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Tag Archives: Chennai

A to Z Blog Challenge: E is for Ephebe, Editing, Easter, and Eucharist

05 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by Holly Michael in A to Z Challenge, India

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Blog, Chennai, Easter, Episcoblog, Eucharist, Holly Michael, India, Kansas City, Leo Michael, Madra, Missouri, St. James Anglican Church, Writingstraight.com

While wondering what “E” word to blog about, thinking of E for Editing those 20 thousand words my agent wants me to trim from my novel, the word of the day from dictionary.com dinged on my iphone: Ephebe. Curious, I clicked the link.

Ephebe [ih-FEEB] – noun. A young man.

Look at this young man from India, a seminarian, serving in an orphange in Madras, (now Chennai) years ago. He’s my husband now and I am very blessed.

And another E word: Easter. This week, my husband (an Anglo-Catholic Bishop) and I are preparing for Easter at St. James Anglican Church, our parish in Kansas City. He is also doing the A to Z challenge. This morning he blogged about the word Eucharist on his Episcoblog.

That’s all for E today. Tomorrow is Good Friday, and F.

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India’s Ancient Roots of Christianity

27 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by Holly Michael in Christianity, India

≈ 30 Comments

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altar, Ancient roots of Christianity, Bangalore, Bom Jesu, Bom Jesus, Chennai, Christianity, East India Company, Goa, HCCAR, Holly Michael, Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite, India, Madras, National Georgraphic, Our Lady of Velankanni, San Thome, Shilpa Joshi, St. Francis Xavier, St. Mary's Basilica in Shivaji Nagar, St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Thome Basilica, The Footsteps of the Apostles, Vicky Drachenberg, Writingstraight.com

During my first visit to India, Shilpa, my niece, handed me a photo. “Christian, Hindu, Muslim,” she said pointing to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In the photograph, Shilpa, a Christian, and her classmates (Muslim and Hindu) all had roles in their school Christmas pageant. (That’s me and Shilpa to the left. SO to a Shilpa in Bangalore!)

Then, newly married to an Indian native, the photo pleasantly popped one of my preconceived bubbles about India. While I understood Christian missionaries role in evangelizing India, I didn’t realize that, today, many of India’s best schools, hospitals, and social service organizations are run by Christians. And Muslims, Hindus, and those of other faiths study and work alongside Christians in schools and other organizations. Over the years, visiting Christian Holy sites, I’ve been surprised at the faces of various faiths mingled in the crowds.

Ancient Christian roots run deep in India, deeper and more ancient than when the 16th century British arrived to trade under the banner of the East India Company. While the British ruled India for more than two centuries, Christianity first landed on the shores of India with the arrival of St. Thomas the Apostle of Jesus Christ in A.D. 52.

On my first trip to India, my husband and I visited the San Thome Basilica in Chennai, (South India) previously named Madras, (meaning Mother of God).

San Thome is built over the tomb of St. Thomas, who was martyred in India. Only two other basilicas are built over the tomb of an apostle: St. Peter’s in Rome and St. James in Spain (Compestella, Santiago).

Below, my photo of the San Thome sanctuary.

My husband took this photo of me in solemn awe at the tomb of the apostle whom Jesus asked to touch the wounds of his resurrected body and believe.

Recently, while vacationing in Goa (a Portuguese settlement in Western India on the shore of the Arabian Sea) my husband and I visited Bom Jesu (good Jesus) Cathedral.

At this Holy Site, the incorrupt remains of St. Francis Xavier are displayed in a silver casket above a side altar, five hundred years after his death.

I shot the close-up below with a long lens

Altar at Bom Jesus

After leaving Bom Jesu, my husband and I roamed nearby ruins of the Church of St. Augustine, built in 1602 by the St. Augustine Friars. We opened our umbrellas when sudden whooshes of monsoon rains rolled in like a gentle breath.

Over on the shores of the Bay of Bengal in Southern India, a magnificent shrine was built after the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared with Infant Jesus to a Hindu boy under a banyan tree during the sixteenth century.

We visited Our Lady of Velankanni shrine twice. The first time was two weeks after the 2004 tsunami. My husband and I and Vicky Drachenberg (a parishioner), arrived in South India for mission work after our church sponsored a nationwide fundraising event. Though massive devastation surrounded all sides of the church, miraculously, water did not broach the shrine that Sunday morning. Those inside survived.

Our Lady of Velankanni Shrine

A few years after the tsunami, we visited the shrine again. Each September 8th, on the feast of our Lady, pilgrims show up in droves, arriving on their knees at the holy site.

On the same day in September, over in South Central India, a sea of devotees flood the festival at St. Mary’s in Shivaji Nagar, Karnataka.

When people ask my husband, an Anglo-Catholic Bishop in the Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite (HCCAR), how long his family has been Christian, he answers, “Probably since the time St. Thomas came to India.”

Christianity is alive and well in India and has been for a very long time.

More on Christianty’s ancient roots: The National Geographic Magazine’s March 2012 issue features, “The Footsteps of the Apostles,” a piece that includes St. Thomas’ journey to India, along with other apostles’ travels.

Sections of my upcoming novel, Crooked Lines follow the trails of Christianity throughout the subcontinent of India.

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Done this: Regular freelance ghostwriter and online editor for Guideposts for Teens/Sweet 16 Magazine, creator/editor of a magazine for Wal-Mart Corp., journalist, newspaper features writer, published in a variety of national magazines and local newspapers, script writing/editing for corporations. Doing this now: author of fiction and nonfiction, blogger, and editor of Koinonia Magazine. I’m the wife of Rt. Rev. Leo Michael, an Anglican Bishop in the Holy Catholic Church-Anglican Rite. Mom to three great kids: Nick (#81 Rajin Cajuns), Betsy (Super cute professor) and Jake (T1D & NFL player) Also, enjoy my travels extensively across the United States and internationally.

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