Jubilee Seminar on the Vatican II

On 30th January, a one day workshop on the Topic  ‘Revisiting the Pastoral in Vatican II: Trajectories for the Future’ was organized at St. John’s Regional Seminary, Kondadaba, Kothavalasa, Vizianagaram Dt. Andhra Pradesh, as part of its Silver Jubilee Celebrations. The Resource Persons were Fr. Thomas Pallithanam, Director, People’s Action for Rural Awakening (PARA) and Fr. Dr. Thumma Anthoniraj, Deputy Secretary, APBC, Social Activist and Contextual Theologian.

The inaugural address was delivered by the chief guest Prof. Dr A.V. Prasad Rao, Rector, Andhra University, Waltair. He had enriched the participants with profound, reflective and weighty insights on the Vatican II through the prism of The Holy Scripture.  The First session titled, “The World as Teacher and the Church as Learner: Towards Praxis – Audit of the Pastoral Visions of Vatican 11” was handled by Dr. Thumma Anthoniraj.  It was ably moderated by Dr. N.R Jeevan Babu, Head, Department of French, St. Joseph’s College, Waltair. He mapped his talk from pre-Vatican to Vatican II. He exposed in gist all the 16 documents of the Vatican II from the perspective of their relevance today through a systematic audit. Therefore, Church as a Learner must be always humble enough to learn from the world.

The second session: “Another World is Possible: Thirst for Human Rights as the Beatitude of Pastoral Praxis” was taken by Fr. Thomas Pallithanam and was moderated by Sr Dr Tresa Cherian SAP, former Principal, St Theresa’s College, Eluru.  Fr Thomas gave a Clarion call to all the participants in as much as he stressed to move from need based education to right-based education, from convenience to convictions.

The Valedictory address was delivered by Dr. Pothini Krishna Prasad, Prof. of Political Science and Public Administration, Andhra University. He truly challenged every participant to become a sign of the time relevant to the present day contemporary society through his thoughtful yet challenging concluding address. Rev. Fr Dr Jose Maliekal SDB, the Rector welcomed the gathering and Rev. Fr Dr Jose Wilson sdb, proposed the vote of thanks.

Seminar in Philosophy

Fr Johnson Puthenpurackal OFM was in the community to commence and conduct a two day workshop on the theme, “Raimundo Panikkar: Harmony in Plurality”. As per the experience of the brothers, they were very happy with the seminar and it opened their eyes to embrace different cultures, religions, customs, castes and more especially to different people in the society.  

Personality Development

A two day Seminar on personality development was conducted by Sr Lovely from October 29, 2012. She, with her knowledge, communication skills and grip over subject, gave us a clear picture of the desired characteristics of a fully human person and showed us how we can attain it by denting our personality and our relationships.

Seminar on Social Action (Fr Santiagu Thomas sdb)

Fr Santiagu Thomas sdb was the chief animator of the seminar on Social Action for the two days of January 16 and 17, 2012.
This was the first seminar of the new calendar year, after the Brothers returned to the Seminary from their Christmas holidays on Jan. 8, 2012. Fr Santiagu is the Development Office director of the Salesian Province of Hyderabad.
The two day seminar was very active and alive with plenty of songs, actions and analysis based on practical experiments conducted by the animator.

Seminar on BCC

A three day seminar on Basic Christian Communities (BCC) was organised at St John's Regional Seminary, Kondadaba from July 18, 2011. Fr Dusi Devaraj, the director of Jyotirmai Society, and his team comprising of Mr Rayappa Reddy, Mr Christopher, Mr Deva Kumar, Mr Lourduraj and Mr Mariadas, were the chief animators of this seminar.
Tracing the origin of the BCCs to the lived experience of the early New Testament itself, the animators, stressed on fraternal love as the foundation stone for this grouping. With its motto of self-rule, self-nourishment and self-development, the need and importance of BCCs was highlighted in the initial two days. A brief historical review of the emergence and need of the Catechetical wing of the Andhra Pradesh Bishop's Conference (APBC), the Jyotirmai Society, too formed part of the input sessions.
The other practical sessions were coordinated by the team from Jyotirmai Society. They helped the Brothers understand and imbibe the seven step prayer of Lectio-Divina. To make this tangible, gospel sharing sessions too were organised. Through these sharings the Brothers were helped to train themselves and others for a deeper and enriching study of the Bible and our Catholic tradition. The team also screened a couple of movies to highlight the impact of the BCCs on faith formation and community building.

The liturgy of these three days too was animated by the team in line with the main theme of the seminar. Though consisting of long sessions, the participants found the seminar very enriching for their personal and pastoral lives.

"Go... and tell them" Mission Congress at Kondadaba

A two day seminar on the theme of mission was organised at St John's Regional Seminary, Kondadaba from October 28 to 29, 2010. Fr Anikuzhkattil Jose sdb from Shillong, Meghalaya was the resource person for these two days of enriching sharing and enlightening about the concept of mission, especially from the context of the Catholic Church.

Being from the North-East of India where missionary endeavour takes a different slant, Fr A.L. Jose was able to help the Seminarians seen the different modalities of carrying out the one mission of Jesus Christ. The Brothers loved this comparative study and analysis as it helped them much to acquire new skills and also evaluate operational techniques for greater efficacy and results.

Citing relevant Church documents and texts supporting the primary mission of the Mother Church, the animator, helped the Brothers focus their attention on the theme under discussion. Using convincing narratives and examples, he quelled the myth that mission is meant only for the ordained. He time and again emphasised the point that every heart with Christ is a missionary and every heart without one is a mission field. Thus more than initiating the students to the whole concept of 'mission' the animator aptly helped them get a holistic view of the same. At the end of the seminar, the Evangelisation team put up a dance for a meaningful song depicting the joy of proclamation. The seminar was organised by the Speed and Speed group under the dynamic guidance and assistance of Fr Wilson Jose, the Principal.

On the second day morning Fr AL Jose had a surprise in store as the community specially prayed and celebrated his Silver Jubilee of Ordination (Jan. 4, 1986). It is interesting to note that Fr AL Jose is the 10th child of 15 children, of whom 6 are Priests (one of them a Bishop as well) and 4 are Nuns. Armed with the motto 'To spread God's love like sweet fragrance', Fr Jose is presently the Rector of the Salesian Training Centre in Shillong. He is also the visiting professor at Sacred Heart Theological College, Shillong.

(Report: Br K. Elisha)

Seminar on violence and agapeic love...

On July 19^th and 20^th 2010 the students at St John's Regional Seminary, Kondadaba had a resourceful seminar on the theme of Violence and Agapeic Ontology animated by Fr George Panthanmackel MSFS. Citing philosophical resources and insights, Fr George led the students to reflect deeper on the theme of love and violence, especially from a Christian point of view.

During the seminar Fr George helped the listeners cleverly see the connection between philosophical terms, especially those dreaded metaphysical terms like being, existence, substance, ontology, and the concrete living of a Christian life. The theme of religion and metaphysics, especially agapeic and philosophical ontology, was the central focus. The Seminar, organised as part of the academic programme of the Seminary, was coordinated and facilitated by the college Principal, Fr Wilson Jose in collaboration with the Vidya Jyoti group.

Fr George Panthanmackel is currently the President of the Association of Christian Philosophers of India (ACPI), a vibrant community that has to its credit all Christian Philosophers and thinkers of India share and enrich one another. Fr George is a full time professor at Suvidya Institute of Philosophy, Bangalore. He has to his credit several books and articles in leading Philosophical journal in India and abroad too. His field of specialisation in Philosophy is metaphysics.