On the face of it, the Rev Anthony’s action has been seen as a conspiracy to help the Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah. This is further aided by the tragic reality that it is not natural for our people to inform them by going deep into such claims, dig out and research for the truth. Just like front-page tabloid sensations in the West, we tend to go by gossips and the vulnerable get the brunt of the beat.“A myth is, of course, not a fairy story. It is the presentation of facts belonging to one category in the idioms appropriate to another. To explode a myth is accordingly not to deny the facts but to re-allocate them.” Gilbert Ryle in his Concept of Mind.
The myth that the Rev Sebastian Anthony filed an action in court for an injunction on the Executive Committee of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI) to enable the candidature of the Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah for the Office of the Bishop has had a long run in the Gossip Halls of the Tamil Christian community of Sri Lanka at home and wherever they have established themselves in the world.
In Sri Lanka itself, it is being used against Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah by a group of dissidents who, it appears will even resort to physically unacceptable means to have their way. These they have indicated in the hallowed precincts of the Colombo JDCSI Church Sunday August 26, 2007 during worship time, on various occasions in the premises of Uduvil Girls College obviously with the support of the principal there and in the immediate surrounds of the JDCSI Cathedral Church at Vaddukoddai and the Manipay Church.
The Rev Selvadorai Jeyanesan the Lost Contender for the bishopric stands in the shadows and exploits this circumstance to give a false impression to his Dollar Daddies and Mama of the Wider Churches Ministries (WCM) of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Trustees of the Jaffna College Funds that his case is a just one and he has been cheated out of the race with a court action for injunction. There are several other organizations in the US, Europe and Israel that the Rev Jeyanesan visits regularly and talks about widows, orphans and tsunami victims in his mission of harvesting for millions.
On the face of it, the Rev Anthony’s action has been seen as a conspiracy to help the Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah. This is further aided by the tragic reality that it is not natural for our people to inform them by going deep into such claims, dig out and research for the truth. Just like front-page tabloid sensations in the West, we tend to go by gossips and the vulnerable get the brunt of the beat.
The Gossip Press serves vested interests and this for the Tamil community would be the upper strata of the society, castewise, classwise and cloutwise! Amidst this vicious might, people like the Rev Sebastian Anthony do not count. If he has a problem then it is some kind of karma he has to go through in this world for the indiscretions he may have committed in his last one.
A successful impression has been created that the court action by the Rev Anthony was intended to delay the process of voting for the candidates for the bishopric so that the Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah would become eligible agewise. This is certainly a good contention but the reality is that the Rev Anthony did not take this action to help Dr Thiagarajah to become eligible as a candidate.
He took this action to make sure that the Rev Jeyanesan did not become the bishop. And he had very good reasons to take such a stand.
As far as the Rev Anthony is concerned he would not have minded the Reverends Arnold or Anugoolan becoming bishops or even the term of Bishop Jebanesan extended. Furthermore he had crossed swords with the Rev Thiagarajah over his transfer to the east from Kandy when the latter was his circuit priest and had even stopped talking to him.
It was during the time the Rt Rev Dr S Jebanesan was the Bishop of the JDCSI, the Rev Sebastian Anthony made a very serious complaint of a hideously repulsive conduct by a fellow clergyman towards his wife while he was asked to attend to some business away from his home by the same clergyman who was in charge of that area. His wife, a virtuous woman, warm, friendly and highly principled had to scream out of her own house to save her honour when he chose to visit her at that time and demanded a chance of something ominously corporeal from her.
The issue being so tricky and embarrassing and hoping it would have a natural death without undue publicity, Bishop Jebanesan tried to tide over it more in a spirit of compassion reflective of his nature. He also hoped that the peripatetic priest would behave better absolving himself of his un-reined romantic inclinations. But this was not acceptable to Pastor Anthony and his wife. They sought the avenue of the Diocesan Court which is a facility available only to the clergy of the diocese to seek redress. Even there, they were discouraged and asked to lie low. Earlier, their efforts to seek the help of the police were not successful and that of course was not a surprise. Just a few dollars will take care of most of the misdemeanors of the criminal elements and the Rev Anthony is not the type who will go down to the level palmoiling the police.
Whatever impact brought on the Rev Anthony to lie low and leave the clergyman alone was not productive. This was the time the election of a bishop for the diocese was approaching and attempts made to persuade the Rev Anthony to leave the itinerant clergyman alone so that his chances of becoming the bishop would not be sullied were not successful. Messing up with women, especially other people’s wives may be okay in the cultural ethos of the States and that is perhaps why some people there have turned a blind eye to the indiscretions of the clergyman especially those at the helm of the WCM of the UCC.
This is certainly not okay for us. We do not want bishops and priests unworthy of trust especially when it comes to exploiting the vulnerable. Why cannot the WCM of the UCC people take their warnings from how the Catholic Diocese of Massachusetts has gone virtually bankrupt and why? The standards that pastors like the Rev Anthony demand are timely and justified and he stands as a great credit to the church.
It was when the 2005 Diocesan Council Sessions were fast approaching that the Rev and Mrs Anthony saw their chance to seek justice having failed in all their other attempts. He took his case to the floor of the house but in a calm, collected and determined manner. In his choice Tamil, he laid the case and towards the end, finger-pointing the clergyman who demanded something abhorrent from his wife, he said he will do everything possible to ensure that he never became the bishop of the diocese.
Here is a good example of how a myth which of course is not a fairy story is imposed on an event with unquestionable facts which makes a particular claim believable. In this circumstance, a delay of the proceedings was going to be helpful to the Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah. But the facts from Rev Anthony’s complaint was not intended to help the Rev Thiagarajah but was aimed at preventing the Rev Jeyanesan from becoming the bishop.
In other words as Gilbert Ryle said in his excellent study, Concept of Mind, if one has to explode the myth, it is not to deny the facts but to re-allocate them. In this case it ought not to be applied to the chances of the Rev Thiagarajah to become the bishop by the court action of the Rev Anthony but an action intended to prevent the Rev Jeyanesan from becoming the bishop. This he succeeded.
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