Dr Cally Rogers-Witte’s false premise causes a schism and a court action for a declaratory order. She is the Executive Minister of the Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ, US. 
Part One(October,25,Toronto,Sri Lanka Guardian) July 10, 2007 I had occasion to call the Rev Dr Cally Rogers-Witte on the telephone from Brampton, Ontario to her office in Cleveland, Ohio. Concerned on hearing from Sri Lanka that she has taken a position as the Executive Minister of the Wider Church Ministry of the United Church of Christ (WCM-UCC) to give comfort and support to the Rev Selvadurai Jeyanesan and his group of rebels on fallacious surmises and suppositions, I was keen to check this with her to ascertain whether this information had any beef in it. Unfortunately and to my great shock, it turned out to be true but with plenty of offal too. This group was rebelling against the discipline of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI).
The impression I gathered was that she was behaving like a Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs as in the days of the British Raj, the difference being this concerned matters sacred while the other was secular and long since dead. Her meaning of partnership, I note from various reports of UCC overseas activities and the travels she undertakes seem more like that of a priest with the choir boys at his beck and call than one of equal and mutual relationship; perhaps how a patronizing white master reckoned a freed black slave in the US! The Rev Jeyanesan who has taken all of us of the JDCSI in particular and the Tamil community in general to such indecorous and undignified lowly depths in his journeys to amass dollars, fits this bill aptly. He is only concerned about what could flow in terms of dollars into his kitty.
Missionary bureaucrats from the US are certainly antiquated and woefully off the mark to hearken to people like him; they are no better than Rufus Anderson the terminator of Batticotta Seminary but in their own unique ways either due to ignorance or perhaps indifference but certainly lacking in capacity and dedication to understand and appreciate the purpose of the mission in which they are employed.
The WCM-UCC is the current version of what used to be the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) which later became the UCBWM (United Church Board for World Missions) and now the WCM-UCC. Along this process, the Batticotta Seminary was strangled out of existence in 1855. I have no idea why they went through such a metamorphosis from ABCFM to WCM-UCC. In the case of the American Ceylon Mission (ACM) which eventually became the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI) there were good reasons especially developing from a founding foreign mission organization while the country was still a colony to that of the people of Sri Lanka. I believe such do not happen in how Dr Cally Rogers-Witte conceives missionary involvements outside the US. This may be because missionary bureaucrats like her do not interact or probably fear interacting with scholars of merit and men of faith like the late Bishop Sabapathy Kulendran and our current Bishop Thiagarajah. They would rather appreciate the type of loyalty of the ‘freed slaves” who appear in films like “In the Heat of the Night” where the white master can still expect “your obedient” service.
Jeyanesan’s “Bait and Shark” game
The types of Jeyanesan are the ones with whom they would be comfortable. Unlike Jeyanesan, Bishops Kulendran and Thiagarajah and before him Bishop Jebanesan are gems of scholars and a great credit to the Tamil community. Jeyanesan’s expertise is in setting up showroom projects and raising funds but his stewardship is utterly suspect. This is a “Bait and Shark” game for him at which he has become quite an expert having learnt the fundamentals of it from Bishop Jeyam Ambalavanar. The Tamil adage says casting the prawn to catch the shark and Jeyanesan does his shamming with charming efficiency.
A bit of history as an introduction at this juncture is justified so that Dr Cally Rogers-Witte could come to grips with the reality of the powerful leadership the Church of South India is to the global Christian community both Roman Catholic and Non-Roman Catholic. The roots of Christianity in India developed spontaneously in the country’s traditional Cradle of Culture from the time of St Thomas, one of the Apostles long, long before Europe and of course North America became aware of Redeemer Christ.
The moment they heard of him, they grabbed and attached him to their war machine of colonial conquests; they had nothing else to offer. In the name of Jesus, all kinds of atrocities were committed against even highly civilized communities. The world paid a terrible price when “Jesus” was hijacked by these forces to stabilize their conquered territories. Jesus commanded his disciples to go into the world and preach the good news; weapons, violence and destruction were anathema to his mission.
North America’s United Church of Christ (UCC) came into being in 1957, a good ten years after Church of South India (CSI) emerged as a result of a union of several Protestant denominations; Anglican, Methodist, Congregational, Presbyterian and Reformed churches in South India. The move towards the merging of the South Indian churches began at the Tranquebar Conference in 1919 and thirty years later the great moment of union flowered and quite meaningfully too on the steps of India’s achievement of independence. Tranquebar was in fact Tharangambadi which means the place of the singing waves and the Danish who colonized this panchayat township in the Nagapattinam district in 1620 opted for a name familiar to them, one such of numerous place names distorted out of their significance and meanings by the colonizers. It was here the first Protestants arrived in India, the first two being the Lutherans Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Pluetschau from Germany.
The seal of the CSI contains the symbols, the lotus and the Christian cross denoting the rich cultural heritage that is Indian and the cross of redemption that clearly portrays the mission of this church inspired by the motto, “That they all may be one, Church of South India.”
Curiously, the motto adopted by the United Church of Christ is also: “That they all may be one.” Coincidence or not, the ideal of unity is emphasized without any doubt whatsoever with the words taken from the Gospel of St John 17:21 - That they may all be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou has sent me.” In this Jesus prayed not only for the ‘Church” but also for the whole world aptly presented in the CSI seal in the form of a circle, a symbol of universality, the significance of it is a flaming encirclement of radiance and energy conceived by the ancient sages of India as meaningful to an eternal power.
Whereas the United Church of Christ has a membership of 1.3 million spread across the North American continent from 6,000 congregations, a transplant of relatively recent times from Europe, the Church of South India with its 22 dioceses has 3.8 million members in 14,000 congregations with most of its impact in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and over in Sri Lanka, in Jaffna. They represent four major language groups and hundreds of diverse communities many of them with their own unique traditions and dialects but all bonded in existence in the cradle of a culture which is Indian and that goes back to eons of time rooted in the belief of One Creator of all of creations.
The enormity of the Church of South India
It is necessary to give a clear picture of the enormity of the Church of South India in relation to the United Church of Christ, its diversity, cultural roots, the rich heritage free of colonial conquests and atrocities and above all, the leadership it showed in seeking unity. It would therefore be an affront to all ideals that govern our faith and unity to have people like Dr Cally Rogers-Witte meddling in our affairs especially to give support and comfort to a group of rebels whose bone of contention is merely that its leader failed to become the bishop of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India.
Encouraged by a letter dated July 3, 2007 by Dr Cally Rogers-Witte to the Bishop in Jaffna, the Rt Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah which she quite insensitively copied to many others, the rebel group issued a proclamation that they were re-establishing the American Ceylon Mission as from July 3, 2007 and that they were relinquishing all ties from the Church of South India; that much for “that they all may be one” a CSI motto that also inspired the UCC.
But for her letter, the rebel group would not have dared such an action. It was also this act of hers that necessitated a court action for a Declaratory Order about which she is making a high-pitched song and a distorted dance of some kind, both hard on our eyes and ears and unfamiliar to us.
The rebel group has been in communication with her for sometime giving an entirely wrong and distorted picture of Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah and the diocese, no doubt with the intention to discredit them with a persistent campaign of disparagement and denigration, even defamation. They let loose into the community quite a few unfounded rumours to cause as much damage as possible from the time it became evident that the Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah may qualify as a candidate for the bishopric. This was when Bishop Jebanesan explored the possibilities of an extension to his service as the Bishop of the Diocese and at a time the Rev Thiagarajah was still not yet eligible on account of his age.
In churning out these rumours, they exposed their scant respect for honesty and integrity, both dominant factors in Jeyanesan’s stewardship. It is in the American psyche to believe such people, a fact littered in political ruins around the world. One night in Kilinochchi, the Rev Thiagarajah was near-fatally attacked by unknown assailants. This was strange because he has no political favourites of any kind and had come to this town as the new circuit priest succeeding the Rev Jeyanesan who was transferred to the east. The transfer was quite a controversial one over the disappearance of some Books of Accounts.
In a letter dated July 12, 2007 to the Rev Milton Solomon, Dr Cally Rogers-Witte wrote as follows: “I have received your letter of June 23 and 30, 2007 in addition to earlier ones.” Further down in that paragraph she wrote: “ . . . . . . and are very disturbed to hear the reports of the intimidation and harassment that you have experienced when attempting on repeated occasions to raise these questions.”
The intimidation and harassment referred to here came entirely from the rebel group and there were at least three cassocked priests who were often leading this campaign and one of them was the Rev Solomon Milton who was the one in constant communication with Dr Cally Rogers-Witte indulging in his campaign of misinformation. The Rev Jeyanesan never came to the front of these demonstrations and used these priests as his tough-arm buddies. Even today these hangers-on priests have not realized that Jeyanesan is only using them and if it suits him, will throw them without a second thought to the garbage heap. Just like the master so hooked on dollar millions, the same must be true of his followers waiting around him for spoils and crumbs. Why blame them when Dr Cally Rogers-Witte herself and her so called esteemed colleague, James Vijeyakumar are also hooked by the charm and sham of Jeyanesan?
On the same date as July 12, 2007, Dr Cally Rogers-Witte also wrote to Bishop Thiagarajah. In a lengthy letter she attempts to indicate that the WCM-UCC has such power over the American Ceylon Mission that it could disapprove decisions made by the JDCSI. While her letters to the rebel group were friendly and full of accommodation, the tone of her letters to Bishop Thiagarajah had “Colonial-type Arrogance” about it. She wouldn’t even accept the word of Bishop Thiagarajah; she was so conceitedly crass.
“We do not believe these are fabricated,” Dr Cally Rogers-Witte
One sentence in that letter ran this: “We read your letter indicating that there is no truth to the assertions that our partners in the JDCSI make, yet we know that this is not entirely true.” Another sentence said: “We do not believe that these are fabricated, as your letter asserts.” What is also quite interesting is that this lady keeps referring to the rebel group “as our partners in the JDCSI” when these so-called partners were rebelling all because their leader could not become the bishop of the JDCSI.
In the same letter she refers to me in her PS that she was at first confused and then quite appalled to realize that a person, Mr Victor Karunairajan from Toronto who had telephoned her on Tuesday of this week certainly misrepresented himself to her on the telephone. She goes on: “He claimed to be a neutral party and said that he wants to work to find a mutually satisfactory resolution to the conflict in the churches in Sri Lanka and bring the divided parties together for a satisfactory resolution. He also claimed not to know of the Rev James Vijeyakumar, who serves as Southern Asia executive for Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ. On the contrary, Mr Karunairajan turns out to be, according to your email (Bishop Thiagarajah’s) to him that was copied to me following his call to me, a person who “officially” represents you and who is fully aware of both the current disturbing situation and of the existence and personhood of my esteemed colleague, James Vijeyakumar.” This PS note of Dr Cally Rogers-Witte is further proof as to how this lady jumps to conclusions to suit her and her nature of intolerance when certain questions that do not fit in line with her actions are raised.
When I called her July 10, I was what I told her in very plain language. Evidently taken by surprise at some of the issues I had confronted her with, she stated that a certain Mr James Vijeyakumar was only familiar with what I had queried. Based on that contention of hers, we agreed to another telephone conversation on Friday July 13. In the meantime I called Bishop Thiagarajah and shared this conversation with him. I was absolutely aghast at what he told me and the documents he sent to me in support of them. Knowing that I was going to talk to her July 13, he asked me whether I could officially talk to Dr Cally Rogers-Witte as his representative and help clear her misunderstandings. I agreed to it – and quite rightly too - but when I went through the documents, felt a telephone conversation was not warranted and all that was needed was to inform her by email that I did not see a need for it.
In her letter she even went further to assert that I was aware of the existence and personhood of her “esteemed colleague,” James Vijeyakumar. This is how Dr Cally Rogers-Witte seems to behave and react when she is confronted with matters that do not fall in line with her ideas and thoughts. Later, however, I came to know a great deal about her “esteemed colleague” and his meetings with the Rev Jeyanesan usually in his luxury apartment in Toronto.
It appeared all that the rebel group wanted were the assets of the American Ceylon Mission and Dr Cally Rogers-Witte who has no right whatsoever to it, seemed over anxious to help them take possession of them. Was she trying to rob Peter to do a favour to Paul? She was hooked on everything wrong about her rights and believed or was persuaded to believe that she enjoyed rights over the assets of American Ceylon Mission. Even if she did have, she has no right to encourage a group that wanted to break away because what both the CSI and UCC value is unity so that they all may be one. In a civilian state this would be a traitorous act, even treason.
The name American Ceylon Mission is preserved but only as an entrenched unit of the JDCSI because it is an incorporated body in Sri Lanka and to which, by virtue of its incorporation, is assigned the immovable assets of the JDCSI. It is entirely owned, managed and governed by the Executive Committee of the JDCSI; no other body, corporate or otherwise, local or overseas, historical or current has any rights or claim over it. I have to state this quite categorically in the context of this feature and for the purpose it has become necessary to publish it as a document of reference.
Bishop’s appointment was constitutionally correct
Until July 3, 2007 there were a great deal of sounds emitted in Jaffna about strong differences and even threats of rebelling against the decision of the Synod of the Church of South India to appoint the Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah as the Bishop in Jaffna of the JDCSI. If one had taken the trouble to check and learn the highly labored process it turned out to be for various reasons, the Synod was left with no option but to invoke special provisions in the Constitution of the Church of South India to appoint a bishop. There was nothing unconstitutional about it even though the normal procedure would have been highly desired. This was denied to the Synod of the Church of South India.
Concerned that the Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ (WCM-UCC) was taking a somewhat curious interest in the JDCSI especially over the appointment of the bishop, I had a strong suspicion that this body situated in Cleveland, Ohio, USA never really took the trouble to determine what exactly its position was in relation to the JDCSI and secondly, to inform itself fully the workings of the Church of South India and its constitutional obligations to the various dioceses under its authority; the Jaffna Diocese is no exception.
To Be Continued
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