The CSM meeting with the CMRS.

First we wish to thank Fr. Rassiah, the President of the CRMS for granting us this opportunity to meet you all. Our delegation is feeling quite at ease with you because we already observe the presence of some of our members who are regular at our meetings around this table.

Next we would like to introduce ourselves. We are an ecumenical group consisting of several Churches like the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Methodist consisting of Sinhalese and Tamil members, formed in the year 2004. We intend to meet the heads of those Churches too. CSM consists of members from several religious congregations, male and female and also devoted laymen /women.

As a Christian group all of us strongly believe that our Faith demands that we commit ourselves to Justice. Therefore, all the members are committed activists in various fields. The committee of the conveners of the CSM, meet every first Monday and the general membership gathers on special occasions. 

You might wonder why we made this request. 

We decided to meet you because:

• ·         In our view we recognize the Major Superiors’ Conference as a very important counterpart of Church hierarchy.
• ·         As a group of activists we find ourselves in a helpless situation in the present context of the country. The daily challenges we face are too heavy to cope with. As such, we need the guidance and support of the Church leaders.
• ·         In general the church leadership today seems to be lagging behind or shirking its responsibility of being a prophetic Church, at a time when the country expects their intervention most.  So we wish the CMRS to play a more active role in that direction.
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• In the past we have been engaged in the following activities:
• ·         Organized exposure programs in Wanni for people from the South to help them to know the impact of the war.
• ·         Regular visits were made to the North and East and held discussions with the priests and also with the civil society leaders to study the national issue from their point of view.
• ·         Educated the public by distributing leaflets and holding banners in the towns of Negombo, Kandana, Jaela and collecting donations from them for the displaced and war affected people.
• ·         Prayer services have been held in the Anglican cathedral, Fatima church, and Blessed Sacrement Church in Pettah.
• ·         At every Christmas and Easter we prepared literature intended to explain  the current context in the light of the scriptures.
• ·         Made public statement to the press.
• ·         A live-in seminar was held in Maggona for about 60 persons.
• ·         Organized a public demonstration against the 18^th amendment to the constitution.
• ·         Conducted a public awareness programme on the crisis in the universities, problems of people in Colombo who are threatened with displacement, people in the North and fishermen. 
• ·         Held several educational programs in various places on LLRC

Despite of all these efforts, the political and the economic situation in the country is worsening. But the Sri Lankan Church leaders seem to be complacent and observe a profound silence on these urgent matters which demand the intervention of the Church. For instance, we could not understand the silence of the Church leadership in the case of Bishop Rayappu. 

We feel that silence is not a healthy sign.  The Church cannot renounce its prophetic role. It has to raise its voice against discrimination, corruption at high level and degradation of moral life in our society.

The school system of education is an area where many clergymen and women are already involved but the quality of education is fast deteriorating. It is our suggestion that CMRS engage in a serious and systematic study about the education system in the country and contribute to make it more relevant to the younger generation.  

Another proposal we would like to suggest is to organize a monitoring and fact finding mission related to violation of human rights, using the Church network. 

There are instances when individuals whose lives are threatened contact us seeking a place of refuge. Can the church be of any help to them? We are aware that some you are already involved in this service.

During our reflections we realized that if we have your support in our work, we could do a better service. Further we are aware also that each congregation and the CMRS have Justice Desks or a team to work on Justice issues. As such, we wish to know whether you have an action plan to respond to the urgent issues in the country. Can there be a closer collaboration between us? On our part we are happy to extend to you our cooperation for any work at the grassroots level.

Thank you.

Christian Solidarity Movement