Mangalore: Different churches converge to pray for India on Gandhi Jayanti

Fr Francis Rodrigues, Raknno

Mangalore, Oct 2: Nearly 2,000 leaders and members of different mainline as well as denominational Churches joined together in prayer for the unity and good of the country on Wednesday October 2 at Loyola Hall of St Aloysius College here on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti through the United Christian Prayer for India (UCP4I).

"Prayer is the cheapest and fastest means of communication between God and humanity. Whenever I had to face the challenging issues and situations, I have prayed to God to reach the respective place before me and the follow up was really miraculous. India may have many problems and tensions. But we should not be panicky and too apprehensive about them. Rather we need to continue our efforts, commitment, hard work, care of the people and pray to God and God will bless us and the country" said Dr H T Sangliana, the vice-president of the National Minority Commission, an ex-DGP and chief guest of the prayer meet.

"On the November 30, Christians from 5 states surrounding Delhi as well as Delhi will pray simultaneously for the unity of India," he said.

"The primary role of a Christian is to pray and intercede for everyone with the Lord. Especially Sunday prayer is to be for everyone and not for our own sake. When we come together as corporate body, there will be special power in our prayer. There are more than 3,00,000 churches across the nation. After starting a united prayer movement for India, 50,000 churches are praying for the unity of the country. Let the prayer movement for India continue," said Mohan Philip, a former military officer, lay missionary and founder of ‘UP Mission’.

"The chariot has many parts. And every part has its own special role to play in the movement of the chariot. Everyone has a role to play in the unity of the country. Having become aware of this, we have come together to pray for the country on the birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation," said Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, the bishop of Mangalore who welcomed the gathering and led the benediction.

Rev Daniel Kaundinya, Pastor Vijay Byahatti and Fr Joachim Fernandes, pastors of different churches led the intercessory prayers for different needs of the country. Br Ronald D’Souza led the praise and worship through musicians and singers from different churches. While Pastor Donald Menezes proposed vote of thanks Rev Thomas Chindwal and Anitha Veigas compered the prayer movement for India.

Msgr Denis Prabhu, the vicar general of Mangalore Catholic diocese, Walter Maben, the chairman of Karnataka Mission Network (KMN), a network of 27 Pentecostal churches in Karnataka, Fr Clifford Fernandes, the secretary of Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-religious Dialogue and others were present.