Your money runs the church ! You are the employer !! With the authority to say "You are fired" !!!

As you are aware, I made a gamble for the office of Mar Thoma Sabha Secretary but my wager did not carry the weight of currency as I asked the Episcopal Synod to intervene on my behalf by withdrawing two of its official clergy-nominees to the same office to exhibit at least an outward appearance of propriety and semblance of justice: since the laity have been kept out of this "sensitive office" (as emphasized by a priest - meaning what?) for more than four decades. They not only were in non-compliance with my demand which was the need of the hour but also made the election of a clergy as Sabha Secretary double-sure by rejecting my nominations on flimsy and frivolous technical grounds which will not stand either in fact or law about which I wrote to you earlier. That base and mean trick will not be resorted to even in panchayat elections, I'm pretty sure. The Metropolitan who thereafter told me that he will look into the matter more closely for evident foul play and will call me has not contacted me till date.

At this point, I have a few questions for those of you who attended the Prathinidhi Mandalam from the 6th to the 8th of this month:

How often the bishops and clergy transgressed into your self- esteem within the course of those three days?

How much did they trespass into your personal freedom?

To what extent did they deprive you of your constitutional rights?

How often did they try to tarnish your reputation and smother your voice?

How repeatedly they lied to you, knowing those were lies?

e.g. Kuwait issue, bribery in admissions and appointments in colleges and other institutions, the question regarding the total number of Marthomites before multiplication by three due to membership is several parishes at the same time...

How many times did they evade your questions with answers like "yes", "no" and "its not a question" like you are that negligible?

How far did they succeed in brainwashing you and buying you into their line of thought with day-labour speakers ?

How calculated were they in smothering your spirits? in stifling your beliefs?
in suffocating your interests? in gagging your opinions?
in suppressing your legitimate right to be informed?

Why did they disallow a point of order from an intelligent member- priest?
Do they know the meaning and significance of a point of order? For their information, let me state here that a POINT OF ORDER is a question as to whether the present proceedings are in order or allowed by the rules of parliamentary procedure. They should have known that a point of order, in other words, is a question raised in a meeting or deliberative assembly by a member as to whether the rules governing procedures are being breached. This is an essential element in Law and Parliamentary Procedure. If they are ignorant about it, they have no moral right to the office to which they are hanging to.

And, what is the logic in the ruling that there is neither point or order in it even without hearing it?

I urge you to ask these questions to your esteemed self and then aloud...

Let it thunder like the voice of the Baptist in the desert- "Make the way for the Lord" and see if you'll ever get an answer.

They were practising the art of elusive existence.
But those days are numbered.

The reason why I withdrew from presenting my Resolution Amendment on the floor on the second day was to protest against the authoritarian attitude of the church leadership, for not upholding the decorum of the body, including the many questions that were unanswered and the enigma surrounding the 'point of order' I referred to.

And I repeat, the privilege of its members was transgressed into:
Not a few... but many a time...

I need to reiterate here that I was standing for a cause. I have/ had nothing to gain by becoming the Secretary of the Mar Thoma Church as I had said that I will not accept salary if I am elected. It was not for fame as I already have it in abundance- in the East as well as in the West. Further, no prestige goes with the title of the Mar Thoma Sabha Secretary any more since it has lost its face and identity.

Perhaps my losses would have been trebled as now I believe that I would have lost my conscience, rationale, sincerity, innocence and intelligence, once I got elected as the Sabha Secretary. I believe in the honor that springs out of one's conduct; not titles. To me, character is destiny.

And to be at the helm of a Sinking Christian Denomination with no more than 4 lakh members is no honour as far as I am concerned. Whoever tells you that there are more than four lakh Marthomites on the globe is telling you a blatant lie. Its falsehood, full-blown.

Or, here I challenge anybody to prove that bogus, irresponsible, unsubstantiated claim. (A friend of mine who is a professor of Economics with a Ph.D. tells me that he will do the count in two months if he is furnished the answers to a questionnaire by the respective vicars of each parish).

So, brothers and sisters,

I am asking you to take up this legacy and go forward. Our Sabha, nurtured with the labour, sweat and money of the laity is an Augean stable now. The mortar used in the construction of this institution, viz. Mar Thoma Church, was mixed with the blood and sacrifice of the laity. Its fruit is now being swallowed by a few drones.

Let this fight for law, order, freedom, justice and self-worth continue.

Like Alfred, Lord Tennyson's brook that chirps:
"For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever.."

This fight has to continue and it will continue...

Laity, a day not far from now, one of you will preside in the Mandalam Meetings and another from you will be the Secreatay of the Mar Thoma Church if it has an entity of its own then for which you have to sow the seed of a new creed. This continuity, this flow should go thicker and stronger.

I request all the laity and the clergy to join this struggle for equal rights, opportunity and justice. And I would like to remind the clergy that they will lose their voice for ever if they are silent and reluctant to stand up for the right cause now. Don't be an accomplice to be the receiver of instant benefits for which you are ineligible. And those clergy with a conscience, tell me for once: who are you afraid of and what are you scared about?

As the first step, I am requesting the laity to be really, really judicious in the money you contribute to the church... by limiting the amount you pay to the church and by demanding transparency in the purpose of collection; in the spending and use/misuse of the funds you contribute. Also be rational in buying the books the church pushes towards you through its outlet malls like the Maramon Convention; most of them are not worth the paper on which it is printed. You tell me how all these people with poor educational background, limited vocabulary, sub-standard ideas and little knowledge transform into authors and thinkers within no time... its indeed a source of wonder and a matter of magic that need to be researched.

And you heard the statement from the dais how the church played safe by contributing only Rs. 10,000 to the Jeevan TV and getting a representation on its Director Board but got some of you to contribute lakhs of rupees which is now on the verge of extinction. Will Mar Thoma Church pay back your money if they asked you to contribute it in the first place?
You have been ill-tutored to make those big contributions in the name of God...

Believe me, the Preserver of Israel doth not need your money. He is rich on his own.
"He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber";
no matter, you give the church your money or not.

So keep your money with yourself.

Give it to your neighbor to build a house, to educate another's child, to get yet another's daughter married of...

Remember:

"And the King shall answer and say to them, truly I say to you, in as much as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me".

I repeat, I am only a symbol representing an idea.
I am shapeless energy.

The race is not done; the fight is not finished.

Its a relay race... no more start-signals, get the baton... on your heels to get ahead in the next lap.

Thank you for being my reader...

Love,

Adv. Alex Abraham Odikandathil


P.S. If anybody wants his/ her name removed from my mailing list, please let me know and I will be too happy to do it.