A day at the Seminary

Seminary chapel

I reached Nagpur Seminary by early morning. There was Holy Qurbana in the morning, which I attended as narrated here.

After the Holy Qurbana, I briefly introduced myself to Fr. Bijesh Philip the principal and thanked him for arranging my ride. I also met with Fr. Shaji John and we spoke for a little bit. I paid my respects to Milithios Thirumeni, introduced myself and then Bijesh achen took me to his office and we chatted for some time. When I mentioned my plan to spend time with Fr. Yohannan of Prerana, achen asked me to be back by the time of the noon prayer. Then achen took me to the dining hall and introduced me to a deacon who helped me with breakfast.

I got a glimpse of the breakfast for the Seminarians. I think that day it was appam and curry. It felt nice to be dining with them. After breakfast, I saw that everyone washed their own plates and glasses and kept them back in the shelf. I did the same.

After breakfast, I met with Fr. Yohannan and went to visit Prerana. We were back by the noon time for prayers after which Fr. Bijesh introduced me to the Seminarians.The prayers were in English just like the Holy Qurbana in the morning had been. I later came to know that the Seminary had an entire week for a language - like one week they would have Hindi when everything would be in Hindi that week, similarly for Malayalam and English.



Bijesh achen and Shaji achen were kind enough to invite me for lunch with the staff and Milithios Thirumeni. Thirumeni, who had been to the Seminary for the week to take classes, spoke about different things of interest to me, including HGs frustrations at some of the rigidity in our people and leaders. One particular point I noted in the discussions was the lamentation that many in Kottayam were not adequately focussed or flexible to understand the outside Kerala mission and its related issues. And this was not really news to me, but it felt heartening that the leaders and heirarchy were also discussing it. Change is possible after all, I felt.

View of the outside from the entrance

After lunch I went back to Prerana for finishing up the visit there, then came back to buy some books from the book store including the Hindi Holy Qurbana CD, Qurbana books. Then I paid a quick visit to Shaji achen's home which was in the staff quarters adjacent to the Seminary. It was time to head back and I went back to Bijesh achen to bid goodbye.

Bijesh achen spoke of some of the needs of the Seminary. Most of the Seminary day collections of the Church go to the Kottayam Seminary and hence the Nagpur Seminary was coming up with some innovative ideas for support from friends and well wishers, one of these is the "Friends of the Seminary" concept which is a network of people wanting to support the Seminary. More details are available at the Seminary website here:http://stots.org/

I took a few brochures and pamphlets about the Seminary from achen and took his leave. The Seminary visit which was a memorable experience for me, was getting over. I took leave of Shaji achen and climbed onto the jeep which drove me out of the Seminary and into Nagpur.