Thrissur, India, 26 September (ENI)--To celebrate its 60th anniversary, the Church of South India has raised the equivalent of US$1 million for social projects, after most of its four million members each contributed at least 10 rupees, or 25 US cents, towards a special jubilee fund. "This jubilee is unique, as the entire church from top to the bottom is involved," the church's general secretary, Pauline Sathiamurthy, told Ecumenical News International.

The foundation of the Church of South India in 1947 marked the world's first formal union between an Anglican church and non-Anglican denominations. The anniversary will be celebrated on 27 September at St George's Cathedral in Chennai, where the inaugural service of the united church took place 60 years ago.

"This is a historic occasion in the life of our church," said Sathiamurthy. The united church brought together Anglican, Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian and Reformed traditions. It covers the four southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and also has a diocese in the Jaffna region of Sri Lanka.

Jubilee celebrations began in mid-September in the Thoothukudi-Nazareth diocese in Tamil Nadu. Then, Bishop J. A. D. Jebachandran kick-started a motorcycle rally, and, followed by thousands of young bikers, rode 160 kilometres (100 miles) through historic church centres. At the time, the diocese said the rally was to instil, "the spirit of celebration in the minds of congregations".

The million-dollar jubilee fund will be used, among other things, to finance endowment scholarships for poor children, especially girls, renovate 60 church orphanages and historic churches, and provide drinking water to 120 villages. "The jubilee celebration will not end with these projects," Vijay Kumar, the CSI's diaconal ministry director, told ENI. "We will make every effort to make the church more committed to the service of the poor, and need of the times," he said.

Kumar also explained that the church is to launch a "green programme" to increase awareness of conservation, bio-diversity and renewable energy issues, and to promote the church's eco-friendly programmes. Discussions about church unification in India began at a conference in Tranquebar (now Tarangambadi) in 1919. Subsequently, the Church of South India came into being after India attained independence in 1947. [379 words]

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Bangalore, India, 25 September (ENI)--A Hindu activist convicted of murdering an Australian missionary and his two sons in India in 1999 has now been found guilty of killing an Indian Roman Catholic priest in the same year. "This verdict instils hope and courage for harassed minorities," said the spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, the Rev. Babu Joseph, after a court in the state of Orissa found Dara Singh and three others guilty of the murder of Catholic priest Arul Doss in 1999. The court sentenced the four defendants to life in prison.

Singh is already serving a life imprisonment term for the murder of Australian Baptist missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two young sons, who all died after the vehicle in which they were sleeping was set on fire. "The conviction of Dara Singh is a clear triumph for the administration of justice," said Joseph. Singh was originally sentenced to death for the Staines' murders but the sentence was later reduced to one of life imprisonment. [183 words]

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Bangalore, India, 24 September (ENI)--Christian groups have mounted two demonstrations in Bangalore, the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, to protest at what they say is an alarming increase in attacks against Christian targets in the region. "The right to freedom of worship is being denied to Christians, and places of worship are being attacked for no reason," declared Hmar Tlomte Sangliana, a Presbyterian who is a member of the Indian parliament, and who led thousands of Christians in a march in Bangalore on 22 September.

"I am not organizing this rally as a political person but as a citizen of this country," Sangliana, a former inspector general of police of Karnataka, told Ecumenical News International at the end of the rally. He was elected to parliament as a candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party, whose opponents accuse it of promoting a Hindu nationalist agenda. Sangliana has said he wants to reform the party from within. Some observers have said the protest rally shows Sangliana's disenchantment with the political grouping.

In a separate action, tens of Roman Catholic nuns and priests joined evangelical pastors and others in a sit-down protest, also on 22 September, in front of the Gandhi statue in the heart of Bangalore. Sajan K. George, the president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, which organized the protest, told ENI that Karnataka state had reported more than 70 incidents of serious attacks on Christians since January 2006.

"We are worried as the situation is becoming alarming," said Lakshminarayan Gowda, an independent pastor who survived an attack on his life in June 2007. "Even regular church gatherings are being attacked." Police rescued Gowda and two associates after they had been locked inside a prayer hall that was then set on fire by the assailants. Gowda had previously been accused of betraying his Hindu faith after he became a Christian in 1989. [329 words]

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Kolkata, India, 11 September (ENI)--A media frenzy based on the supposed spiritual emptiness in the life of Mother Teresa, made public in some of her recently published letters, derives from a lack of spirituality, says Roman Catholic Archbishop Lucas Sirkar of Calcutta. "Those who are questioning the faith of the Mother have no idea of what is spiritual life," Sirkar told Ecumenical News International during an interview in his office on 5 September on the 10th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa.

The collection of letters between Mother Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of more than 60 years is contained in a book, "Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light". The U.S. news magazine Time recently published excerpts from the letters. The Time report said the letters showed that during the last decades of her life, Mother Teresa, who was known as "the saint of the gutters" felt no presence of God.

One letter from 1979 has her writing to a spiritual confidant, "Jesus has a very special love for you ... as for me, the silence and emptiness is so great that I look and do not see." Still, Archbishop Sirkar noted, "The more you move forward in the path to saintliness or holiness, the more you have to struggle against that which is not holy." He noted, "Unfortunately, those who have raised the issue have no understanding of spiritual or sacramental life."

Sirkar added, "Many are weak in their religious life and are not able to grasp the feelings the Mother has expressed in her letters." During a memorial Mass on the 10th anniversary of Mother Teresa's death, Archbishop Sirkar in a homily hailed her "deep faith". He said this enabled the nun "to dedicate herself to God" and "to give until it hurts" in the service of the poor and the dying.

Born in Skopje in what is now the Republic of Macedonia, Mother Teresa came to India in 1929 as a Loreto nun after receiving training in Ireland. She began to work among the poor, lonely and dying in 1950, and founded the Missionaries of Charity congregation to serve them. "The church is not disappointed by these letters at all," asserted Archbishop Sirkar. "This [controversy] is a creation of the media."

Sister Nirmala, Mother Teresa's successor and superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, which has over 4800 nuns and 700 novices working in 134 countries, told ENI, "This is a trial only few souls go through. It happens when God enters their hearts in a very powerful way." She said, "The light is so strong and the human capacity is so less. What happens when you look at the blazing sun? You are blinded. It is like that." [468 words]

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Kolkata, India, 5 September (ENI)--People from different walks of life and faiths joined a colourful peace procession to the tomb of Mother Teresa to commemorate the 10th anniversary of her death. The first gathering on 4 September, the eve of her death, remembered the nun who was known as the "saint of the gutters" here and around the world.

The next day, following a solemn early morning service led by Roman Catholic Archbishop Lucas Sirkar of Calcutta, people of all faiths, and carrying flowers and garlands, flocked to Mother Teresa's tomb to mark the anniversary itself. During the commemoration, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Muslim and Sikh leaders prayed together at the tomb, where they sang hymns extolling the Catholic nun who died aged 87 on 5 September 1997. "Holy people never die. The Mother is not with us physically. But her spirit is with us," S.M.A. Ali, coordinator of the 4 September march, told hundreds of participants. Marchers included Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, as well as orphans, children in karate garb, and uniformed youth members of the National Cadet Corps.

The procession ended at Mother House, where the Catholic nun is buried. The house is the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa, who in her lifetime became revered for her humanitarian work in the city. Following speeches by Hindu, Muslim and Sikh leaders, Sister Nirmala, Mother Teresa's successor as superior general of the order, concluded the march by reminding participants "to promote peace wherever you are".

A Muslim convert to Catholicism, Ali told Ecumenical News International that the Indian Karate Association he heads has been coordinating the march to Mother Teresa's tomb on the anniversary of her death since 1998. "She was a true mother to the orphans and street children," said Sukhnandan Singh Ahluwalia, a Sikh and general secretary of the West Bengal Minorities Coordination Committee. "We have a duty to pay homage to her on occasions like this," Ahluwalia told ENI. Still, he said he was disappointed that the Vatican had not yet declared the Albanian nun a saint even though the people "always treated her as a saint when she was alive".

In 1999, the Vatican initiated the process of canonising Mother Teresa after waiving, for the first time, the mandatory five-year post-death waiting period. In 2001, the Catholic Church took the first step towards the nun's canonisation by declaring her "Servant of God". Then, Mother Teresa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, was beatified in 2003 as "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta".

The Vatican has, however, yet to take the final canonisation step for the nun who was born in Skopje in what is now the Republic of Macedonia, and who received part of her training in Ireland. Asked when the 5000 Missionaries of Charity nuns and brothers were expecting Teresa's canonisation, Sister Nirmala told ENI, "We are praying for that." [490 words]

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