Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, today the opposition called a ‘Hartal’ (strike) covering the whole country. There are many reasons behind it, but the main reason may be due to the trial of war criminals who carried out a lot of crimes during the liberation war of Bangladesh. It seems that political troubles are going to slowly increase again. Last Sunday, there was an earthquake in Sikkim, India, and many parts of India and Bangladesh were more or less affected by it. Today’s newspaper says about 100 people have been killed by this earthquake in parts of India, and it is almost certain that that number will increase.
I had mentioned in my last letter that Mother Susila was going through a crucial time of her life. I was in Colombo, with my wife Janet, for the consecration of the 15th Bishop of Colombo being honoured by the Archbishop of Canterbury to attend as chief consecrator. When I left for Colombo, Mother Susila was in Birdem Hospital, Dhaka. Setting off to return to Dhaka, I did not check my flight schedule and arrived at the airport according to the time mentioned on the ticket only to find that the flight schedule had been changed and we were left sitting at the airport for a couple of hours.
While we were waiting for our flight, I received a message on my mobile phone that informed me that Mother Susila was no more in this world but with our Heavenly Father. The sisters of Christa Sevika Sangha (CSS) were stunned as well as shocked by Mother’s death and they did not know what to do next. Following consultation with Bishop Sunil Mankhin, Mother’s body remained at Birdem. I returned home in the afternoon, and after talking with the Sisters, finally decided to send the body to the Epiphany Church, Barisal. The next day, prayers took place in the Epiphany Church and many people came to offer condolences and to show their respect for the last time. Then, according to Mother’s last wish, her body was taken to CSS, Jobarpar, and the whole village broke down with mourning. I, my wife and Bishop Mondal and Bishop Baroi arrived in the afternoon. The weather was not good, it seemed that nature was also in mourning for Mother. Mother’s body was kept inside the Chapel of CSS for the whole night, and special hymns were sung. The next morning the body was taken to St Mary’s Church for the funeral. A lot of people came to see Mother Susila for the last time with cordial reverence. Bishop Sunil Mankhin came with a few priests and also lay leaders from Kushtia Diocese arrived. The Revd Ashish Mondal came with the Sisters of St Mary’s and others from Haluaghat. It was a great moment for all of us, mixed with mourning and respect. Finally we buried Mother behind the CSS Chapel which she had selected prior to her death. A chapter of both the Oxford Mission and the CSS has been closed with Mother Susila’s death. After about 40 days, we gathered together again in Jobarpar and had a thanksgiving and communion service in memory of Mother Susila. Her close relatives came from Chennai to show their love and respect. We published a small booklet in her memory, where we expressed our gratitude and respect to Mother Susila for her devoted life in Christian Service for the people and and for the Church of Bangladesh.
Some time later, I, as Visitor, met with the CSS sisters and Bishop Michael S Baroi and Fr Francis A Pandey. We discussed matters relating to the CSS and elected Sister Jharna as Sister Superior according to the Constitution. We are also pleased to see that there is a new girl, who is from Kushtia, joining the CSS. Please pray for Sister Superior Jharna and the Sisters, that they are able to continue to serve Lord Jesus Christ and the people of the neighbourhood in the future.
In the last week of June, I attended the USPG Conference and met a few friends of our Church such as the Revd John Webber, the Revd and Mrs Tom Thubron and the Revd Eileen Thomson. Following the conference, I visited, for about ten days, the Llandaff Diocese of Church of Wales. It was my first visit to Wales and I enjoyed the warm hospitality and fellowship of Archbishop Barry Morgan and his wife and the people of Llandaff. The Revd John Webber was not very well but gave up much of his time for me too. It is because of his initiative that the Church of Bangladesh (CoB), after about 10 years, now has a companion relationship with Llandaff Diocese. Archbishop Barry Morgan and I signed the agreement of our relationship in an Ordination Service at Cardiff Cathedral. The new General Secretary, Mrs Jeanette O’ Neil of USPG, was also was present to witness this special event.
The CoB continues to run smoothly with its regular programmes as well as with some new initiatives. We give thanks to Mr T K Byapari for his sincere service for Oxford Mission as Manager. We hope to be able to appoint a new Manager from next January. Bishop Sunil Mankhin has left for the USA for the Peace-making Programme with the Presbyterian Church of USA. The Revd John Probhudan Hira has gone to Taiwan to do a Masters in Theology with a Scholarship from CWM. We want to send our priests to Bishop College, India, but it seems to have become very difficult nowadays due to the Indian government not being keen to allow visas for Christian studies.
Kushtia Diocese Council meeting was held in Kushtia two weeks ago and Dhaka Diocese Council meeting was held last week. In my address to the Dhaka Diocesan Council I said that our ministry is Christ-centered and the Mission of the Church we inherited from Christ’s mission is that expressed in the Nazareth declaration in Luke’s Gospel. We, the priests and other leaders, are all called by our Lord Jesus to carry on His mission serving humanity and God in our own land. We are given different talents and qualities to do our mission works but the purpose of our works is one, which is to preach the Christ’s Gospel of love to others. Our Church programmes are not for our benefit but to witness Christ to others through these. Thus we need to be sincere and selfless in our service and we cannot do that if we are not abiding in Christ.
The theme we selected was ‘We are the Servants of Christ and entrusted with the secret things of God’. A Roman Catholic priest Fr Joyti Francis Costa led the retreat on this theme, and he pointed out that self-evaluation is very much needed for the ministers to ask ourselves how we are serving Christ. We have strengths and weaknesses as the servants of Christ but we need to control our weaknesses and exercise our strengths to be a good servant of Christ.
The Rt Revd Paul S Sarker
Bishop of Dhaka