Indian churches in Philadelphia celebrate Christmas

PHILADELPHIA: The Ecumenical Fellowship of Indian Churches (EFICP) in Philadelphia hosted their 30th annual Christmas programme on December 10.
The event featured speakers from the religious community as well as guest speaker, Senator John Sabatina Jr, and performances by 16 participating churches and three dance academies. The keynote address was delivered by Bishop Zachariah Mar Nicholovos Metropolitan of the Northeast American Diocese of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, who shared a message about fully seeking the transformative power of Christ and loving all our neighbours - a teaching that was exemplified by awarding the $15,000 proceeds from the fellowship's 5K run earlier this year to three different charity organisations that help fight poverty and homelessness in Philadelphia.
The fellowship, a coalition that traces its roots back over 50 years, now consists of 21 member churches of different denominations in Philadelphia region - a drastic growth and evolution from when it was first started. Until 1976, there was no denominational congregation in Philadelphia except for an ecumenical Christian group. The first Malayalam service for the very few Kerala Christians in Philadelphia was indeed conducted in the living-room of a member's apartment in July 1962.
Since that year, a service was conducted on the first Sunday of every month at a Methodist Chapel that the group rented. Originally, the group consisted of Orthodox, Marthoma and CSI denominations and priests of any denomination who were visiting the Philadelphia region could preform a service as per request of members.
Today, the group membership has climbed past 4,000 families and all churches now have their own buildings in which they can perform their respective Indian-Christian services every Sunday.
As the number of Indians in the Philadelphia region, and US, grows, co-chair of the association, Rev Fr Shibu Mathai, emphasised that not only should Indian-Americans focus on preserving their culture and heritage, but also on providing for the community that they are now part of and the country that they live in.
"It's time to shift the view away from being a foreign community to a domestic one," he said.