by Andrew Samarasinghe, Mount Lavinia
(July 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI), in an interview published in the Sri Lanka Guardian has advocated unity in diversity as essential for peace in Sri Lanka. His views affecting his church have been frank and forthright but it was on the question of the ethnic crisis that has plagued Sri Lanka so long, he has come out as a worthy leader not only of his own community but the entire nation too.
A church hitherto confined mostly to the Northern Province with some activities in the East has within a short period of his bishopric, assumed the character of a national church with congregations in the Central and Southern Provinces. This development is more the bonding of Christian families scattered in various places without a church, existing parishes needing workers and establishing facilities such as day care centres and where there are needs the church can meet.
JDCSI is not a proselytizing fundamentalist church with Bible-thumping evangelists working up mass gatherings into spectacles of religious frenzies but are hardly anything else to help with their faith and beliefs. It is also not a relic of the colonial empire. It is evidently a church free from political pollution of the bigoted kind but one that grew on the cultural soil natural to us in Sri Lanka and has been enriched by traditions and customs that are precious to us.
This has been reflected in what Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah considers as important for our country. He advocates that we accept the diversities of our culture and forge a united nation out of them. It is sad that this forceful idea has escaped the visions and attentions of other churches in Sri Lanka. The Church of England with its global Anglican union could have been a good force to advocate the philosophy of unity in diversity something the late adorable Bishop Lakshman Wickremasinghe held dear during his lifetime.
Cast in the racial and religious extremities that has taken a tight grip on Sri Lanka and the virtual collapse of the rule of law, it was very courageous of Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah to call for unity in diversity and recognize every citizen as equal to the other in respect of their rights that are fundamental to this ideal.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
(July 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI), in an interview published in the Sri Lanka Guardian has advocated unity in diversity as essential for peace in Sri Lanka. His views affecting his church have been frank and forthright but it was on the question of the ethnic crisis that has plagued Sri Lanka so long, he has come out as a worthy leader not only of his own community but the entire nation too.
A church hitherto confined mostly to the Northern Province with some activities in the East has within a short period of his bishopric, assumed the character of a national church with congregations in the Central and Southern Provinces. This development is more the bonding of Christian families scattered in various places without a church, existing parishes needing workers and establishing facilities such as day care centres and where there are needs the church can meet.
JDCSI is not a proselytizing fundamentalist church with Bible-thumping evangelists working up mass gatherings into spectacles of religious frenzies but are hardly anything else to help with their faith and beliefs. It is also not a relic of the colonial empire. It is evidently a church free from political pollution of the bigoted kind but one that grew on the cultural soil natural to us in Sri Lanka and has been enriched by traditions and customs that are precious to us.
This has been reflected in what Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah considers as important for our country. He advocates that we accept the diversities of our culture and forge a united nation out of them. It is sad that this forceful idea has escaped the visions and attentions of other churches in Sri Lanka. The Church of England with its global Anglican union could have been a good force to advocate the philosophy of unity in diversity something the late adorable Bishop Lakshman Wickremasinghe held dear during his lifetime.
Cast in the racial and religious extremities that has taken a tight grip on Sri Lanka and the virtual collapse of the rule of law, it was very courageous of Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah to call for unity in diversity and recognize every citizen as equal to the other in respect of their rights that are fundamental to this ideal.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
 Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church ...){kind=link}
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