Dear Readers,

Warm greetings to you from the Synod Headquarters of the Church of North India. 

The other day I went visiting an old priest, in his seventies, who had been doing Lord’s Ministry for decades in our area and now was living all alone for more than ten years after his wife died of long protracted illness. When I entered his small drawing room, I found him sunk deep in his sofa chair, holding an old magazine in his hands and trying to read something. The same old broad smile spread wide across his wrinkled face on seeing me, he pointed towards that wooden bench nearby, asking me to sit. But the very next moment, that big smile had already vanished when I asked him, how he was. He kept inquisitively silent for a few moments and then spoke out – “I am alone … I am alone ...nobody is there to look after this old man…the evenings are very dark and the nights long.” For some time I could not utter a word. A little later I took hold of his hand and he started telling me how he is learning to adjust with this solitude in his parental home. “Is there anybody that comes to see you or help and assist you?” was my small query. “Not regularly. But off and on Mr. Barkat an old man in the neighborhood comes and spends a few hours with me. Sometimes he even stays for the night and sleeps here in my house. He does not talk much. But his silent presence becomes my strength. He is my Emmanuel – my God with Us.” And then he went on and on telling me about Mr. Barkat and his family.

Loneliness and feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty –says Mother Teresa. Loneliness is a very powerful emotion. It can lead to illness, depression and much worse. There are 81 million older people in India-11 lakh in Delhi itself. According to an estimate nearly 40% of senior citizens living with their families are reportedly facing abuse of one kind or another. Although the President of India has given her assent to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act which punishes children who abandon parents with a prison term of three months or a fine, situation is grim for elderly people in India. The incidences of the elderly being left alone are increasing. With no place to go and all hopes lost, the elderly have to resort to old age homes wherever available, or fend for themselves.

According to different NGOs, incidences of elderly couples being forced to sell their houses are very high. Many of them suffer in silence as they fear humiliation or are too scared to speak up. A phenomenon called ‘grand dumping’ is becoming common in urban areas these days as children are being increasingly intolerant of their parents’ habits and needs. There are a good percentage of others who have no children to look after them. 

The whole world is busy preparing for Christmas. Christmas cards and Advent messages are already being sent out to friend’s relatives and near and dear ones. Children are busy deciding which dress their parents should buy for them and what food they will eat during Christmas parties/programmes. A huge amount of time and money will be spent on buying and decorating the Christmas trees in our houses.

How wonderful and blessed a Christmas it would be if we play Barkat and spend some time with the elderly and lonely during this Christmas season and later in our lifetime.

Wish you all a blessed Christmas and a purposeful New Year.

God bless us all.

Yours in His Service,

ALWAN MASIH

GENERAL SECRETARY

THE SYNOD OF THE CHURCH OF NORTH INDIA