Last evening, after the sandhya namaskaram, 13 January 2009, there was a special meeting of the" friends of the STOTS Nagpur seminary" from all the parishes of Bangalore at the St Gregorios Orthodox Cathedral in Bangalore. The intention was to start a meeting of group of well wishers of the St Thomas Orthodox Theological Seminary in Nagpur.
Mar Coorilose, Metropolitan of Mumbai, the acting President of the Seminary was the Chief Guest along with Mar Irenius Metropolitan of Chennai. Mar Irenius gave a wonderful speech on the need to build up this seminary which will bring in more priests for the Indian Orthodox Church. While the other sister churches in the Oriental Orthodox Church, including the Coptic and Syrian Orthodox Church have grown and expanded all over the world like in Australia and other parts of the world, the Indian Orthodox Church, (perhaps the oldest in the world) has been sleeping and procrastinating. While Bishop Irenius put it to the audience to think why it was so. There are friends of Vellore ( CMC Vellore) in diff parts of the world. It is the good will of the people which is keeping such great Institutions going ahead.
There are more and more of Malayalis who are migrating to other states and outside India and this seminary can groom priests who are well versed in English. Malayalam and Hindi languages which will be a great helping hand for the younger generation and the future promising members of the church. Bishop Irenius spoke on why we need to give a helping hand to the 13 year old seminary, which is limping now and then for want of funds, prayers and good will. The Governing board elected Fr Dr George Pulikottil as the new Bursar in the place of new Bishop Designate Fr Alex Daniel, (Alexandrios Ramban).
Fr Ninan George, Vice Principal of the Seminary and Principal Fr Reji Mathew spoke on the occasion highlighting about the seminar and its " balarishtakal " thru a power point presentation Fr Abraham Ommen and Fr Philip Kuruvilla also spoke on the occasion.
Fr George Pulikkottil, earlier with Chicago St Thomas, the new Bursar of the seminary, as a role model, made the first contribution to the Seminary by giving his Xmas gift of Rs. 100,000/- at the meeting, stressing again that it was just being a role model and not for any name or fame. A new website www.stots.org will be coming up in the next two months.
A friend in need, is a friend indeed !!!!
Anybody can become a friend by remembering the Seminary in his daily prayers and visiting it. In addition, if anybody is interested in contributing financially, he may do so in many ways.
1. You can contribute Rs 1,50,000/- for building a room in the memory of your beloved departed ones
2. Sponsoring a year's study of a student at the seminary by sending Rs 30,000/-
3. Sponsoring a field trainee by sending Rs 10,000/-
4. by sending Rs 5000/- for the general maintenance and upkeep of the seminary
to the
Principal.
St Thomas Orthodox Theological Seminary,
Kamleshwar, Nagpur Dist, Maharashtra, India.PIN 441 501
Tel 07118 - 271696 / 271991 / 271994
Let us not forget, this is an investment not only in the church's future, the future of our children too. So give your best ....
regards,
Dr George Easaw, Bangalore
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