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Wednesday, May 14, 2025

GLORIFICATION

 

 

 GLORIFICATION

 GLORIFICATION is a beautiful word. The Dictionary says GLORIFICATION is the action of describing or representing some thing as admirable, especially unjustifiably.

Glory, we are familiar with from our childhood. Glorification, we don’t come up with normally or if we do, we think it’s something good. But the connotation, ‘Especially unjustifiably’, reveals in real terms what the connoisseur tries to convey.

CSI – Church of South India – had been befuddled by suits in the Courts of law in India, from the lower level to the top most Court for the past couple of years. Very recently, the Supreme Court of India had delivered its judgment after evaluation of all the arguments. It had declared that the Moderator who headed the CSI was ineligible to remain in Office. The Honorable Court had emphasized in the judgment that the proceedings in a contentious meeting of the Synod – where the amendments to the constitution had been hastily pushed through by the Moderator - were to further his own interests. The Supreme Court of India had finally concluded that  the amendments were null and void.

The Synod is the key policy making body of CSI. It meets periodically.

One of the amendments that had been rubbished was that when a Pastor seeks to be elected as a Bishop, he should have 15 years of Pastoral Service – the candidate should have served in the Parishes for that many years. The Parish is the area of operation of a Church. The Moderator had introduced the amendment to block the eligibility of a brilliant Pastor who had been in the academic turf during the major part of his career. The academician had the unique distinction that several Bishops in service in diverse Christian denominations in India had been his students. He had published quite a number of books. Some of them were text books in Theological Universities across the world. He had been efficiently managing a Theological College as its Principal at that juncture.

Well, there was a young pastor. He was in charge of a Church in a remote village. Like all village Churches, the membership at his Church abounded with the poor, not the rich. He had been posted there soon after his ordination. Being City bred, the struggle over the past three years had been quite hard. He disliked the academician very much. However the origin of the enmity was quite amusing.

In a retreat for the Pastors – a refresher course for the Pastors held from time to time for their spiritual rejuvenation - of his diocese, the keynote address was transmitted by the learned Pastor. Diocese is a Cluster of Churches presided by a Bishop. The Bishop of the Diocese who had invited him to speak had himself stepped down from the dais and was seated on the front row with a letter pad and pen in hand.  He had no qualm in jotting down the superlatives that were transponded. There, the assemblage was advised that when they conducted a Worship they should stick to the Book of Worship they held in their hands. They should not digress or invent additional litanies of their own to prolong the Worship to their hearts’ content. The speaker dwelt on the aspect because such a flurry of expressions was defeating the very purpose of the Worship and the participants disfavored such deviations. As they couldn’t do anything, the congregations – members of the Churches - had been enduring the suffering in silence.  It was the voice of the voiceless. It was a clarion call.

The young Pastor revealed to one of his acquaintances that the host of Pastors at the retreat had vehemently rejected the idea propagated by the speaker and they had showered him with their displeasure before packing him off to where he came from.

It was after a couple of months, someone else had mentioned in a discussion with the young Pastor that the Principal of the Theological College in the neighboring district was doing a good job. Well, it infuriated the young man. He exploded. “I hate the glorification of the Principal.” ”I know what he is. Let him go to three or four Parishes, serve the people there first and prove his mettle. Pastors should never be elevated to hold the position of Bishops if they had solely been in the academic pasture.”

“I am with the Moderator and his officials who had introduced the amendment that made it a pre-requisition that the candidates to the post of Bishops in the CSI should have fifteen years of Pastoral service and I would happily vote for them,” he thundered.

Stunned, the acquaintance, did not respond. He was wondering at the gap in age between the fuming young Pastor and the Principal who was double his age with a gigantic wealth of experience.

Fortunately, the apex Court blew the whistle and threw the controversial amendment by the Moderator to the dust bin. The Honorable court had commented ‘enough was enough’ and had dislodged the Moderator from the powerful post he held.

The take away on the outburst of the young Pastor was that his acquaintance had been administered a worthwhile lesson on GLORIFICATION. It was a revelation to him that his awareness of the universal language, English, was purely cosmetic.

Truth at times bursts hard on the vainglorious.

Then only they learn.

 

 

 

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