Bishop’s Office
CSI Tiruchirappalli–Thanjavur Diocese
Where do we stand? Where do we go?
The Bishop’s message to the Diocese for the eightieth year.
Dear Ecclesia of Trichy–Tanjore Diocese,
I address to you on this Octogintennial juncture of CSI as well as the Trichy-Tanjore diocese. These eighty years of journeying with God disclose that God hitherto remains faithful to his covenant made with our forefathers. In my vision, I see the cloud over the tent of testimony is lifting, the Ark of the Covenant is moving, the joyful shout of the people with trumpets, the earth shakes, and the heaven thunders; Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour moves before us. Let us comply with the divine calling and commit to the divine mandate. A new decade is at its dawn. The ninth decade is blossoming, and Jesus Christ takes us into it with his leadership. This message from the office of the Bishop has two parts, namely, where do we stand? and where do we go?
Where do we stand?
We stand at a point of completing the social and spiritual process of evolution. The theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin said survival of the fittest. Only the might will last, and the weak will die, disappear and become extinct. In sociological studies, Darwin’s theory had its application and furnished the legitimisation for the domination of the powerful group in a society and the disintegration and disappearance of poor households. The Gospel brought to our place by the missionaries challenged this formula of social Darwinism. It brought down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the humble, and we bear witness. God never let down the meek. Once on this land we were no people, but today we are the people contributing to the society in every aspect of human life. For the past two hundred years, we have not only grown in our own strength but also designed the Indian Subcontinent with a new set of values, more human and more egalitarian. The communal forces are accusing us of performing forced conversion. They know we are not converting people, as they exaggerate. They fear that their set of values is getting rejected by the upcoming generation as reactionary and not suitable for social life after comparing with the values furnished by the Christian institutions. We stand with pride after accomplishing in proportion.
Where do we go?
As we move on into the ninth decade, I would say there is a severe ongoing moral decline and a domination of technology in the global community. After the advent of Postmodernism in the second half of the twentieth century, there started a new perspective towards social realities. Social realities were not valued in isolation, but in relative terms and were considered to be power dynamics with vested interests for the establishment of a hierarchical relationship facilitating domination and subjugation. The postmodern scholars rejected all sets of moral values prescribed by the church and society, and all metanarratives, as agents of the dominants. It is true that patriarchy, racism and casteism hide behind these sets of values. Meanwhile, when “deconstruction” was called for by postmodernists for a critical analysis of social realities, it removed all the ethical and social values from observance and contributed to moral decline. Now the world has no values, and the crime rate is alarmingly increasing. This situation calls us to take the seed basket with the seeds of the Kingdom of God and sow the values of love, compassion, and human dignity.
The second one is technological domination. Now the entire world is celebrating Artificial Intelligence (AI). I present you with another perspective. AI is a salesgirl! I make the following assumptions: the mobile we have is the capitalist market, or in simple terms, a commercial complex, a mall. You can buy anything in that. You can buy food, watch movies, book tickets, buy any commodities you need. A mobile is not only a mall; it is your wallet. It connects your savings to the transaction. When you are attracted by something and do not have sufficient funds there comes money lenders. All these players are brought together by AI. When you search for a song, AI provides a list and continuously reformulates the list for your satisfaction. In between, it engages advertisements.
It serves as an agency of surveillance for the state. When the state demands, AI produces a detailed report of your personal life to the state without your knowledge and permission. People say it has ethics. The question needed to raise is “whose ethics”. People say it provides services like ChatGPT. Yes, it is true. By providing this service, it obliterates human creativity. There is no intelligence outside the human realm. The AI is yet another invention of human intelligence. The algorithms created by the human brain help some people to have dominion over the rest. The ninth decade of the church is demanding us a committed engagement in rebuilding the moral standard of the human race and liberating the human mind from the yoke of technology.
As a servant of God standing at the portal of a new decade, it is my pleasure to announce God’s steadfast love and abundant grace to every individual, church and institution.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9
Your servant in Christ,
+ Samuel Rajadurai
Bishop of Tiruchirappalli–Thanjavur