Maramon Convention - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Maramon Convention is a Christian convention

Convention (meeting)

A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom...

held at Maramon

Maramon

Maramon is a small town on the Pampa River, opposite to Kozhencherry town in the state of Kerala, India. It is 12 km from the Pathanamthitta district headquarters, the town of Pathanamthitta. Maramon is famous because of the Maramon Convention, the largest Christian gathering in Asia...

, Pathanamthitta

Pathanamthitta

Pathanamthitta is a large town and a municipality situated in the central Travancore region in the state of Kerala, south India, spread over an area of 23.50 km2. It is the administrative capital of Pathanamthitta district. The city has a population of 38,000...

, Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

, India annually during the month of February on the vast sand-bed of the Pampa River

Pampã River

-See also:* ] map]* Rand McNally, The New International Atlas, 1993....

next to the Kozhencherry

Kozhencherry

Kozhencherry is a small town in Pathanamthitta district of Central Travancore region in Kerala state, South India. It is on the banks of river Pampa. It is a commercial centre with many of the Banks and trade companies have their establishments here. It is believed that once the Kovilans of...

Bridge. It is organised by the Mar Thoma Evangelistic Association, the missionary wing of the Mar Thoma Church

Mar Thoma Church

The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church also known as the Mar Thoma Church is a Christian denomination based in the state of Kerala in southwestern India. It has an entirely different identity when compared with other Churches in India. Most Christian churches around the world are divided into...

.

The origin and growth of this annual get together for one week at a stretch can be traced to the great revival movement which gathered momentum along with the reformation in the ancient Syrian Church of Malabar under the pioneering leadership of Abraham Malpan

Abraham Malpan

Palakunnathu Abraham Malpan of Malankara Church, was a strong Churchman, loyal to the best traditions of his Church. He wanted only to effect such reforms in the Church as were consistent with the apostolic and truly evangelical traditions of the Church...

. This brought about the resurgence of the ancient apostolic Church in Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

founded by St. Thomas

Thomas the Apostle

Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...

the Apostle of Jesus Christ, believed to be in AD 52.

Mar Thoma Evangelistic Association.

By 1877, there were two factions in the Malankara church, known as Bishop faction (Methran Kakshi) and Patriarch faction (Bava Kakshi). By a court verdict on 12 July 1889 Bishop faction lost all the properties. Just before the verdict was given, on 5 September 1888, 12 members of the Bishop faction formed a missionary group called “Mar Thoma Evangelistic Association”. These 12 members are considered to be the founding fathers of the Maramon convention. The names of these 12 members are:-

1. Kottarathil Thomas Kasseessa, Chengannur

Chengannur

Chengannur , is a municipal town in Alappuzha district of the state of Kerala in South India. Chengannur is located in the extreme eastern part of Alappuzha district. It is north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram on the MC Road. Chengannur is connected to Kollam and Kottayam by NH 220...

2. Edavamvelil Mathai, Eraviperoor

Eraviperoor

Eraviperoor is a village in Pathanamthitta district in the state of Kerala, India.-Demographics: India census, Eraviperoor had a population of 26,038 with 12,324 males and 13,714 females.-Origin of name:...

.
3. Kottooreth Yohannan, Chengannur

Chengannur

4. Chempakasseril Kadavil Abraham, Kallissery
5. Chakkalayil Cherian Upadesi, Puthencavu
6. Chempakasseril Kadavil Mathew, Kallissery.
7. Azhakinal Thommi, Kallooppara
8. Nathaniel Upadesi, Chengannur

Chengannur

9. Kurichiath (Vattadiyil) Ittiyavara, Niranam

Niranam

Niranam is a village in central Travancore region in Kerala, India. It was a port in ancient Kerala, on the confluence of the Manimala and Achankovil River. It is almost from Tiruvalla in Pathanamthitta District of Kerala...

10. Arangat Philipose, Maramon

Maramon

11. Ottaplammoottil Kunju Mathew, Kallissery
12. Kochumannil Skariah, Edayaranmula

They met at the Kadavil Malika

Kadavil Malika

Kadavil Malika is a historic place in India, associated with the origin of the Maramon Convention. It is a house in Kallissery and was built by Unnithan Kathanar and his son C. Abraham in the early 19th century....

belonging to Kadavil Abraham and Kadavil Mathew. This house at Kallissery near Chengannur

Chengannur

was built by their grandfather Unnithan Kathanar and father C. Abraham in the early 19th century. (This historic Kadavil Malika
Kadavil Malika
Kadavil Malika is a historic place in India, associated with the origin of the Maramon Convention. It is a house in Kallissery and was built by Unnithan Kathanar and his son C. Abraham in the early 19th century....

was reclaimed by the Marthoma church and has recently been renovated and recommissioned on Saturday, 10 September 2005.)

Beginning.

By 1894 a number of small prayer groups were formed in the Methran Kakshi and this was followed by a big revival. They had regular meetings in various parishes. Because the number of people attending these meetings was growing it was decided to have a meeting of all these groups at a central place. The duty of organising this meeting was given to the Mar Thoma Evangelistic Association and the first convention was held in 1895 at Maramon.

By 1900 Methran Kakshi adopted the name Malankara Marthoma Suriyani Sabha also known as the Mar Thoma Church

Mar Thoma Church

View of Convention

Maramon Convention (2008). This view of the convention is from Kozhencherry

Kozhencherry

side. Kozhencherry bridge is on the right. There is no empty space inside the Panthal (tent). So people are standing outside and sitting in the shades to listen to the messages.

Maramon Convention (2009). This view of the convention is from Maramon

Maramon

side. Kozhencherry bridge is on the left.

First Convention.

The first convention was held for 10 days from 8 to 17 March 1895. The venue was the vast sand-bed of the Pampa River

Pampã River

-See also:* ] map]* Rand McNally, The New International Atlas, 1993....

next to the Maramon church. The parishes in and around Maramon – Kozhencherry helped in making a very large panthal (tent) to accommodate about 10,000 people. The main speakers were David and Wordsworth. On an average 10,000 to 15,000 people attended these meetings. On the last day almost 25,000 attended. There were no proper roads during those days. So nearby houses accommodated the people from far away places. Some of them came in boats and used them as their shelter.

Convention these days.

Maramon Convention is held for eight days during the first week of the Great Lent that usually falls in February. The tent has a seating capacity

Seating capacity

Seating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...

in excess of 160,000 people. They are seated on the dry sand bed. Old and weak are given chairs to sit on. There is also a smaller tent erected next to the larger one for people with infants and with children below 5. All around the tent there are temporary sheds and tents for various purposes related to the Convention. Stalls for the sale of religious literature, church offices and restaurants are allowed to operate in the vicinity of the tent under the strict control of the Church authorities

Programme.

The Maramon Convention is pre-eminently an assembly of Christians who once a year come here for listening to the Word of God as read and expounded by leaders of Christian thought from all over India as well as abroad. Preaching and Bible study occupy the major part of the convention programme. In the morning there will be separate Bible study classes for Men, women, youth and children conducted by specially invited leaders. In the mornings and afternoons there are public meetings and in the evening, meetings for men. Four of the afternoon public meetings are for ‘’Social evils awareness. Mar Thoma Voluntary Evangelistic Association, Ladies sessions (Sevika Sangham) and Missionary Session. Though the choir leads the singing the whole gathering joins in singing. A hymn book with 101 hymns including 16 new ones are printed every year for the convention use. Everyday half an hour is spent for intercessory prayer. Also there are family gatherings, youth meetings and special gatherings after the afternoon session.

Leaders

In addition to the Metropolitan and Episcopas of the church, distinguished world renowned speakers addressed this convention. The Revd Thomas Walker, England (1900–1912), Sadhu Sunder Singh, Punjab

Punjab (British India)

Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...

(1918), Dr. G. Sherwood Eddy (1919), Dr. E. Stanley Jones

E. Stanley Jones

E. Stanley Jones was a 20th century Methodist Christian missionary and theologian.He is remembered chiefly for his interreligious lectures to the educated classes in India, thousands of which were held across the Indian subcontinent during the first decades of the 20th century...

, USA (1920–1968), Dr. Toyohiko Kagawa, Japan (1938), John R. Mott, Nobel Peace Prize winner (1946) and President of World Alliance of YMCAs, Dr. Bob Pierce, founder and president of World Vision

World Vision

World Vision, founded in the USA in 1950, is an evangelical relief and development organization whose stated goal is "to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of...

(1964 & 66), Astronaut Colonel James Irwin

James Irwin

James Benson Irwin was an American astronaut and engineer. He served as Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 15, the fourth human lunar landing; he was the eighth person to walk on the Moon.-Early life:...

, who spent a few hours on the moon (1985), Dr. John Haggai, founder president of Haggai Institute (1973), Bishop Donald Jacobs, Mennonite

Mennonite

The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...

church (1974), the Most Revd Dr. Robert Runcie

Robert Runcie

Robert Alexander Kennedy Runcie, Baron Runcie, PC, MC was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1980 to 1991.-Early life:...

, Archbishop of Canterbury (1986), the Most Revd Dr. George Carey

George Carey

George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton PC, FKC is a former Archbishop of Canterbury, holding the office from 1991 to 2002. He was the first modern holder of the office not to have attended Oxford or Cambridge University...

, Archbishop of Canterbury (1995), Dr. Samuel Kobia

Samuel Kobia

Rev Dr Samuel Kobia , is a Methodist clergyman and the first African to be elected General Secretary of the World Council of Churches , a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and local churches representing a Christian population of over 590 million people...

, WCC General Secretary (2007), the Revd Dr. A. B. Masalamani, the Revd Dr. Sam Kamalesen, and a host of others.

Maramon Convention 2011

The 116th Maramon

Maramon

Convention is scheduled to be held from 13 to 20 February. Main speakers expected are:

The bishops of the Mar Thoma Church

Mar Thoma Church

Most Rev. Roger Herft

Roger Herft

Roger Adrian Herft is a bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. He has been the Archbishop of Perth since 2005.Born in Wattegama, Sri Lanka, Herft studied at the Royal College in Colombo, later training for the ministry at United Theological College of Lanka in Pilimatalawe, receiving a B.Th....

, Anglican Archbishop of Perth, Australia.

Prof. Nyameko Barney Pityana, a human rights lawyer, theologian in South Africa and an exponent of Black theology

Black theology

Black theology refers to a variety of Black theologies which have as their base the liberation of the marginalized, especially the injustice done towards Blacks in American and South African contexts...

Dr. R. Rajkumar.

Rev. Peter Maiden.

Dr. Ulf Gunnar Ekman.

Maramon Convention 2010

The 115th Maramon

Maramon

Convention was held from 14 to 21 February. On the opening day and on the last three days, the pandal (flat roof thatched by woven coconut leaves) that could accommodate almost 80,000 people overflowed and an equal number found accommodation under the tree shades on both sides of the river.

Two hundred thousand copies of Marmon

Marmon

Marmon Motor Car Company was an automobile manufacturer founded by Howard Marmon and owned by Nordyke Marmon & Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. It was established in 1902 and was merged and renamed in 1933. They produced cars under the Marmon brand. It was succeeded by Marmon-Herrington and...

Convention hymn book (in Malayalam and with transliterated) with 16 new hymns were distributed. A choir of 101 members led the hymns. Every meeting began with a singing session for 30 minutes.

The speakers included the Bishops of the Mar Thoma Church

Mar Thoma Church

; Bishop Robert M Solomon, (Methodist Church, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

); Reverend Canon Tim Dakin, (General Secretary of Church Missionary Society, England), Rev. Martin Alphons (USA) and Rev. Vinod Victor, (Trivandrum, Kerala, India). Bishop Yoohanon Mar Chrysostom

Yoohanon Mar Chrysostom

His Excellency Yoohanon Mar Chrysostom is the Metropolitan Bishop of the Eparchy of Pathanamthitta of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. He was the third son of Abraham and Achiyamma of the Kalloor family at Kadammanitta, in Pathanamthitta District. He completed his Secondary Education at...

, Metropolitan of the Marthandom Diocese of Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See...

addressed the Ecumenical Meeting and Bishop Sebastian Thekethecheril of the Latin Catholic Diocese of Vijayapuram addressed the Social Evils Awareness Meeting.
Most Rev. Joris Vercammen

Joris Vercammen

Archbishop Joris Vercammen is the current Old Catholic Primate and Archbishop of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands.-Life and career:Joris August Odilius Ludovicus Vercammen was born in Lier, Belgium, in 1952....

, Archbishop of Utrecht

Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands

The Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands; , is the mother church related to the Old Catholic Churches. It is sometimes called Ancient Catholic Church, Church of Utrecht or Dutch Roman Catholic Church of the Old Episcopal Order...

, president of the Union of Utrecht (of Old Catholic Church

Old Catholic Church

The term Old Catholic Church is commonly used to describe a number of Ultrajectine Christian churches that originated with groups that split from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, most importantly that of Papal Infallibility...

), bishops from the Malabar Independent Syrian Church

Malabar Independent Syrian Church

The Malabar Independent Syrian Church, also known as the Thozhiyur Sabah , is a Christian church centred in Kerala, India. It is one of the churches of the Saint Thomas Christian community, which traces its origins to the evangelical activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century.Considered part...

and bishops of Church of South India

Church of South India

The Church of South India is the successor of the Church of England in India. It came into being in 1947 as a union of Anglican and Protestant churches in South India. With a membership of over 3.8 million, it is India's second largest Christian church after the Roman Catholic Church in India...

attended the meetings.

Social actitivities.

The MTEA attaches greater importance to a crusade against social evils, alcoholism and drug-addition. In fact an afternoon session in the convention is exclusively devoted for programmes against such evils to motivate the people to stand solidly against such evils and to take up programmes designed to route out such evils. Besides there are special sessions to focus attention on the ecumenical concerns, dalit activities, women's issues and children's programme.

Missionary responsibilities.

The Church is constantly challenged through this convention to fulfill its missionary responsibilities and to spread its service activities from Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

an Border in the extreme northern end of Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

, to Kanya Kumari (Cape Comerin) in the South. Several service institutions of the Church owe their origin to this annual get together at Maramon

Maramon

. Destitute homes, Ashrams, mission centres, hospitals, leprosy clinics, schools, and colleges have been started in and outside Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

, thereby creating a congenial atmosphere fort the moral, social and spiritual upliftment of the masses and for the social and economic emancipation of the poorer sessions of the community. Schemes for homes for the homeless, land for the landless, marriage aid schemes etc. have been started through the inspiration and challenges at the convention, long before such schemes were initiated by the Government. In this way the Church by and large, was inspired to become alive and responsive to the contemporary issues and challenges through the messages of the Maramon Convention. It was in this way that the Mar Thoma Church

Mar Thoma Church

was made known the world over through the Maramon Convention.

Law and order.

Most interesting aspect of this convention is the discipline shown by the participants all through the convention, which has almost become an inviolable tradition. Police contingent is not required in the convention premises to maintain law and order.

Financial matter.

History of the financial matters is an interesting one. The panthal (tent), and the sheds are the voluntary contributions of the parishes nearby. Earlier, offerings were collected in every meeting. Now it is collected only in four of the 21 general meetings. The collection is distributed to various organisations of the church and also for the Bible society and CSSM.

Conclusion.

All those who come to the convention area will feel the spiritual liveliness that inculcates a self discipline. The unbroken prayer is the force behind the spiritual inspiration. The Maramon Convention displays co-operation and union between different sections of Church in Kerala. It fosters an ecumenical outlook. It is also a source of spiritual inspiration and enlightenment for thousands.

External links

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Mar Thoma Evangelistic Association.

Beginning.

View of Convention

First Convention.

Convention these days.

Programme.

Leaders

Maramon Convention 2011

Maramon Convention 2010

Social actitivities.

Missionary responsibilities.

Law and order.

Financial matter.

Conclusion.

Further reading

External links