India’s Church preparing for its first Mission Congress
The Indian Mission Congress “was the dream of the late Pope John Paul II of happy memory”, the organisers write on the website. It is “an opportunity to review our own commitment to the mission at all levels.”
Speaking to AsiaNews, Card Oswald Gracias, president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), said that the “Mission Congress is a celebration of the 2,000 history of the Church in India” as well as “a call to renew our journey of faith.”
The rendezvous in Mumbai will provide an opportunity for all three Catholic Episcopal bodies, the Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara, to come together.
“With this IMC, the Indian Church hopes to enhance the depth of our Christian identity,” and provide a “better understanding of our calling and a renewed understanding of the task of Mission,” which is one of service, service to the people, “to follow and know Jesus better”.
For Cardinal Gracias the IMC can be an opportunity for “renewed clarity, conviction, commitment and dedication to our people. We need first to look at ourselves, at our experience and our own lives, to see if our Christian identity corresponds to the image of Christ. Through shared reflection, interiorisation and assimilation of our Christian identity, we will be able to effectively communicate this experience to others”
‘Let Your Light Shine’ is the title of the congress, a topic that invites all the faithful to live their faith out in the open.
“The Church continues to spread the light through love, service and proclamation, as she moves ahead strengthening, empowering and building India,” the Cardinal said.
“We are therefore invited and commissioned to become the Light of Christ, spread it, becoming both message and messenger.”
What is more, the Church’s mission is not limited to India. “The Indian Church has much to contribute to the Asian church,” Gracias said.
“We have a lot of people, resources and talent” who can serve “Asian Churches and the Universal Church” through “theological reflections” that can help understand “what mission is and what it means to be a Church.”
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