An Open, Transparent Church: Bishops, Please Not The Crooked Ways Of The Sinhalese State

By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –APRIL 7, 2022

Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

The Church of Ceylon – Readying to be an Anglican Province

The Church of Ceylon, which is Anglican, periodically calls for human rights, and open and accountable governance from the state. There are press statements by our two Bishops, the Right Reverends Keerthisiri Fernando and Dushantha Rodrigo, especially on human rights day (10 December).

The Bishop of Kurunagala, The Rt. Rev. Fernando issued his own statement calling for open, transparent and accountable government in a Report titled “The Current Situation in Sri Lanka.” He exhorts us:

“The way forward in this regard will be to devise accountability at all levels and to bring production to the country. In terms of politics and the rights of citizens the present government has over the years showed [sic.] its inability for good governance but rather cut deals to secure their [sic.] own power and stability.”

I applaud my church. Nonetheless, I need to question seriously how deep our commitment is to the values we profess. I remind readers that our Bishops too tend to cut deals to secure their own power and stability.

Our Church previously was the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon. In preparation for independence these broke up into national churches, the Indians naturally breaking up into the Church of North India and the Church of South India. Our church with over 100,000 members at independence had only one diocese, the Diocese of Colombo, insufficient to be a Province. But now it is down to 20,000 it is said. However, a Church is supposed to have at least 3 or 4 dioceses to be an Anglican Province. We were therefore not allowed to be a Province. We were the Church of Ceylon under the Archbishop of Canterbury.

As the politicians realise that we are no huge vote bank, attempts are made to show otherwise by making ours a Province with one of the Bishops the Archbishop of Sri Lanka. This requires at least another diocese, instead of the 2 we now have. But how do we justify this with the attendant expenditure of a cathedral, bungalow, archdeacons and staff, and car for each new bishop; especially when one Bishop comfortably looked after the 100,000 members we once had? Although Tamils are a half (but probably more) of the membership in the Church of Ceylon (with no attempt to do a headcount) the power remains in the archdeaconries of Colombo and Galle (which includes Moratuwa) while the Tamil archdeaconries of Jaffna and Nuwara Eliya represent poor members making hardly enough contributions to sustain a separate diocese. The next bishop, the third, is therefore likely to be from Moratuwa. Tamils in general are not for another diocese for this reason as well as for the fact that when church politics and communal issues come up as they do, we are more comfortable with the Archbishop of Canterbury sorting things out as our Metropolitan Bishop.

Bending Democracy for Power and Stability

The two Bishops (Keerthisiri Fernando and Dhilo Canagasabey (really Canagasabai but Anglicised)) then, seemingly desperate to cut deals to secure their own power and stability, went after the creation of a new diocese, asking for grassroots support. However, it soon became apparent that there is no support. To facilitate a yes vote Bishop Canagasabey sent two Tamil women from Colombo who came to Jaffna and asked for translations since they claimed not to know Tamil even though their schooling must have been in Tamil. It shows the total lack of inclusivity and accountability. At the Jaffna meeting (held in Kilinochchi) the discussion was going against the bishops’ project. The question was therefore not put and withdrawn. Similarly, there was strong opposition in the powerful Colombo meeting. The two Bishops, shamelessly determined (so it seemed) to establish their power, betrayed their “inability for good governance but rather cut deals to secure their own power and stability,” much against their own sermonizing to the Rajapaksas. They are now moving from the top through the General Assembly and the Archbishop of Canterbury who seems not to want to be our archbishop after he dirtied his hands in trying to go with the recommendations of Canagasabey when the last Bishop’s election failed. The person the Archbishop offered the position to, had the good sense and decency to decline.

That is not all. I have been an elected member of the Standing Committee, the so called highest administrative body of the church. However, there are constitutional provisions disallowing us elected members who reflect the heart of the laity from continuing for more than 3 years without a break. On the other hand, the vast majority of the Standing Committee are ex officio members (the Bishop and the 4 Archdeacons appointed by the Bishop) and the Bishop’s nominees on whom there is no three-year restriction. Many are annually reappointed. The Liturgical Commission that writes how we pray is appointed by the Bishop and the Standing Committee, but in the years I was on the Standing Committee the appointments never came up and were done secretively in some cloistered place.

There is worse. The Church established a provision for backward regions to be represented on the Standing Committee by the highest vote getters even if their votes were few. And then in the last two Colombo Councils the Bishop (or his agents) untruthfully listed his own nominees to manipulate the count as representatives of under-represented regions so as to dominate the Standing Committee at the expense of the true elected representatives. This is like Sri Lanka’s defeated MPs who are made National List MPs – lawful but scandalous.

I know that the Colombo Bishop’s political statements are drafted by a secret group including Rev. S.D. Parimalachelevan (his batchmate and friend) and presented to the Diocesan Council where it is routinely approved.

While a member of the Standing Committee I did not know where the Standing Committee’s statement on “The State and Nation” came from. It usually has high-flowing sentiments on human rights. I had not even been shown the report I was part of. I did not even know who had authored it. I was told when I complained that it was “an oversight.” I remain unconvinced. I believe the Church lies and is cut from the same cloth as Sri Lanka’s corrupt majority running our state machinery.

The sixty-day notice required for a resolution so that it can first be vetted for grammar and translated at the Standing Committee is selectively waived for favourites, ensuring the loss of the rule of law. The authoritarian Standing Committee blocks statements it does not like (like my resolution on the Tamil Liturgy) by all kinds of ruses such as telling a proposer and seconder that they must come to Colombo and defend it before the Standing Committee; whereas there is no warrant in the Constitution for the Standing Committee to block a resolution to be moved at the Diocesan Council. It is all in favour of Colombo folk who are obedient. However, about three resolutions submitted by Rev. S.D. Parimalachelvan were accepted by Bishop Rodrigo at the Diocesan Council. As such the last-minute translations contradicted each other. One of his resolutions called our services “cultic.” It passed and received the required Bishop’s assent for validation. So we Anglicans now officially belong to a cult! I have stopped receiving Holy Communion when Parimalachelvan is the Celebrant, wondering what cultic thing’s presence he has invoked in place of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

Church Appointments in Jaffna

The Human Rights Day statement for 2021 is headlined “Church of Ceylon says distressing developments undermine Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” saying, “Many significant human rights violations that affect the equality and dignity of persons and undermine the Rule of Law remain unaddressed,” and that “we call upon the Government to pay particular attention to the equal rights and dignity of marginalized groups.”

I salute and support these noble sentiments. But are they sincere? I regret that all this grandiloquence is smelly flatulence with no sign of substance! Church managers now try with marginalized Tamils on behalf of their favourites what they would not dare in Colombo.

Just look at how the Church treats us Tamils. Pretty much all appointments in the North are of unsuitable favorites who after the appointment would be promoted using that unsuitable appointment as a qualification. I wonder if Parimalachelvan is on track to be Bishop of Jaffna if such a See is created.

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