According
to the latest figure given on July 11, 2013 there are 622 villages in
Senapati district, which is less than that of the 2001 report which
recorded 621 villages. There are some villages that have two
churches; a church each for different denominations. There may also
be some villages where there is no church. Taking this factor into
account, it is fair to surmise that there would be some 622 churches
in the same district. It is also fair to surmise that each village
would have its Union or Association for the youth group; and
therefore there would be approximately 622 Unions in the district.
There would possibly be a Union for each block or tribe. If one may
include the Women Society and the Village Council/GB, the number of
institutions might possibly cross two thousand altogether. If we take
into account all the institutions in the five hill districts of
Manipur and also the entire state of Mizoram and Nagaland, the
monetary figure would be mind boggling!
It
has become a culture to organize the 50th
Anniversary of a church or an association with a not so insignificant
display of glory and achievement. For many institutions the Golden
Jubilee, as it is commonly known, is over; but the Diamond Jubilee
and the Centenary celebration are being awaited and prepared for.
Depending on the size of the institution, the budget is made, which
possibly would range from a lakh to a crore rupees. If one takes an
average of Rs. 10 lakh for a Union/Church and multiplies it by two
thousand, the amount is huge! But at the end of the entire spending,
what has been achieved? Is there any significant change that has come
about as a result of so many Golden Jubilees? Or is Jubilee just
another traditional Christmas, much larger in size though, where
people get together to make merry and greet one another and go back
home with their heart, mind, pocket and stomach emptied?
The
original idea of Jubilee is to set people free. To be set free from
the bondage of slavery and debt; to be released from sin and shame;
to be forgiven and to express one's trust in God. How much of that
original vision do we, as a church or as a social organization,
incorporate in the Jubilee year that we commemorate? If there has
been a flaw in our understanding of Jubilee which has resulted in so
much of resources being wasted, it is time we gather our thoughts and
actions and chart a new direction. And I would like to suggest how to
go about this in the following paragraphs.
Broadly
speaking, the key mission of a church is to help people develop a
deeper
understanding of God and
holy living.
If growth in terms of understanding and holiness is absent, then such
a church requires deep introspection. Growth in terms of
understanding must necessarily lead to holier living. Unholy living
with a deeper understanding of God is a contradiction! So if one
questions whether a person's understanding of God is deep or not, one
must look at the moral conduct of the person; or whether the fruit of
the Spirit is present or not. The moral conduct of a person is
double-edged. It consists in avoiding evil actions and performing
good actions. To avoid murder, theft, adultery, swindling of money
etc is just one side of being a morally good person. A morally good
person must also actively pursue doing good actions. So when a church
commemorates a Jubilee and spends ten or fifty lakhs, it needs to
set an objective which will result in the members growing in terms of
understanding that will lead them to avoid doing evil acts and pursue
good and upright actions. For example, a Jubilee pledge of a church
can take the form of government employees making a promise that they
will never take a bribe; and that they will come for duty on time.
This is an example of church members becoming holier; being morally
more pure. Setting an objective for a Jubilee may not necessarily
result in a drastically noticeable change. However, it is a
significant step towards ensuring a meaningful commemoration of a
Jubilee.
A
social union or an organization can set an objective different from
that of a church when it observes a Jubilee. A social institution can
set an objective that will enhance the substantive freedom of at
least the members of that union, if not that of the larger society.
Thus a social institution can primarily aim to improve the literacy
rate or the health or the economic condition or all the above points
of the members of that union. These parameters are very similar to
the Human Development Index set by the United Nations. If observing a
Jubilee cannot explicitly engender positive change in the parameters
mentioned above, it can still aim to bring about an implicit change
in the above parameters. By this I mean to say that the Jubilee
year/week can be used to change our perspective on the importance of
forest conservation or adult learning or something similar. For
example, highlighting the importance of forest conservation during a
Jubilee can implicitly effect the economic condition of the people.
Since it is known that the indiscriminate felling of trees can cause
soil erosion and less precipitation which in turn adversely affects
the farming community, highlighting the significance of this can be a
key message of a Jubilee.
(For the Hornbill Express to be published on 16th July, 2013)
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