The Hindu : Maramon convention begins

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 16, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Maramon convention begins

By Our Staff Reporter

PATHANAMTHITTA, FEB. 15. The head of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, Philipose Mar Chrisostum, has said that the Synod of the Church has resolved to observe 2004 as the Year of Love and Compassion.

Mar Chrisostum was inaugurating the 109th Maramon Convention, billed as the largest annual Christian religious congregation in the whole of Asia, on the sand-bed of River Pampa at Maramon, near Kozhencherry on Sunday.

According to him, compassion is nothing short of a self-sacrifice aimed at pursuing only the right things in life. The Metropolitan said that it was sad that the path of salvation was found to have been transformed into the path of destruction. Spirituality rooted in self-sacrifice was the only hope to the aching world of chaos, he added.

The Metropolitan also lamented the degradation of the "holy" river Pampa on the banks of which Maramon, Cherukolpuzha and Sabarimala are situated. The degeneration of social as well as ethical values in modern times has been well reflected in the degradation of the Pampa, he said.

Dr. Geevarghese Mar Athanaseus Episcopa, the president of the Mar Thoma Evangelical Association, presided the inaugural function.The senior Vicar General, A.C. Kurien, and the MTEA general secretary, T.O. Joseph, also spoke.

Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Valsan Thampu, academician and theologian, said that lack of care for spirituality is the bane of the modern society. Dr. Thampu said that the Christian community has to play a key role in the evolution of a political culture rooted in justice in the modern times.

Dr. Joseph Mar Ireneus Saffragan Metropolitan and all the seven Episcopas of the Mar Thoma Church have attended the function.

The week-long annual meet will come to a close on February 22.

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