The 121st Maramon Convention, billed as Asia’s largest annual Christian religious retreat, began with a call to abate environmental pollution.
Inaugurating the week-long religious meet at Maramon in Pathanamthitta district, Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan, head of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, said the world today has been witnessing alarming pollution of the environment as well as the human mind and this never-before-seen negative trend was the bane of the modern world.
Addressing the large congregation of believers, that included Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the Metropolitan said the State’s political scenario too has been marred with character assassination and all sorts of undesirable trends which amply reflected the pollution of human minds.
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Even the Church was not an exception in this regard, he said.
The Mar Thoma Metropolitan said such negative trends should be nipped in the bud itself.
According to him, the once sand-rich Pampa riverbed at Maramon has been badly degraded with thickets of grass flourishing along several stretches due to man’s scant disregard to nature.
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It is high time the society, above all religious and political differences, made a concerted effort for environment conservation, besides restoring social harmony and community life, he said.
Quoting Swami Vivekananda, the Metropolitan said Jesus was a man who lived for others.
He said the faithful and the Church should understand this human face of Jesus. He further called upon the believers to tread the path of compassion, peace and justice in order to lead a blessed life.
The meet began at 2.30 pm with a prayer by the senior Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Church, Philipose Mar Chrysostom.
Thomas Mar Themotheus Episcopa, president of the Mar Thoma Evangelistic Association, presided over the inaugural function.
Addressing the meet, Anne Mathew, grand daughter of the renowned evangelist Stanley Johns, said Rev. Johns taught the world a new paradigm of living in Christ. Rev. Johns always upheld the superiority of Jesus Christ and not the superiority of the religion, Christianity, Ms. Mathews said.
Fr. George Varghese Punnackadu, MTEA general secretary, presented the report and Rev. Malcom T.H. Tan, evangelist from Singapore, delivered the religious discourse, later.
All other bishops attached to the Mar Thoma Church attended the inaugural function. Besides Rev. Tan, Bishop Daniel Thyagaraja from Sri Lanka, Rev. Francis Sunderraj from Chennai, Rev. Leonard Sweet from the United States of America, are the other renowned evangelists who will be addressing this year’s week-long Maramon Convention. Mar Chrysostom will address the gathering at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. The annual religious retreat will come to a close on February 21.