Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday was full of visits – a total of five visits to various flavors and varieties of the Orthodox and/or Catholic Churches in Kerala. The layers of the Christian Church in this area are several and complex, and that is something I need to spend some time processing and sorting out. Our visits included meeting the archbishops or metropolitans of the various churches, as well as seminaries where they are training priests for leadership. I found it interesting that they have had the same level of historical divisions of the church as we know and have experienced in the United States, likely over the same “small” or “large” issues. At one of the visits, I met another Princeton alum in a bishop in the Mar Thoma Syrian Church (Rex and I got that picture, too). I think one of the reasons we made all of these visits was that if we hadn’t visited one and visited the others, it would have been noticeable, if you know what I mean! However, it also was informative to be brought in touch with each of these branches of the body in the church here, and to recognize their shared roots in the St. Thomas tradition. St. Thomas is the apostle who brought Christianity to India. I thought an interesting note made by one of the church leaders was that it was appropriate that Thomas was the one who brought Christianity here, because he was the disciple who doubted and needed physical proof of the Lord’s resurrection. Even in the midst of doubts and questions, God comes to us and meets us where we are, maintaining relationship with us through Jesus Christ. Understandably, we were exhausted by the end of our day, but that did not stop us from having an honest and meaningful conversation as a whole group after dinner. This trip has been incredibly disorienting for all of us, and that was made clear as we talked about what we had experienced over the past ten days. The women and men have had much different experiences, especially as it relates to cultural gender roles and how we have had to observe those. I was very grateful for the women’s sharing their frustrations, anger, and how all of that has impacted us as a group. What was overwhelming was how we came together the next morning for worship, and how that spiritual experience brought us even closer together.

Thursday was a day to take a breath and a break. The morning was unscheduled, and around 10:00 we went into the shopping district of Kottayam. It was good to get out on our own a bit and mix with the local people. Unlike Ahmedabad, where I felt as if I was always being “watched” because westerners are so unusual, here I haven’t felt the same conspicuousness. Another interesting contrast between the north and south are how the men are dressed. In the north, they mostly wore western-style clothing. Here, the men will wear a western-style shirt, but instead of pants, they wear what I would call an Indian kilt: a wrapped cloth around their waist and loin which resembles the kilts of Scotland. I still can’t figure out where they put their wallets! Shopping was fun, and I got a few nice things for folks (including a key chain which was Heather’s one request!). After lunch we took a boat ride on some of the canals and backwaters around Kottayam. It was relaxing and fun to get out of the city for a few hours, and to see the natural beauty which surrounds this city. The mixture of basic, even crude homes, and more upscale housing is shocking. It’s also shocking to see people bathing, swimming, washing clothes, etc., in a body of water which is incredibly dirty. But that is life here – and sometimes we have to simply live in the midst of what makes us uncomfortable. We had one final visit with members of the faculty at St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary, a school of the Syro-Malabar Church. That was one of our best visits, as we engaged the faculty with questions regarding how they prepare priests, etc. Following dinner and some more debriefing as a group, the highlight of my day was being able to call my grandmother in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and wishing her a happy 100th birthday! It’s amazing how much technology has brought the world closer together: the fact that I could talk to her through the internet, and it sounded like we were making a local phone call is extraordinary to me. I am grateful for her wonderful witness and life of service.