Scores of Mar Thoma faithful welcome NCC partners

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

Scores of Mar Thoma faithful turn out to welcome
other NCC members in a church-to-church visit

Merrick, N.Y., January 24, 2011 -- More than sixty persons turned out at
the Sinai Mar Thoma Center here to welcome a church-to-church visit
sponsored by the National Council of Churches.

The Mar Thoma Church is one of 37 member communions of the National
Council of Churches. The visiting delegation, composed of other member
communions, was welcomed by Diocesan Bishop Dr. Geevarghese Mar
Theodosius.

"The Diocese of North America and Europe is happy that the NCC USA has
organized this church-to-church program to visit the Mar Thoma Church,"
Mar Theodosius said. "On this auspicious occasion, I bring you greetings
from the Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Church and thank the Rev. Dr.
Michael Kinnamon for initiating this program."

In his opening remarks to the gathering, Kinnamon said, "We have come to
pray together and to find out what in your life we should be praying
for. We have come to share a meal together and to discuss how the
community that is the NCC can be an even better place for the Mar Thoma
Church to give and receive gifts.  We have come to learn more about one
another so that we can stand more firmly with one another in times of
celebration and need."

There was intensive discussion during the visit of the special
challenges associated with being an immigrant church. Participants noted
the rise of a "generation gap" as the church struggles to stay rooted in
its Indian tradition while also adapting itself to the social customs
and mission needs of the United States.

Kinnamon said NCC members do not think of the Mar Thoma Church as an
Indian church with branch offices in America, but as an American church
with deep roots in India. "Such important questions of identity and
mission can be raised in the church to church visits in a way they can't
in the more formal structures of the Council," Kinnamon said. 

The January 20 visit to the Mar Thoma Church was the 14th
church-to-church visit to a member communion since the program was
initiated in early 2008. The visit came two months after Kinnamon
visited India at the invitation of the Mar Thoma Church, where he was
the main speaker at their annual clergy conference.   

"The purpose of the church to church visits is rooted in the NCC
Constitution," Kinnamon said. "The NCC is a 'community of Christian
communions,' not an organization that does things for the churches.
These visits of representatives from other churches in the council
reinforce the point that the essence of the NCC is the relationship of
the communions to each other."

Kinnamon said the NCC "is what the churches call themselves when, in
response to the gospel, they live and act and witness together." 

For more information, see

http://www.ncccusa.org/news/110124marthoma.html.

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212
(cell), pjenks@ncccusa.org