| According to many of our people,
a bishop doing something for the church means finding them a job in the Gulf
or sending them to America with a scholarship. That was not Thirumeni's concept
of building up our church. People who approached him for such favors, including
some of his close relatives, were disappointed and disgruntled. Secondly,
Thirumeni was not good at pleasing everyone in a hypocritic way. Another way to be a hero in our church is to fight against the patriarch party. As much as he wrote and argued for the autonomy of our church (he introduced the concept of "autocephaly" for our church) he always wanted peace and unity in our church. Litigationists and destructive fighters didn't like him. At Thirumen's funeral, our Catholica Bawa said that wherever Bawa traveled outside Kerala, people asked him if he belonged to Mar Paulos Gregorios's church. Metropolitan Paulos Gregorios gave our church recognition and visibility in the world. He built up a Seminary, which is now considered the best in Asia. He built and developed the Delhi Orthodox diocese and the massive Center for the Diocese. How about his teachings and books on Orthodox Faith? Are they not contributions to the church? In two thousand years of our existence as a church in India, has anyone else done this much? He could have found a job in America and lived here as some of our leaders do. But his mission was to serve the church. When Hailie Selassie insisted that he stay back in Ethiopia, Thirumeni told him that his mission in life was to serve the church. In time these petty critics will wither away. But Thirumeni's contributions will survive for generations to come. So I don't pay much attention to the jealous gripers. I know personally, from the time I have known him in 1954,that his life was set apart for service to God and His Church. |