"The Rev Sellathurai Jeyanesan must be conscious of the reality that one by one the churches they have illegally occupied and protected them with even high-handed activities have begun to fall because ordinary members of the JDCSI, powerless to do anything in the current political circumstances prevailing especially in North Sri Lanka are becoming extremely restive and fed up with the Jeyanesan antics and farce." ______________________________
by Jayanthi Williams, Arul Surendar and Victor Karunairajan
(February 27, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) A former Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI) priest, the Rev Thevathasan Premarajah, now in Tasmania, Australia has circulated a lamentation of the Rev Annappah Jeyakumaran forwarded to him by an unsigned individual beseeching prayers for the Pandatheruppu Church and its parishioners to give them strength and fortitude against the administration of the Rt Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah, the head of the JDCSI. Surely, the writer need not have taken cover under anonymity if his or her intentions were well meant and honest.
The Pandatheruppu Church and the parsonage has remained locked up for nearly an year because the resident priest, now in the dissident camp, the Rev Milton Solomon refused to hand over the two properties and held on to them hoping one day these will become the headquarters of the church founded by the Rev Sellathurai Jeyanesan. He is the self-titled head who was even referred to as the bishop by the Tamil weekly Uthayan newspaper of Toronto not so long ago. This tabloid is well known for its faux pas and howlers; equally its paid news items. Jeyanesan hails from Pandatheruppu but his siblings are now in various parts of the world especially Canada and the US. The intention to forcibly appropriate the properties was not successful.
Naturally, as we do in every such case we thoroughly investigated this appeal and found it to be palpably false and mischievous built around some incidents that actually happened in the said church but all of them centred around the illegal possession of the church premises by the Rev Mr Jeyakumaran and his fellow priest, the Rev Milton Solomon and some others connected to the dissident Church of the American Ceylon Mission (CACM). The lamentation account also has the sinister undercurrents of dragging non-JDCSI people into this rotten scrimmage. Interestingly, the Rev Premarajah’s note was also routed through some non-Christian circles which certainly is an act of mischief at its audacious insolence.
This is a church matter affecting the JDCSI and it must be the business of the JDCSI folks to sort it out. If Jeyanesan has a claim, he should talk to the officers of the JDCSI. Others, who have little or no understanding of the problems that have been let loose ever since he failed to achieve his dream of becoming the bishop of the JDCSI, should respect the interests of those who have been affected and at best offer succor and not participate in aggravating the issues at large. People like the Rev Premarajah and others who have garnered a lot of privileges and benefits from the JDCSI yester years ought not to press into their service folks outside their church whether they are their friends, relatives and even erstwhile students especially those of other religious communities.
Our analysis show a shocking and disgusting detail of persons who have dominated the JDCSI in the past and have obtained for themselves a great deal of opportunities for them, their children and families through means more foul than fair. They are the ones who, under the murky mask of masquerade, are mostly whipping up the undercurrents of subterfuge that they are able to manipulate under some pretext or other or even playing up on loyalties earned thus ignoring the larger and wider interests of the church and community. This dodge and deception tactics of these masters of duplicity should come to an end.
The writers of this report were under severe stress to sever the enticement to expose these individuals but should Jeyanesan and his lackeys continue this onslaught against the JDCSI, we may well run out of our patience. If he wants his own church, no one has any grounds against that but he must stop trying to appropriate JDCSI interests and accoutrements. He must also hand over all the millions he has raised in the name of the JDCSI over the last several years for which he has never submitted any accounts. It may just be time for the country’s law machine to take steps against him. None of his public activities are transparent not even to his own hangers-on and some of his priests, are in fact thugs attired in sacramental vestments.
It is our observation that the elite part of the JDCSI that dominated the affairs of the JDCSI too long is unable to come to terms with a bishop who is an intellectual, a biblical scholar of great repute and a man of integrity with whom one cannot play ops, lops and pops. Unfortunately, he is an outsider to the traditional JDCSI community and one who believes in embracing every member of the community into the fellowship of the church.
People who have never had the chance of playing responsible roles in church affairs, not even the privilege to sit in pews in the front of some churches now enjoy full rights and respect in all church matters. It used to be the enforced custom of the Karainagar Church that members of a particular community were only allowed to jam-pack in the last two rows of the church. Today, a member of that community has a seat in the Synod of the Church of South India thanks to the enlightened leadership of Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah.
And also for the first time, a Jaffna-based Tamil organization has begun to work amidst the Tamil population of the hill country who are British colonial time migrants to Sri Lanka, looked down upon by us and even their disfranchisement in 1948 aided by our politicians. This credit also goes to the leadership of Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah. Someone said that the liberation group PLOTE worked among the people of the hills but their interests were to seek cadres for their fighting forces.
Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah, a son of a school headmaster from Kokuvil of little means came from the Church Missionary Society (CMS). Since his parents could not afford educating at St Johns College, a CMS school, he joined Jaffna Central College where he was an excellent student and a well acclaimed sportsperson. Once he took to ministry, it being his father’s wish as an offer of a son to God’s service, he never looked back. He was soon considered a master theologian and a highly respected preacher. It is so unfortunate that there are people in Jaffna and among the Tamil Diaspora too, who cannot feel proud of this great son of ours and are instead supportive of elements that are being thorns to him. This appears to be an ingrained curse of our community.
Bishop Thiagarajah is being challenged by a man who had to seek a bogus doctorate to give some credibility for seeking the office of the bishop. The members of the Synod of the Church of South India are not foolish to be tempted with chocolates, whiskey, perfume and even US greenbacks. Why is it difficult for some people to see the massive fraud that is being perpetrated on them by Jeyanesan? Shakespeare said somewhere that those who smile and smile can be villains.
What did really happen at Pandatheruppu the other day?
The Rev Annappah Jeyakumaran has a stinking record of misdemeanours unworthy of a priest; no less in matters sexually implicit and couched.
As claimed by him, he was never appointed to the Pandatheruppu Church. The priest appointed was the Rev Milton Solomon and this was prior to the July 3, 2007 letter of the eternal flyer to many parts of the world, the Rev Cally Rogers-Witte of the Wider Churches Ministries of the United Church of Christ with her mistaken and foolish notion that she had decisive control over the properties of the American Ceylon Mission. This is typical of the arrogance some Americans display in relation to overseas matters. As claimed by the Rev Mr Jeyakumaran, the Rev Mr Solomon had no authority whatsoever to hand over the Pandatheruppu Church to him. This authority is vested in the JDCSI.
It is true the predecessor bishop to Bishop Thiagarajah appointed the Rev Mr Jeyakumaran as circuit priest in the region of Pandatheruppu but this office disappeared once he joined the rebel church and he has also been since suspended from the JDCSI. In fact, Jeyakumaran is persona non grata in respect of the JDCSI, a point that seems very hard for him to accept. Last year, he was a member of the CSI Synod Executive Committee representing the JDCSI. He sent a note of excuse for being unable to attend this meeting last November even though by that time he had lost his place in the Executive Committee by joining the Jeyanesan dissidents. He certainly seems quite confused.
The clandestine activities of Jeyakumaran are very sad reading. One wonders how, for a man who has committed a number of acts, criminal in character, has continued to be a priest of the JDCSI and now accepted as one of the leaders of the dissident church founded by the Rev Mr Jeyanesan.
Among them was the Swiss funds amounting Rs.421, 000 that he illegally appropriated for himself and when found out quite by chance an inquiry was held and it was recommended that he be de-robed. But the bishop of that time let him go with a simple apology rendered from the pulpit of the Colombo Church. At first he blamed the LTTE as having forced that sum of money out of him but later he owned up his transgression. He still owes the Pandatheruppu Church a sum of Rs.160, 000 for the multi-media projector system that was lent to him. The amplifier system has, however, disappeared from his possession. He was also found to have forged a cheque worth Rs.300,000 and cashed it.
He has a sickening record of other misdemeanors and that includes the night he spent in the Central YMCA Guest House in Colombo with a lady he signed as his wife only to be discovered by the staff and promptly reported. A more recent report against him involved a servant girl and for taking advantage of her, he ended up paying some kind of compensation to her.
In his lamentation, he has made an accusation of a similar nature against Rev Selvanayagam of the JDCSI. This, we found was true but the case against him is still pending and one has to wait to see whether this priest is guilty of the offence charged or not guilty. If found guilty, he will have to pay the price.
The claim that the Pandatheruppu Church belongs to the dissident group is false. It was no doubt illegally occupied by the Jeyanesan group and never functioned for nearly a year and was recovered by the JDCSI recently. Jeyanesan comes from Pandatheruppu and hence this rather unfortunate focus on this church because involved here is a great deal of prestige. Furthermore, the Girls’ Home in Pandatheruppu is under the management of Jeyakumaran’s wife and that is an added incentive for him to root himself in Pandatheruppu.
In another girls’ home in Uduvil, Jeyakumaran’s brother-in-law (wife’s brother) Rajanayagam who was principal of Jaffna College for seven years and also was in charge of this home, had to be relieved of this responsibility by the late Bishop Jeyam Ambalavanar when his nocturnal visits to this home became a matter of great embarrassment to the community.
The Rev Jeyakumaran did go to the Mathagal Police with a complaint but was told that his claim had no grounds whatsoever and that was the end of the matter. Electricity facility has been connected to the Pandatheruppu Church parsonage which is now occupied by a priest of the JDCSI. The story about the church keys is true but they were recovered legally by representatives of the JDCSI.
The Rev Sellathurai Jeyanesan must be conscious of the reality that one by one the churches they have illegally occupied and protected them with even high-handed activities have begun to fall because ordinary members of the JDCSI, powerless to do anything in the current political circumstances prevailing especially in North Sri Lanka are becoming extremely restive and fed up with the Jeyanesan antics and farce. Of very special concern of the community is the addiction to liquor of some his priests who are used by him to do all the frontal work to assault the integrity of the JDCSI.
Former JDCSI Diaspora priests now in Australia like the Reverends Premarajah who had to go on a long stress leave recently, Dev Anandarajan and Christy Roberts who is also known as the Casino Chaplain for his peculiar affinities are well advised to keep their ears, noses and fingers out of the affairs of the JDCSI which they, in the first place betrayed to have a better and cushier life Down Under. While he was in Sri Lanka much was expected of Anandarajan especially in respect of the Morning Star. He earned for himself the nickname Cathay Pacific from the late Bishop Jeyam Ambalavanar more for, it is understood that questioned his honour and uprightness and nothing whatsoever to do with the Hong Kong airline.
It is a well known adage that if you reside in a glass house, you should not be the kind playing with pebbles.
(February 27, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) A former Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI) priest, the Rev Thevathasan Premarajah, now in Tasmania, Australia has circulated a lamentation of the Rev Annappah Jeyakumaran forwarded to him by an unsigned individual beseeching prayers for the Pandatheruppu Church and its parishioners to give them strength and fortitude against the administration of the Rt Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah, the head of the JDCSI. Surely, the writer need not have taken cover under anonymity if his or her intentions were well meant and honest.
The Pandatheruppu Church and the parsonage has remained locked up for nearly an year because the resident priest, now in the dissident camp, the Rev Milton Solomon refused to hand over the two properties and held on to them hoping one day these will become the headquarters of the church founded by the Rev Sellathurai Jeyanesan. He is the self-titled head who was even referred to as the bishop by the Tamil weekly Uthayan newspaper of Toronto not so long ago. This tabloid is well known for its faux pas and howlers; equally its paid news items. Jeyanesan hails from Pandatheruppu but his siblings are now in various parts of the world especially Canada and the US. The intention to forcibly appropriate the properties was not successful.
Naturally, as we do in every such case we thoroughly investigated this appeal and found it to be palpably false and mischievous built around some incidents that actually happened in the said church but all of them centred around the illegal possession of the church premises by the Rev Mr Jeyakumaran and his fellow priest, the Rev Milton Solomon and some others connected to the dissident Church of the American Ceylon Mission (CACM). The lamentation account also has the sinister undercurrents of dragging non-JDCSI people into this rotten scrimmage. Interestingly, the Rev Premarajah’s note was also routed through some non-Christian circles which certainly is an act of mischief at its audacious insolence.
This is a church matter affecting the JDCSI and it must be the business of the JDCSI folks to sort it out. If Jeyanesan has a claim, he should talk to the officers of the JDCSI. Others, who have little or no understanding of the problems that have been let loose ever since he failed to achieve his dream of becoming the bishop of the JDCSI, should respect the interests of those who have been affected and at best offer succor and not participate in aggravating the issues at large. People like the Rev Premarajah and others who have garnered a lot of privileges and benefits from the JDCSI yester years ought not to press into their service folks outside their church whether they are their friends, relatives and even erstwhile students especially those of other religious communities.
Our analysis show a shocking and disgusting detail of persons who have dominated the JDCSI in the past and have obtained for themselves a great deal of opportunities for them, their children and families through means more foul than fair. They are the ones who, under the murky mask of masquerade, are mostly whipping up the undercurrents of subterfuge that they are able to manipulate under some pretext or other or even playing up on loyalties earned thus ignoring the larger and wider interests of the church and community. This dodge and deception tactics of these masters of duplicity should come to an end.
The writers of this report were under severe stress to sever the enticement to expose these individuals but should Jeyanesan and his lackeys continue this onslaught against the JDCSI, we may well run out of our patience. If he wants his own church, no one has any grounds against that but he must stop trying to appropriate JDCSI interests and accoutrements. He must also hand over all the millions he has raised in the name of the JDCSI over the last several years for which he has never submitted any accounts. It may just be time for the country’s law machine to take steps against him. None of his public activities are transparent not even to his own hangers-on and some of his priests, are in fact thugs attired in sacramental vestments.
It is our observation that the elite part of the JDCSI that dominated the affairs of the JDCSI too long is unable to come to terms with a bishop who is an intellectual, a biblical scholar of great repute and a man of integrity with whom one cannot play ops, lops and pops. Unfortunately, he is an outsider to the traditional JDCSI community and one who believes in embracing every member of the community into the fellowship of the church.
People who have never had the chance of playing responsible roles in church affairs, not even the privilege to sit in pews in the front of some churches now enjoy full rights and respect in all church matters. It used to be the enforced custom of the Karainagar Church that members of a particular community were only allowed to jam-pack in the last two rows of the church. Today, a member of that community has a seat in the Synod of the Church of South India thanks to the enlightened leadership of Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah.
And also for the first time, a Jaffna-based Tamil organization has begun to work amidst the Tamil population of the hill country who are British colonial time migrants to Sri Lanka, looked down upon by us and even their disfranchisement in 1948 aided by our politicians. This credit also goes to the leadership of Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah. Someone said that the liberation group PLOTE worked among the people of the hills but their interests were to seek cadres for their fighting forces.
Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah, a son of a school headmaster from Kokuvil of little means came from the Church Missionary Society (CMS). Since his parents could not afford educating at St Johns College, a CMS school, he joined Jaffna Central College where he was an excellent student and a well acclaimed sportsperson. Once he took to ministry, it being his father’s wish as an offer of a son to God’s service, he never looked back. He was soon considered a master theologian and a highly respected preacher. It is so unfortunate that there are people in Jaffna and among the Tamil Diaspora too, who cannot feel proud of this great son of ours and are instead supportive of elements that are being thorns to him. This appears to be an ingrained curse of our community.
Bishop Thiagarajah is being challenged by a man who had to seek a bogus doctorate to give some credibility for seeking the office of the bishop. The members of the Synod of the Church of South India are not foolish to be tempted with chocolates, whiskey, perfume and even US greenbacks. Why is it difficult for some people to see the massive fraud that is being perpetrated on them by Jeyanesan? Shakespeare said somewhere that those who smile and smile can be villains.
What did really happen at Pandatheruppu the other day?
The Rev Annappah Jeyakumaran has a stinking record of misdemeanours unworthy of a priest; no less in matters sexually implicit and couched.
As claimed by him, he was never appointed to the Pandatheruppu Church. The priest appointed was the Rev Milton Solomon and this was prior to the July 3, 2007 letter of the eternal flyer to many parts of the world, the Rev Cally Rogers-Witte of the Wider Churches Ministries of the United Church of Christ with her mistaken and foolish notion that she had decisive control over the properties of the American Ceylon Mission. This is typical of the arrogance some Americans display in relation to overseas matters. As claimed by the Rev Mr Jeyakumaran, the Rev Mr Solomon had no authority whatsoever to hand over the Pandatheruppu Church to him. This authority is vested in the JDCSI.
It is true the predecessor bishop to Bishop Thiagarajah appointed the Rev Mr Jeyakumaran as circuit priest in the region of Pandatheruppu but this office disappeared once he joined the rebel church and he has also been since suspended from the JDCSI. In fact, Jeyakumaran is persona non grata in respect of the JDCSI, a point that seems very hard for him to accept. Last year, he was a member of the CSI Synod Executive Committee representing the JDCSI. He sent a note of excuse for being unable to attend this meeting last November even though by that time he had lost his place in the Executive Committee by joining the Jeyanesan dissidents. He certainly seems quite confused.
The clandestine activities of Jeyakumaran are very sad reading. One wonders how, for a man who has committed a number of acts, criminal in character, has continued to be a priest of the JDCSI and now accepted as one of the leaders of the dissident church founded by the Rev Mr Jeyanesan.
Among them was the Swiss funds amounting Rs.421, 000 that he illegally appropriated for himself and when found out quite by chance an inquiry was held and it was recommended that he be de-robed. But the bishop of that time let him go with a simple apology rendered from the pulpit of the Colombo Church. At first he blamed the LTTE as having forced that sum of money out of him but later he owned up his transgression. He still owes the Pandatheruppu Church a sum of Rs.160, 000 for the multi-media projector system that was lent to him. The amplifier system has, however, disappeared from his possession. He was also found to have forged a cheque worth Rs.300,000 and cashed it.
He has a sickening record of other misdemeanors and that includes the night he spent in the Central YMCA Guest House in Colombo with a lady he signed as his wife only to be discovered by the staff and promptly reported. A more recent report against him involved a servant girl and for taking advantage of her, he ended up paying some kind of compensation to her.
In his lamentation, he has made an accusation of a similar nature against Rev Selvanayagam of the JDCSI. This, we found was true but the case against him is still pending and one has to wait to see whether this priest is guilty of the offence charged or not guilty. If found guilty, he will have to pay the price.
The claim that the Pandatheruppu Church belongs to the dissident group is false. It was no doubt illegally occupied by the Jeyanesan group and never functioned for nearly a year and was recovered by the JDCSI recently. Jeyanesan comes from Pandatheruppu and hence this rather unfortunate focus on this church because involved here is a great deal of prestige. Furthermore, the Girls’ Home in Pandatheruppu is under the management of Jeyakumaran’s wife and that is an added incentive for him to root himself in Pandatheruppu.
In another girls’ home in Uduvil, Jeyakumaran’s brother-in-law (wife’s brother) Rajanayagam who was principal of Jaffna College for seven years and also was in charge of this home, had to be relieved of this responsibility by the late Bishop Jeyam Ambalavanar when his nocturnal visits to this home became a matter of great embarrassment to the community.
The Rev Jeyakumaran did go to the Mathagal Police with a complaint but was told that his claim had no grounds whatsoever and that was the end of the matter. Electricity facility has been connected to the Pandatheruppu Church parsonage which is now occupied by a priest of the JDCSI. The story about the church keys is true but they were recovered legally by representatives of the JDCSI.
The Rev Sellathurai Jeyanesan must be conscious of the reality that one by one the churches they have illegally occupied and protected them with even high-handed activities have begun to fall because ordinary members of the JDCSI, powerless to do anything in the current political circumstances prevailing especially in North Sri Lanka are becoming extremely restive and fed up with the Jeyanesan antics and farce. Of very special concern of the community is the addiction to liquor of some his priests who are used by him to do all the frontal work to assault the integrity of the JDCSI.
Former JDCSI Diaspora priests now in Australia like the Reverends Premarajah who had to go on a long stress leave recently, Dev Anandarajan and Christy Roberts who is also known as the Casino Chaplain for his peculiar affinities are well advised to keep their ears, noses and fingers out of the affairs of the JDCSI which they, in the first place betrayed to have a better and cushier life Down Under. While he was in Sri Lanka much was expected of Anandarajan especially in respect of the Morning Star. He earned for himself the nickname Cathay Pacific from the late Bishop Jeyam Ambalavanar more for, it is understood that questioned his honour and uprightness and nothing whatsoever to do with the Hong Kong airline.
It is a well known adage that if you reside in a glass house, you should not be the kind playing with pebbles.
![](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2008/02/report-from-pandatheruppu-lamentations.html&media=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0GeXDWNVau758A1Ibw6PLLV0okR3Zgvy7j105acc6CNHWm9TbzN2obe7B-QK2AoiqNb7fmS0hRD-qeKwzSltSYwqimQ1Fao4p1VYwWFo87BZtNSSw5HjYEucBnb1ArnZbwoxIVQJ5h1A/s72-c/Cry.JPG&description="The Rev Sellathurai Jeyanesan must be conscious of the reality that one by one the churches they have illegally occupied and protected...){kind=link}
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