Dear Readers,

Greetings to you from the Synod of the Church of North India.

Last month on 20th January 2009 the people across the Globe watched intently with hope and expectation the embodiment of ‘change” Barrack Hussain Obama taking Oath as the 44th President of the oldest democracy and most powerful nation of the world. He had fought the election on the slogan of “CHANGE” and encouraged his audience every time he spoke with “Yes, we can”. In the world where everything seem impossible and where we hear people saying “I can’t” this new wave of “change” and “Yes, we can” brought hope. I watched the proceedings spellbound from my hotel room in Chennai as I was traveling during those days. I found myself among those billions of people around the world watching him addressing the nation, but he was in fact addressing the whole world. He spoke for everyone; he spoke on all subjects and he spoke on all issues currently faced by the world. 

Having come home I read two columns on 25th January 2009 written by two prominent columnists of our time, Sudhendra Kulkarni, and Karan Thaper. Kulkarni wrote in the edition of the Indian Express on the title “Obama spoke for India too” and he went on to highlight the areas of Obama’s inaugural speech which touched the Indian minds and hearts, particularly when he appealed to the people to re-enshrine old-world values of responsibility, work, sacrifice and service. US President Obama further said – “our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - our hard work and honesty, our courage and fair play, our tolerance and curiosity, our loyalty and patriotism. Yes, these things are old. But these things are true. What is demanded is a return to these truths.” This reminds me of our former Moderator Bishop Joel V Mal speaking to us at the beginning of the last triennium and also through his impassioned plea to return to “basics” for preserving the authenticity the Church’s evangelistic witness through our unity in the Body of Christ. The Church of North India , being a ‘united and uniting’ Church, unity is the very essence of its being. A house divided against itself cannot stand; nor can a fragmented Church claim to be the ‘Body of Christ’. We need to be Christ-centered if we are to stay united and become a catalyst for Christian unity. Historically the call to unity came from the pain and passion for mission. Mission and unity are inseparable. We need to return in repentance to Jesus Christ, whose mission partners we are. The fruit of this repentance will be a vibrant renewal of Church life and the holistic empowerment of all members of the Church of North India to experience and witness fullness of life.  

Yes, Obama spoke to us, even to the members of the Church of North India . Change is so pervasive in our lives that it almost defeats description and analysis. One can think of it in a very general way as alteration. No, Alteration is not change that is referred to here in this page. In my opinion change is return to the basic values of old which are true even today.  

The other columnist Karan Thapar in his column published in Hindusthan Times on the same day entitled - An Idea called Obama. Karan says that Obama was not just a President, he was not an icon, but he was an idea. To acknowledge that there is a better way is to have dreams for change. Karan says that you need to be a human being with dream to see oneself as the means of realization. “Yes, we can” reminds me of St. Paul ’s bold statement that “I can do every thing through Him who gives me strength – Phil 4: 13)”. For us Christians not just – I can do – but I can do through Christ who gives me strength – is the basic foundation of realizing one’s potentialities. The idea personified by Obama is realizing oneself. I am personally touched when he said that greatness is never given. It must be earned. How true it is. It was indeed a clarion call to all our youngsters who expect that someone will give him or her honor, name, position, authority, greatness on a platter. You need to earn them.  Obama said that our journey has never been of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted. It has not been the path for those who prefer leisure over work or seek only pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the journey of risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things.  

How long the words “I can’t” and “impossible” in relation to the positive action remain in our vocabularies?  

Yours in His Mission ,

Rev. Dr. Enos Das Pradhan

General Secretary

The Synod of the Church of North India