CHRISTIAN NEWS MAGAZINE FOR KERALA MALAYALEE CHRISTIANS FROM INDIA AROUND THE WORLD
APRIL LAST ISSUE - FRONT PAGE
VOL:3 ISSUE:P4
The Pain And Passion of Our Lord
By Dr. K.C. Nainan, Atlanta
Behold A Virgin Shall Conceive
By Basalios Marthoma Mathews II
Effects of Divorce On Children
By Mrs. Aju Tharian-New Jersey
Granite objects in Kerala Churches
By Prof. George Menachery
Birthday Celebrations
By E.S.John Australia
In-Law Relationship : Series-2
By Fr.K.K.John Philadelphia
Synopsis For Meditation
By V.Rev.Thomas Mundukuzhy
Question of Life & Death - Series 10
Is Sex Good?
By John D.Kunnathu
My Protector : Poem
By Mrs. Aju Tharian New Jersey
Biblical Personalities Alphabetical
Lol-The Bible: Excerpts
Biblical Locations Alphabetical
Lol-The Bible: Excerpts
Children's Quiz
Walls To Destroy & Walls To Rebuild
Fr.Mathew Koshy Atlanta
Maramon Convention
Gregory Of India : Series-2
By Dr. George Easow, Goa
Titles
Bible Quiz for Adults
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DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE
BEHOLD A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE
H.H. Basalios Marthoma Mathews II
Catholicose of the East
Malankara Orthodox Church
It is the biggest astonishment among the worldly scholars that a virgin got conceived and given birth for a child. It was decided at the time of creation that Messiah should be born of a virgin. The sign given in the prophecy of Isaiah also confirmed this mystery of Godliness. Aged Simeon and Anna could see, with their own eyes, the salvation of God, the whole Israel was waiting for long years.
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COVER MESSAGE
 THE PAIN AND PASSIONS OF OUR LORD
By Dr.K.C.Nainan, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A
Lord's sufferings without resurrection would have been just the sufferings of another martyr. Resurrection is the victory over death and hope for our own resurrection. It is the presence of the empty tomb that fills and strengthens our hope for the eternal life.
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ARTICLE
EFFECTS OF DIVORCE ON CHILDREN
By Mrs. Aju Tharian - New Jersey USA
Divorce is stressful and it’s full of new challenges. The children fall into a crisis when the parents opt for a divorce. A child seperated from a parent builds up a hidden character, which may make him dangerous person in future.
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ARTICLE
GRANITE OBJECTS IN KERALA CHURCHES
By Prof. George Menachery
Indigenous advances in archaeology, numismatics, anthropology, epigraphy, geography, geology, ocean studies, art, architecture, culture, literature, folk arts, place name studies,etc. in recent years have shed considerable new light on the origins and situation of early Christianity in Kerala and as such serve scholars as meagrely used but excellent resource tools for Syrian Christian studies.
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ARTICLE
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS
By E.S. John Australia
The Biblical character Job, a sort of a hero in epic dimensions, is the prototype of Christian endurance and sufferings. A true Christian life is a battle of Golgotha. The prophets, Christ and apostles have been warning us to remember four things in life always: death, Heaven, hell and the Last Judgement, not the birthday.
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ARTICLE
IN-LAW RELATIONSHIP : SERIES-2
By Fr. K.K. John Philadelphia
Chief villain behind most marriage break-ups is the undue in-law interference and a feeble or biased handling husband. Sometime an untamed tongue of the husband, wife or in-laws act as the villain in the break-up-drama. Many time gold obsession of the concerned parties play the villain in the holy relations.
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FEATURE
GREGORY OF INDIA : SERIES 2
GLIMPSES FROM LIFE AND SPEECHES OF LATE DR.PAULOSE MAR GREGORIOS
Compiled By Dr. George Easow - Goa
A capacity to transmit the essence of spiritual, philosophical and socio-political concepts, a constructive compassion rooted in an ancient faith, an illuminating search for the fundamental principles of different religions, a spontaneous interest in natural and social sciences were some of unusual versatalities consistently found in Mar Gregorios.
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LITERAL SATIRE
QUESTION OF LIFE AND DEATH - PART 10
IS SEX GOOD ?
By John D. Kunnathu
Sex is a natural device for reproduction. Without reproduction, humankind cannot continue to exist. To make a male and female participate in the act of reproduction, nature gives them some pleasure as an incentive. Thus the immediate objective of a couple in having sexual contact is pleasure, though the ultimate objective, which belongs to nature, is reproduction.
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SYNOPSIS-SERIES
 SYNOPSIS FOR MEDITATION-APRIL
By V.Rev.Thomas P.Mundukuzhy Cor Episcopa
Palm Sunday - Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11
Passover - Luke 22:14-30; John 6:41-63
Good Friday - Matthew 26-27: Mark 14-15
Resurrection - Matthew 28:1-20; Mark 16
Sunday After Easter - John 20:19-31
Second Sunday After Easter - John 21:1-14
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WORLD NEWS BRIEFS:
CHURCHES HAIL INDIA-PAKISTAN CRICKET PULLING SOUTH ASIAN RIVALS CLOSER
New Delhi (ENI). Church leaders in India and Pakistan have hailed the "goodwill and friendliness" the game of cricket - the most popular sport in south Asia - has brought about between the rival neighbours, acting as a bridge to other contacts. "We hope this will lead to greater sportsmanship among the political leaders of both nations," said metropolitan Thomas mar Themotheus, vice-president of the National Council of Churches in India. Themotheus told ENI that the ongoing cricket series between India and Pakistan being played in Pakistan "is a very positive development". [398 words, ENI-04-0193]
Courtesy to ENI
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FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF IRAQ WAR PROMPTS REFLECTION AND RENEWED COMMITMENT
New York (ENI). One year after the start of US-led military action in Iraq, aid agencies - many of them linked to churches - are continuing their efforts to help promote the health and well-being of a population that has suffered through the turmoil of the past year. "What we see is human need, and we can help," said the Rev. John L. McCullough, executive director of the US-based Church World Service, which co-founded All Our Children, a programme dedicated to serving Iraqi children. The first anniversary of the US-led war also prompted reflections from US church organizations and religious figures who opposed the military action. The US National Council of Churches, the country's largest ecumenical agency, decried what it called the lack of "sustained reflection on who we are as a nation, one year later". [473 words, ENI-04-0184]
Courtesy to ENI
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ISRAELI SOLDIERS CONVERT FROM CHRISTIANITY TO JUDAISM UNDER PROGRAMME
Jerusalem (ENI). The number of Israeli soldiers converting from Christianity to Judaism has doubled in the last year, a trend attributed to a special instruction course in Jewish and Zionist education aiming at assimilating immigrants into the dominant faith. At least 183 Christian immigrants, most of them from the former Soviet Union, converted to Judaism in 2003, twice the number compared with the previous year. The conversion efforts, under a programme called Nativ, began three years ago due to the growing number of army recruits who asked to swear their allegiance on the New Testament. [527 words, ENI-04-0179]
Courtesy to ENI
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ATHEIST ASKS US COURT TO RULE ON SCHOOL CHILDREN'S 'UNDER GOD' PLEDGE
New York (ENI). An atheist is seeking legal action to have the United States Supreme Court remove the term "under God" from the nation's Pledge of Allegiance, which is recited daily by millions of US schoolchildren. The challenge was made by Michael Newdow, from California, who argued that the use of the term God is an unconstitutional violation of the US separation of church and state, but is being opposed by the Christian mother of the atheist's daughter. [405 words, ENI-04-0182]
Courtesy To: ENI
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INDIAN CHRISTIANS CALL FOR GOOD FRIDAY TO BE REINSTATED AS PUBLIC HOLIDAY
New Delhi (ENI). Christians in India are demanding the restoration of Good Friday as a public holiday after the removal of the holy day that commemorates the death of Jesus Christ from the list of government holidays in several states. "Christians cannot be treated as doormats," said the Bangalore-based Global Council of Indian Christians in a statement criticising governments in the states of Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar and Gujarat for scrapping the holiday. Good Friday, which falls this year on 9 April, is the day on which Christians traditionally remember the crucifixion of Jesus. [326 words, ENI-04-0176]
Courtesy To: ENI
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CANADIAN CHURCH WARN GOVERNMENT OVER MISSILE DEFENCE PLAN
Vancouver, Canada (ENI). Twenty Canadian church leaders from the country's major denominations have written to Prime Minister Paul Martin urging that Canada abandon any plans to join with the United States in its Ballistic Missile Defence strategy. "The extraordinary squandering of resources in the vain pursuit of technological immunity from nuclear weapons is itself an offence against the will of the Creator," said the church leaders in a four-page letter. "We cannot afford to waste time and resources on an unworkable strategic missile defence scheme. The world cannot afford it," said Karen Hamilton, the church council's general secretary, in a statement. [356 words, ENI-04-0173]
Courtesy To: ENI
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BBC PROGRAMME TORPEDOES NOAH'S ARK STORY
London (ENI). The great flood could not sink Noah's Ark, but BBC television has tried to do so by calling the well-loved biblical story "a great myth". The story in Genesis (chapters 6 to 8) relates how Noah built a great wooden ark to preserve himself and his family, along with a male and female of each animal species, from a great flood sent by God, which destroyed the rest of humanity. "The traditional notion of the Noah story does not pass any sort of rational or historical test," asserted presenter Jeremy Bowen. "Maybe it was not meant to, maybe it was made up." Internationally, however, the programme faced the wrath of those Christians who believe in the literal truth of the Old Testament Noah story in the Bible. [455 words, ENI-04-0172]
Courtesy To: ENI
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SRI LANKAN CHURCHES CALL ON VOTERS TO BACK RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
New Delhi (ENI). Churches in Sri Lanka have called on voters in the general elections, scheduled for 2 April, to give their support to political parties supporting freedom of religion. "We appeal to the citizenry of our country to denounce regressive measures and to vote for the protection of freedom of religious worship and practice we have enjoyed thus far," said the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka in a statement. [269 words, ENI-04-0164]
Courtesy To: ENI
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FEATURE: MATHEMATICIAN, QUAKER, APARTHEID FOE WINS BIGGEST CASH PRIZE
New York (ENI). George F.R. Ellis, a prominent theoretical cosmologist and an active opponent of apartheid during its rule in South Africa, has won the 2004 Templeton Prize. Ellis becomes the latest scientist engaged in the burgeoning discipline of science and religion who has won the Templeton Prize - a 795 000 pound sterling, or US$1.4 million prize that its founder, the US-born investor Sir John Templeton, has stipulated be the largest annual monetary prize given to an individual outside the realm of sports. The John Templeton Foundation says its mission "is to pursue new insights at the boundary between theology and science…drawing together talented representatives from a wide spectrum of fields of expertise." [294 words, ENI-04-0162]
Courtesy To: ENI
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FEATURE: SHOULD LENIN GET A CHRISTIAN BURIAL? DEBATE RAGES
Warsaw (ENI). A Russian Orthodox spokesman has called for Lenin's body to be removed from its mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square and reburied according to Christian rites, as debates rage on about how holy the site is where the atheist revolutionary is buried. Russian Orthodox Church observers have noted that opinions remained divided over the famous landmark, whose future has been debated since the Soviet Union's 1990-1 break-up. "It isn't normal for a person's body to be placed on public display and used as an exhibit," said Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy director of the Moscow Patriarchate's External Affairs Department, in remarks reported by Poland's Kosciol.pl ecumenical news agency. [669 words, ENI-04-0159]
Courtesy To: ENI
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FEATURE: POPE'S POEMS JOIN BEST-SELLER LISTS
Warsaw (ENI). Pope John Paul II has long been a poet, but now a rare volume of his poetry that includes reflections on his own life and death, has sold over a million copies after being translated into 17 languages since its publication a year ago. In the Pope's native Poland alone, 600 000 copies have been bought, and an initial print-run sold out within days of its simultaneous March 2003 release in Rome and Krakow, the Vatican said. The announcement on the success of the book came shortly before John Paul II, born at Wadowice in May 1920, became on 10 March the world's third longest-serving Pope. [505 words, ENI-04-0145]
Courtesy To: ENI
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INTER-FAITH GROUP HELPS PROVIDE BOMB DETECTORS FOR ISRAEL BUSES
Jerusalem (ENI). An organization of Christians and Jews is putting up US$7 million to provide Israel with hundreds of explosive detectors on buses in a bid to prevent more suicide bombing attacks. "We hope this will have an immediate impact on the security of the residents of Israel," said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, announcing the plan at a press conference in Jerusalem on 8 March. The organization decided to provide the funds to Israel following the 21st suicide bombing against buses since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000. Since then 164 people have been killed in such attacks on buses and 777 wounded. [358 words, ENI-04-0141]
Courtesy To: ENI
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INDIAN CHURCHES CAUTION AGAINST PARTIES EXPLOITING RELIGION IN ELECTIONS
New Delhi (ENI). Indian churches have issued voter guidelines before the national elections in the world's biggest democracy, scheduled to start on 20 April, cautioning against political parties that pursue sectarian agendas. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India called on the electorate to support parties that "will promote true religious values and will not exploit religion for sectarian and divisive purposes". The National Council of Churches in India issued a similar call to its 29 Orthodox and Protestant member churches. Christians account for 2.3 per cent of India's one billion people. There was consternation among some religious leaders, however, after four pastors announced their decision to join the leading party in the federal coalition government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). [388 words, ENI-04-0124]
Courtesy To: ENI
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