Dear All,
A committee to draft a fresh Mission Statement of the Church was constituted by
the Holy Episcopal Synod of the Malankara Orthodox Church. After several levels
of consultations and deliberations a draft was made and the same was presented
in the Holy Episcopal Synod. The same was given for any further suggestion. This
will come for final approval in the next Synod. The text of the statement is
given below so that ICON members can respond to it.
Yuhanon Mor Meletius Metropolitan, Thrissur

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MALANKARA ORTHODOX SYRIAN CHURCH

HOLY EPISCOPAL SYNOD

Committee to Prepare a Draft Statement on the Vision and Mission of the Church

The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church believes that it is the responsibility of
the Church to be co-workers with God in the task of transformation and
divinization of the whole creation. This is the mission of the Church.

THE VISION

The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church understands Church essentially and
fundamentally as a worshipping community. In that sense it is the Body of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It therefore is in perfect participation and
fellowship with Him. This worship carries the whole created world to God in Holy
Spirit through Jesus Christ. Even though we take the whole created world
seriously we believe that humans, created in the image and likeness of God, have
a special role to play in this worship. Therefore we would also say that the
Church need to be people oriented and not structure or power centres oriented.
The object of this worship is "divinization" of humans and transformation of the
whole environment of humans created by and under the dominion of God.

THE MISSION

The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church recognizes its God given role in carrying
out God's mission in this world. We, therefore believe that, are called to be a
dynamic mission-oriented community. While we gather the strength from worship,
we also gather inspiration from the tradition of the Church which is the
testimony of the ever continued work of God in history and hence which is open
to future. While tradition includes those testimonies of the work of God in the
Old Testament, the New Testament and the writings of the Apostles and Church
fathers, we also take seriously the continued work of the Holy Spirit even
today. Hence, we are bound to take various traditions, cultures, ideologies and
communities among humans seriously. The guiding principle of the divinized
world is the idea of the Kingdom of God that is already been inaugurated through
the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and waiting for consummation.
Since the presence of God is experienced in history, we need to address every
change that occurs in fields of religion, culture, science and technology. The
Church should respond meaningfully to social, political and economic questions
particularly in regard to justice and human rights and help the life of humans
qualitatively better every day.

For this task the Church should, first go through a process of self critique,
correction and transformation on an every day basis without which it will not be
able to credibly challenge the world around. Being divinized through communion
with God in and through the liturgical life of the Church, and by personal
spiritual exercises, every member of the MOSC is called to be stewards in the
world according to God's plan. We hope with God for a New Heaven and New Earth.
In our language we call this 'the sacramental life on earth.' This life is lived
in Kenotic dynamism or love expressed in suffering and is the ideal methodology
for mission.

There are basically two areas of mission: one, internal and two, wider.

1. Internal mission aims at educating the members of the Church to be
disciplined and dynamic and so as to equip them to be better witness to Christ's
saving act. Proper didactic work within the Church is the primary task of the
community. Teaching and preaching ministries are taken seriously. Both occur in
the context of meaningful worship of the community.

In order to be an efficient witness in every local situation, the Church should
undertake initiatives toward indigenization and inculturation in the area of
worship, theology, art, architecture, music etc.

The people of the 'Diaspora' of the Church require immediate attention. The
Church needs to impart its liturgy, faith and tradition in a manner and language
meaningful and contextual to them. The Church should also understand the
problems of its youngsters and equip them to address them meaningfully and
encourage people to take up various responsibilities inside and outside the
Church.

Family as the fundamental and basic unit in the society, which is the prototype
of Kingdom of God need to be vitalized. Involvement of women in Church's mission
needs to be enhanced and emphasized.

Monasteries have been the power houses of the Church in every area of mission.
We hope to revitalize the monasteries considering the changing situations and
social context. Life and working patterns in the monasteries need to be freshly
evaluated and studied and necessary changes need to be brought in.

2. Wider mission aims at serving the created world in general to accomplish the
salvific work of God in Christ for the creation. Our method of mission is
'witnessing' or martyria (Acts 1:8) rather than attempting for numerical or
territorial growth of the Church.

The MOSC has specific role in building and maintaining peace at the level of
denominations, religions, communities, ideological groups and nations. Being an
agent of peace and reconciliation, the Church is committed to explore ways and
means to end all kinds of wars, communal fights, litigations and conflicts which
block the effective witness of the Gospel.

We encourage both formal and informal dialogue with people belonging to other
Christian denominations, religions, faiths and ideologies for better mutual
understanding and co-operation. It would help walk the common pilgrim path, and
together explore methods to address challenges of time.

We involve in people's movements and liberation struggles, expressing our
solidarity with victims, especially Dalits and Adivasis to ensure justice,
dignity and equality for them. We appreciate the successful work already being
done by the Churches and communities and individuals among the poor, the
marginalized and the otherwise-abled. We wish to join hands with them in
establishing a just society.

The world that was created and found good by God has been made bad by our greed
and exploitative attitude and without any sense of true trusteeship. Therefore,
ecology has become a genuine concern of the time. We have to correct our
attitude and help nature regain its vitality.

Another area for immediate attention is HIV/AIDS, where prevention and awareness
programmes need to be initiated along with care and rehabilitation of positive
people.

We wish to prioritize the empowerment of women in general and those among the
members of the Church in particular. It is the task of the Church to train and
equip them and to give them opportunities to be meaningful witnesses.

Establishing a department for relief and natural calamities is part of our wider
mission.

We do not consider 'charity' as a means of expression of sympathy. It is
basically an attempt to empathize. We do not think that simply providing the
immediate need is the primary task of the Church, though at certain situations
this may be required. Our task, rather, is to create an atmosphere where all can
live and work with dignity and in participation so that people can help
themselves. So we help people help themselves. Awareness and perspective
building is the best way to achieve this.

While the Church disapproves of forceful or induced conversion from any religion
or faith or ideology, it reserves the right to accept voluntary and genuine
believers in to full membership and communion in the Church under the framework
of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and of the law of the land where ever
applicable.

On the basis of what has been already said, we hope that the whole created world
would truly transform in to the Kingdom of God. Our mission hopes to have life
abundant in humans and in the environment

Mission Board of the Church needs to be reorganized and revitalized in order to
identify and inspire persons who wish to witness Christ through the Church
effectively in response to the need of the time. Lay ministry need to be given
enough importance and individuals need to be encouraged to be effective
witnesses in the Church. We should explore and utilize all modern means of
communication and networking for more effective witness in this globalized
world.



H.G. Dr. Geevarghese Mar Osthatheos Metropolitan

H.G. Stephanos Mar Theodosios Metropolitan

H.G. Philipos Mar Eusebius Metropolitan

H.G. Yuhanon Mor Meletius Metropolitan (convener)

H.G. Dr. Jacob Mar Irenius Metropolitan

H.G. Dr. Yuhanon Mar Chrisostomos Metropolitan


Participants in the symposium

Fr. Dr. Reji Mathew

Fr. Dr. O. Thomas

Fr. Dr V. M. Abraham

Fr. Varghese Varghese

Fr. Ninan Kuriakose

Sri. A. K. Joseph

Smt. Giji Johnson

(Mission Statement prepared by the first ever Mission Convention organized by
the Mission Board at Mavelikkara)

Yuhanon Mor Meletius Metropolitan
(Convener)