent to Kayts to assist Fr. S. J. Francis in his pastoral work. A giant leap had come up in most queer way, for an Easter service in early 1970s he was given to assist Fr. Julius, an Oblate in Anuradhapura, who retained him to reinvigorate catechism in the Diocese, which stint made the long haul of Fr. Andrew adopting Rajarata as his home and he never turned back. Mgr. Joy Gunawardena, the Bishop of Anuradhapura took note of his commitment to the vocation and sent him to the National Seminary, Ampitiya for theological studies in 1976. He was ordained a priest in the newly formed Diocese of Anuradhapura as the first priest of Rajarata on 6th September 1984 by his Lordship Mgr. Joy Henry Gunawardena himself.

Following his ordination he was sent as Asst. Pastor to Polonnaruwa first then a string of Parishes he served were: Hingurakgoda, Madawachchiya, National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes at Kala Oya and St. Joseph's Cathedral, Anuradhapura.

The incumbent Director of Catechism and Bible Apostolate Rev. Fr. Alec Roy Fernando of Anuradhapura Diocese aptly notes, entering into entire gamut of life situations of Anuradhapura, Fr. Andrew never considered all cultural and ethnics barriers as a problem but as an opportunity.

He continues to serve as the Director of Catechism since 1992, in addition, as Director to the duel portfolios of Communication and Family Services of the Diocese. It was while serving the Parish Priest of St. Joseph's Cathedral, the incumbent Bishop of Anuradhapura, and Rt. Revd. Dr. Norbert Andradi elevated Fr. Andrew to the position of Vicar General of the Diocese in 2006.

Fr. Andrew Anthony is a loving shepherd in every sense of the word, an emblem of kindness and selfless service, a rare begotten son of Ilavalai, a proud of product of St. Henry's, an unfailing jewel and hope of Rajarata.

Meno Thiruchelvam President

Henricians Colombo (OBA)

Christ Church, Galle Face celebrates 156 years

Christ Church, Galle Face celebrated 156 years of evangelical worship in Sri Lanka, on October 13. A special Fellowship Thanksgiving Service will be held on November 8, to commemorate the occasion.

Christ Church was begun by the CMS or Church Missionary Society and was known as the CMS Cathedral in those days, The foundation stone was laid on January 21, 1853, by the Bishop of Colombo the Rt. Rev. Chapman. On October 13, 1853, the church was opened.

Rev. G. Pettitt, Secretary of the CMS in Ceylon was its first Vicar, but returned to the UK a short while later due to ill health. He was replaced by Rev. William Knight and subsequently by Rev. C.C. Fenn, until Rev. Henry Whitley took permanent charge. Rev. Whitley worked among about six thousand people living in and around Slave Island, including Malays, the soldiers of Ceylon Rifles brought in by the Dutch, and ministered in all three languages. His incumbency is best remembered today because of his tragic death as a result of an old school wall falling on him in November 1860 while he supervised construction. Rev. Whitley's death saw the succession of a long line of CMS representatives who served as the Vicars of Christ Church.

W. A. Tunstall, a British architect, did the original design of the church, free of charge. The initial structure was small, and built with local materials, mainly of kabook. In 1897, the West wall fell, due to the deterioration of its kabook from heavy monsoonal showers. The church was rebuilt on its old design in brick and its foundation stone was laid on 14th June 1898 by Bishop of Colombo, the Rt. Rev. R. S. Copleston.

Its construction in Early Gothic style features a pointed arch nave arcade and king post roof bracing into a succession of flying buttresses. The emphatic verticality of both elements and structure soar upwards to heaven and towards God, as if defying the strength of gravity. Stained glass had been used for the windows in the sidewalls of the sanctuary, as well as the intricately set East window and the Rose window with their myriad colours. The floor is mosaic, placed in a repeating geometrical pattern.

The interior is refined with timber carvings on pews and the stands are engraved with intricate foliage traceries. The building of the belfry began in 1918 and was dedicated in 1919. The bell, weighing one ton, was donated in memory of Lt. C.M.G. William Wilson Mitchell, by his widow. The cross on the top of the church was placed in 1954. Today, Christ Church consists of two parishes - the English under the incumbent Ven. Joseph Sarvananthan and the Tamil under Rev. Norman Jeyachandran. English services are held at 7 am and 6 pm. The Tamil service is at 8 am.

The Sinhala Eucharist is sung at 9.45 a.m. every Sunday. This truly fulfils the church's mission of uniting people of many walks of life, irrespective of caste or creed.

Christ Church has been the chief evangelical centre of worship in Colombo for over a century. Although the surroundings have changed dramatically and the Church is now dwarfed by towering skyscrapers comprising hotels, nightclubs, restaurants and commercial enterprises, Christ Church continues in its perennial task of relating to the contemporary lives of its people as it preaches the message of the Gospel of Peace.

Renuka Jeyaraj

A felicitation ceremony to honour The Archbishop of Colombo Most Rev. Dr. Malcom Ranjith took place last week, organised by the Old Boys Union, De La Salle College, Modara, Colombo 15. Here Archbishop and invitees accompanied by Principal De La Salle College Rev. Bro. A. E. Tarcisius (extreme right) Minister A. H. M. Fowzie, Former Member of Parliament K. B. Lilantha Perera, and former MMC Gamini Hemachandra are also in the picture. Picture A. Maduraveeran)