175th Anniversary of the CSI Cathedral - Thanksgiving Service on 15th May 2016

      The CSI Cathedral in Kozhikode has entered its 175^th Year on the 15^th of May 2016. The Church was established by Rev. J.M. Fritz on the 15^th of May 1842 on a Pentecost Sunday. God Almighty has blessed us all these years and the Divine Pentecost Sunday service on 15.05.2016 was set apart as a ‘Thanksgiving service’ along with the Holy Communion.

     Rev. Christopher Vijayan, the Director of Mission and Evangelism in the CSI Synod was our guest on the occasion. 

 

The Opening Prayer by Rev. T.I. James. With Rev. Samuel Coodacal, Rev. Vincent Moses and Rev.Dn. Shabu Thomas

     Achan was welcomed by Rev. T.I. James to our congregation. 

Rev. T.I. James welcoming Rev. Christopher Vijayan

 

Mrs. Bindu Sydney, presenting bouquet to Rev. Christopher Vijayan

     Rev. Christopher Vijayan delivered a beautiful message in malayalam, during the service.

Rev. Christopher Vijayan, delivering the message (Picture Credit: Mr. Suneeth Pulikkal)

      
     A list of Projects and Programmes in connection with the 175^th Anniversary of our Cathedral was presented by Rev. T.I. James.

The Projects include:

1.  Elderly Day care centre (or “Pakal Veedu”): A place inside the Cathedral campus for elderly people to come together and spend their day time, away from any loneliness. This project will be materialized under the leadership of the Mens Fellowship of the Cathedral.

2. Kuttikkattoor Church: Building churches is an important mission. We already have a good number of members attending the service being conducted at Kuttikkattoor on Sunday evenings. Half of last year’s Harvest festival Raffle collection was set aside for this purpose. This requires buying a land, building a church and forming a pastorate by combining Kattangal and Kuttikkattoor. 

3. Jubilee Hall: A lot of discussions have already been made in yester-years on the construction of another hall for the Cathedral. Now, the Bishop of Malabar Diocese will also be functioning with the Cathedral as his parish unlike his predecessors of NKD who operated the church affairs from Shoranur. So, the need of the hour is a building where we can conduct retreats and meetings as and when required. Keeping these requirements in mind, we plan to design and construct a ‘Convention hall cum Retreat centre which will cater the needs of the Cathedral as well as Malabar Diocese in the years to come. 

4.  Holy Elements unit: The Holy elements namely ‘Wine and Wafer’ used during the Holy Communion service is currently being procured mainly from the Catholic outlets. The Cathedral intends to start a ‘Wine and Wafer’ unit which can meet the requirements of all the churches in the Malabar Diocese. This project has been taken up by the Womens Fellowship of the Cathedral. 

5.  Family Directory: The first Family Directory of the Cathedral was released in 2006 by the Youth Fellowship. In this 175^th year, we intend to release an updated version of the Family Directory integrating Family photos. The Cathedral Youth Fellowship has taken up this project and will start collecting data as early as possible. 

6.  Green Parish: This year, the Cathedral intends to make concentrated efforts to reduce use of plastic inside the church compound. This will be accomplished mainly by promoting use of ceramic plates and steel tumblers for use by marriage parties. Installation of a Solar Power plant, which can meet the requirements of all buildings in the cathedral compound has also been planned. Excess electricity generated can be sold to the Kerala State Electricity Board, which will become another source of revenue also. The Golden Age fellowship of the Cathedral has consented to bring alive a major portion of this project which can be completed with the support of all well-wishers. 

7. Ambulance to Codacal Mission hospital: The second half of last year’s Harvest Festival Raffle collection was set apart for this purpose. We intend to purchase and hand over a Maruthi Suzuki EECO LMV to the Director of Codacal Mission hospital by the end of June 2016 as per our discussions. 

8.  Daniel Joseph House Project: The construction of a house to Mr. Daniel Joseph, was proposed by Dr. Carl Vijayan and the Cathedral had promised full support in this venture. We intend to extend our help to complete this project as early as possible in consultation with Dr. Carl Vijayan and hand over this house to Mr. Daniel Joseph. 

9.  Health clinic for migrant labourers and needy: We intend to realize this project with the help of our church members working in the Medical sector. 

10.  A counselling centre: Presently there are no counselling centres in our Diocese. The Cathedral intends to begin a counselling centre which can provide guidance and care to people of all ages.

The programmes include: 

1. A retreat for all the sextons and their families in the Malabar Diocese: A Sexton (Kappyar) is an integral part of any church and usually his/her service to the church is not given much recognition. The Cathedral intends to organize a retreat bringing together all the sextons working in the Churches in Malabar Diocese to appreciate their efforts and to encourage them to continue their dedicated service to the Lord. 

2. Choir Festival: The Cathedral is planning to conduct a Choir festival in December 2016 as a part of the 175 years celebration. More details coming up. 

3. Youth Get-together: A get-together of all members in the 15-35 year bracket, which can ensure more participation of the younger generation in the activities of the church in the years to come. 

4. Children’s Fest. 
5. Family renewal retreat. 

6. Retreat for the Teaching and non-teaching staff in our schools. 

7. National History Seminar on Rev. John Michael Fritz. 

8. 175^th Anniversary Souvenir. 
9. Arts and Sports festival for the congregation. 
10. Jubilee Gospel Convention.

     The 175^th year commemorative logo designed by our Pastorate Committee Secretary, Mr. Denzil John was released on the occasion by Rev. Christopher Vijayan. 

Rev. Christopher Vijayan, releasing the 175th anniversary logo (Picture Credits: Mr. Suneeth Pulikkal)

      The Logo portrays the Cathedral Belfry and a Dove in multicolor. The logo has been carefully designed to symbolize the following: 

The Anniversary Logo

1. Cathedral Belfry (Church) : symbolizes the Cathedral congregation - Called for mission

2. Dove of peace with wings like split tongue which appeared to the Apostles. 

3. Orange: the Revival in the Cathedral congregation 

4. Purple: The celebrations spanning 1 year 

5. (175) Green: Green parish – eco-friendly congregation (reminds our responsibility to nature) 

6. (Blessed Years) Red: Reminds the Pentecost day on which the church started and exhorts us to continue worshipping our Lord and Saviour in the same spirit as that of our forefathers.

Visit link to see Mr. Denzil John describing the commemorative logo. (Video Credits: Mr. Suneeth Pulikkal)

     Ms. Jennie Merrvin, daughter of Mr. Merrvin Isaac and Mrs. Beena Merrvin who successfully completed the course in Chartered Accountancy was felicititated by the Pastorate Committee during the service. She is now a registered Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in India (ICAI) and is the first person from our congregation to achieve this.

Ms. Jennie Merrvin along with Rev. Christopher Vijayan, Rev. Dn. Shabu Thomas and Rev. T.I. James

     The service concluded at 11 am. Tea and Snacks were arranged for all those who attended.

     The anticipated expense for the successful completion of these projects is Rs. 3 Crores. Estimated cost for projects and programmes will be presented in our Church Assembly which will be convened next month and a more accurate figure will be available. All earning members are requested to contribute one month’s salary in 12 equated monthly installments to make these projects a grand success. Separate pledge cards will be issued for this purpose. 


     The 175^th Anniversary celebrations will be officially inaugurated in the month of June and will conclude in May 2017. May the God almighty bless us and strengthen us to successfully complete these projects and move forward in peace and harmony with people and with nature.

Respected Vicars with the 175th Anniversary Logo