Dollar-flushed priest has his show in Batticaloa

"What is so sad about these dazzle-frazzle-tazzle shows is that the east is in a hell of a state affected severely by the civil war. There is hardly any doubt funds have been collected to help people in need – in dire need. Photo: " One of the thousands of children affected by the brutal civil war".

The town people thought a Company of Circus Clowns had descended on them

Photo: Church of the American Ceylon Mission, 16th September, 2007 after the Ordination Service at St. Johns Church, Batticaloa.

By: Jacinta Cruz reporting for Sri Lanka Guardian

(October, 04, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka Guardian)September 16, 2007 the Rev Selvadurai Jeyanesan’s newly formed Church of the American Ceylon Mission dazzled its congregation with a crisp, colourful ceremony at Batticaloa’s St John’s Church during which a ”Pew of Priests” was ordained to take up priestly functions. The priests have the liberty to choose their own doctrines – this is a free for all church falling in line with fad religion that has become as popular as Kentucky Fried Chicken in the US.

At one stage when the group marched in the surrounds of the church there were onlookers who wondered whether a Company of Circus Clowns had descended on the town for a show, it being a weekend. A sight like that was never seen especially in recent times when all around this place are nothing but despair, death, destruction and desolation.

They even wondered whether it was a new kind of regiment carrying secret weapons under the cassocks rushed in from Timor for an emergency. Some said it was a UN regiment from the Chad Republic to keep the warring parties within the TMVP apart and at a safe distance.

But then what is unique about this Sunday Show and why so much effort has been taken to make it to be so gaudy, garish, big and mighty? And also a lot of money spent on after the service food, entertainment and hired videographers. At times it even looked like a film location making a major Bollywood movie.

There is a secret behind it; rather not so much a secret but something that is vainglorious, arrogant, conceited and narcissistic. It has everything to do with American dollars and a man who never became the bishop. This is the way such a man wants to show off the power and clout of his free flowing dollars, virtually like on the tap from his American “Godparents” who think he is doing a lot to help the needy especially in the east and north of Sri Lanka.

Jeyanesan is from Pandatheruppu in the north and his people have for generations been members of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India. Two years ago he was virtually a sure nominee for the bishop of this diocese. Then something not so nice and not so priestly happened and a young priest vowed he will never become a bishop.
And he never became a bishop.

So he rebelled and formed his own church with the help of an “American Aunt” in Cleveland, Ohio and that way he can be a head of a church – perhaps call himself president – but even better, he doesn’t have to account to the JDCSI the millions he has canvassed and collected during his employment with that church; that means his collections over a decade!

And that is why he seems flushed with Americano dollars, the God Almighty of so many evangelists especially the tele-types and preachers who are high flying. A few weeks ago Jeyanesan chartered an aircraft for a show in Jaffna and stake his territory there. But the court declared he cannot stake territory that legally belongs to another.

Last month in Colombo his cassocked strong arm types literally tried to a take over a church and deliver their kind of sermon after pinning the lady priest to the altar chair.
For the St John’s Church show in Batticaloa he flew in people from India too especially those who owe no allegiance to any church body or past their time for discipline; the free loaders. It included a retired bishop who had to be wheel-chaired. Another person flown in was a character nicknamed as the “Original Troublemaker Everywhere” and such people do not oblige for free. They have their fees but then Jeyanesan is flushed with greenbacks and he need not have to account to anyone.

What is so sad about these dazzle-frazzle-tazzle shows is that the east is in a hell of a state affected severely by the civil war. There is hardly any doubt funds have been collected to help people in need – in dire need. When such is the state, do we need shows of this type, all in the name of God and just because one man never became bishop and was not gracious enough to accept that outcome? Who are the people who support him or what types?

This is dismally abject leadership; no community should tolerate it.