Whatever denomination one may follow one will invariably be faced with having to assess the psychology of their priest…some are like vampires. They are the ones who literally survive by sucking out the very lifeline of the Diocese. Priests have vested interests, but that’s not the problem. The problem is when they start with sin and end with sin but are capable of displaying no dearth in their attempt to convince the congregation that they can get absolution from their sins by being generous, and by denying themselves of the pleasures of this life. Consequently, the means they suggest are also bad. And if we add to all this the bad that they indulge in and which they deem is not sinful when undertaken by them we have a perfect priest. And sadly, they abound in The Church of North India (CNI) – especially among the bishops.
The Church of North India has a strong establishment in North East India with hospitals, schools, and numerous churches especially in Assam, and the head of all this infrastructure is the bishop of the Diocese of North East India (DNEI). And if one is to believe the congregations, after this bishop came (2014) there has been a surge in the holy lies and the holy fraud. Congregations, no matter how remote they may be never like to let themselves be misled and so it has always been the attitude of the congregations to question the activities of their bishop. And till the arrival of this bishop,they say there has been nothing but reverence, friendliness, kindness, humility and honour in the way the bishops conducted themselves to their duties and in the relationship with the congregations.
The vigour of the mind of the people in the North East, being as they have always been – independent and free – possesses that innate attitude which instinctively leads them to observe and question the activities of their leaders and in this case the activities of the bishop. Ultimately the point is how much can the congregations go on believing a man whose words and deeds are in total contrast to their understanding of what a religious calling is meant to be, especially when they detect systematic attempts to explain wrongful acts with lies and a vested manipulation of the assets that have been built up over the years in lands and properties that have been handed down to them by their ancestors and the colonial rulers. Basically, it was the transfer of church lands in Upper Assam that awakened the people to the threat that they were being confronted with. It’s not as if this is only happening in the DNEI, no, it’s happening all over north India where the church has inherited prime properties that are worth crores of rupees from the colonial times, and which were and are being sold for crores of rupees by bishops in the mainland. The wicked bishops represent the greatest danger for the honest church members, and the well-constituted members deserve to be protected from these bishops. Is this known?
Broadly speaking, the assets the DNEI possesses have also been handed down from the time of colonial rule and they do not want to see them diminished and this fear compels the strong to be strong and to act with all vigour. They do not want to see these assets becoming dead, or lost or defunct. Assets as valuable as hospitals have now been sold or rendered bankrupt and the loss is not only to the Diocese but to the people who depended on them for their day-to-day treatment at lowest possible costs; even free when the case demanded. I’m talking about the two hospitals that the DNEI ran in Chabua and Tinsukia in Upper Assam, both the hospitals have been closed down. One leased out to a rich businessman and the other tottering on bankruptcy. Except for some Nurse’s Training Programme which is going on this year and which we are informed will come to an end next year, there is nothing left of the proud heritage these hospitals boasted and would still boast if not for the rash justifiable decision of the bishop. It’s an alround shame when we recall the main spirit that Christianity survived and spread by – the noble deeds of healing and teaching- to raise the standard of living and the health of the people. There can be no greater calamity than for the happy parishioners to begin to doubt their right to happiness in such a fashion. Away with this inverted world.
Yes, teaching institutions were another asset that the Diocese inherited from the British, and emulating their predecessors, honest successors built on these resources. These schools are a source of income and a vital necessity for the people.
They too are being targeted by the bishop as a means to fill the deep pockets beneath his holy garb. Crores of rupees have been withdrawn from the Tezpur School and the Shillong School. Reports indicate that even acres of land at Tezpur have been mortgaged, and the money from the mortgage of the land has seemingly ascended to where the congregation cannot go and to where the common man’s hands cannot reach. So determined is this desire to plunder the schools, and especially the rich Shillong School, that now the only defiant member that dared to expose these irregularities has been terminated from being the Secretary of the Shillong Pastorate and terminated from his membership of the CNI as well.
It is clear that anyone upon whom the “chief shepherd” vents his abysmal vulgarity, is intended as a removal of a stumbling block that comes in the way of this sale of church lands and the embezzlement of school money. One immediately catches the unholiness of the man even at first sight! If Christianity is to flourish, the wicked should not be permitted to make the good become wicked but this is what we in the Diocese are confronted with now – surely this should be our supreme concern, but this requires above all that the good should be segregated from the wicked, guarded even from seeing the wicked, but that which is the right thing to do is not being done. It therefore fell upon the members of the Diocese to take action against the bishop, and hope that it would bring about his removal.
But no worse misunderstanding and denial of their effort could be imagined, the Synod acted in a manner as if it too is as sick as the bishop, and continues to let him function. This has raised doubts as to the Christian purpose behind the Synod’s actions. To the critics of the Synod, the Synod has become something contemptible because the bishop is not only setting a bad example to his junior primates but is literally nonfunctional, yet the Synod is still paying him from February 2024. Why?
Here’s what has happened. Because no action was taken by the Synod on the numerous complaints made against the bishop, an aggrieved member of the Diocese registered a F.I.R against the bishop with the Pan Bazar PS (Gauhati). He knew this was a desperate solution – but there was no other way. Consequently, the ‘b’ applied for anticipatory bail which the Hon’ble High Court was pleased to grant with the ruling that “the applicant shall not leave the jurisdiction of the learned CJM Kamrup (M) without prior permission.” And so, now the Rt Rev ‘b’ cannot leave the Pan Bazar area without the written permission of the Hon’ble CJM Kamrup(M); making him totally defunct as a bishop. Naturally, a bishop tied down to a limited area by law, cannot serve the Diocese, and should be dismissed. Isn’t that the right thing to do? The bishop’s head office at Shillong remained closed, visits to the village pastorates came to a standstill and ordinations and confirmations had to be conducted by a former bishop. Pastorates will have nothing to do with the bishop and basically from February 2024, a wasteful expenditure of more than ₹.5 lakhs has been incurred to maintain this nauseous bishop. Has it dawned upon the Synod that they should deal sternly with him instead of sitting on their hands? Doesn’t the Synod know how to deal with a wicked bishop, or are they as sick as he is?
Essentially, this is the fate of Christianity in India, at least the fate of the CNI, the largest protestant denomination in India. The Northern Assam Deanery of the DNEI was so disgusted with this ‘b’ that they banned him from visiting their Deanery after he revoked the license of some of their priests; and though they informed this to the Synod, the Synod remained unsympathetic and deaf to their appeal, which prompted them to suspect an unholy alliance between the bishop and the Synod. A stop gap arrangement is long overdue if the Diocese is to be redeemed.
And history is being repeated in Shillong where the licenses of two Khasi-Pnar priests have been revoked, and the congregation are supposed to not see what they see. But no, the All-Saints Cathedral Church congregation are laughing at what they see – they see this as an immature act of desperation. They have decided to get a stay order on the ‘b’s’ order so as to leave him fuming from all nine apertures. In his rage, the ‘b’ has written a slanderous letter against the congregation and the former Bishop, for supporting the Padres and the Secretary of the Pastorate. I was surprised to read what the ‘b’ wrote. Isn’t he supposed to be the chief shepherd? Then why is he writing letters like these? I asked myself. There is too much vanity in this man. He has become a despot bent on acting like a theocratic dictator of the Diocese. Beneath his vanity, and the make-up he puts on, he has severed himself from the instincts of a normal priest and hence is morally sick… the sickest priest to have ever walked the hallowed turf of the All-Saints Cathedral Compound.
Between us normal, good spirited gentlemen, let us admit that some priests are not even men, they lie even more than we do, but worse, they are subtle in the way they do it, because they have made us to believe that they serve a holy purpose which they understand we revere; and so, in lying to us, they borrow the prudence of their ancestors and say, “we serve the will of God – the revelation of God justifies our words and deeds.”
But returning to our problem, the congregations of the DNEI have put all this comparing aside and are hoping to find justice by diligently following up the F.I.R and thereby redeem the Diocese from the mess it has landed into. Perhaps the Synod too has awoken to the reality of the situation.
