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October 9-10, 2010
This was a weekend to remember. The festivities started with evening prayer, meditation and inauguration of perunnal by Rev. Fr. Mathew Karithelackal, member of the Diocesan Committee of Malankara Archdiocese of Syriac Orthodox Church in North America and vicar of St. Mary's Jacobite Church, Des Plaines (Chicago), Illinois. Achen worked very hard trying to find a replacement achen to conduct the services in his church in Chicago so he can come to Cleveland and officiate at the proceedings. The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect for the two days of our feast with temperatures in the high 60s-early 70s and sunshine with no rain.
Achen reminded the audience on Saturday that we come to church for peace. Christ taught us that we should forgive our friends and neighbors for attending services. In achen's humorous sermon, he recalled an incident in a church where two priests were in feud with each other. Before we can conduct the holy qurbana, the priests have to give each other the peace offering before they can enter the madbaha. These priests were stubborn and refused to offer to each other and so they could not enter the madbaha and get ready for the qurbana. A Hindu police inspector was present to make sure there is no fight or disturbances. He sensed that there is some problem and so approached the priests and asked them why they are not conducting the service. One priest said, "Sir the other priest refuses to give me "samadhanam" - peace. The inspector immediately went to the other priest and said, "Give him that; I will make sure that I will get back it from him and give to you at the end of the service." ("ayalke athu kodukkoo. Njan pinne athu vangichu tharam.")
Sunday's program started at 8:30 AM with morning prayers followed by the Holy Qurbana. It was very colorful with 5 assistants assisting achen. In achen's message for the iPad 2 Cases Canada Baselios Bava's dhukhorno, he again told the audience that we should not bring any disagreements into the church; we should leave them outside the doors when you enter the church. His main sermon was based on Luke 7:11-17 - the story of Jesus raising the dead son of a widow in Nain. Achen used this example to tell the audience that God knows what we need. He is a merciful God. The widow was crying; she did not know who Jesus was and did not ask him to intervene. Jesus had compassion over her when He saw her crying and intervened. When we pray, we do not have to make a big list for God. God knows what we need. He will answer the prayer. Use the prayer instead as a communication medium with God. Praise Him and Glorify Him. He will answer our prayers when we do it earnestly.
The Rasa (Procession) was very colorful. Subin from Columbus led the procession carrying the cross. This was followed by the men with colorful Muthikoda (ornamental umbrella), then the altar assistants and the priest. They were followed by the women and children. Because of the great weather we went out into the parking lot and that was a great experience.
A very delicious sneha virunnu (lunch) followed. Thomaskutty and Sally's Kitchen prepared the delicious food. Thomaskutty was gracious enough to prepare more than what was needed so we had left over after everyone ate. Dr. Shila Mathew prepared few curries and the dessert. Sona and her mother brought "nercha appam" that disappeared very fast. (Talking about Sona, she went to the hospital after our service in September and delivered her baby. Her first appearance in church after the delivery was again in our church. Thank you Sona and Jerry.) Dr. Just, the Pastor of Epiphany Lutheran Church, came and joined us for the lunch in spite of his very busy schedule. Thank you Dr. Just.
After lunch, we had the real treat. Mercy and the troupe from Columbus took the audience to a magic land with their song. Although many people in Cleveland do not know her, Mercy is a well established professional singer in Columbus area who is is in big demand. Dr. Jacob from Columbus, one of the members of our board, was responsible for getting Mercy for our program. Mercy started singing at the tender age of 8. She had training in Carnatic and Hindusthani Classical music. As he was living in Poona, Mercy sings fluently songs in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi. She worked for All India Radio for 7 years. She also ran a music school with her brother. She has to her credit several Malayalam and Hindi CDs. Mercy was accompanied by her son Dennis and daughter in law Syja. Mercy started with the popular Malayalam devotional songs like "Daiva Sneham". Then as requested by the audience, she sung several popular Malayalam Songs including "Sandhye .. Kanneeril endhe" and then some Hindi songs too.
Video Clip of Mercy's Ganamela at Baselios Church Perunnal, October 2010
In between Mercy's spell binding performance, we had another treat. It was our own Vishin performing the much acclaimed "Viswam Kakkunna Nadha". Vishin had captured audience at the Malankara Silver Jubilee Convention in New Jersey singing this song. It was a splendid performance.
We had a record attendance for the program with guests coming from Pittsburgh, PA; Columbus, OH and Indianapolis, IN. Of course, we also had a great attendance from the NE Ohio Orthodox and Marthoma families. It is really emotional to see our friends from the old St. Gregorios Church coming and assisting us as we had done in Cleveland for over 30 years. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it.
Photo Album with all pictures Page 1 | Page 2
Video Clip of Mercy's Ganamela at Baselios Church Perunnal, October 2010
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