Kick Off Meeting

Today Lois hosted Jimmy, Margaret, Gerard and me with a lovely Indian meal at her home. We talked about the trip, and hashed out dates and itinerary. We plan to leave for Mumbai on 10/8 and return from Delhi on 10/29. Along the way we will visit Nagpur, the site of the founding of the Church of India 40 years ago. Enos has invited us to attend the ceremony with him and the Archbishop of Canterbury!

From there we will go on to Agra and visit Etah from there. Hopefully attend a church service, meet with school people and see Villages, hospital, and whatever elswe they may think we should see. I hope we have a chance for some real talk about their vision for the Christian community there and for the schools. I would like for us to be able to make a contribution that will be meaningful. It may be that the support we send every year is the most meaningful thing we could possible do.

After Agra/Etah we will go to Delhi to reconnect with Enos and the Church of North India staff. We expect to stay at the Bhavan and to visit outreach projects of CNI. Then on to Kalimpong with Enos and Darjeeling before heading back to Delhi and home.

We talked today also about our project to explore with Indians we know and will meet their family history surrounding partition. This cataclysmic event informs so much of what we see today between India and Pakistan and effects their relationships with the US. And it has an impact on everyone on the subcontinent. Lois, Margaret and I are reading Freedom at Midnight, the story of the events immediately leading up to and following partition on August 15, 1947. I remember how upset my mother was about this and how she blamed Ali Jinnah for the bloodshed and horror that followed. And the fight rages on with Kashmir as the desired prize. We have some leads from Tom Goodhue of the Long Island Council of Churches of people we can talk to about this. Hopefully they will be able to feel some catharsis from talking to neutral parties (not really) and can help us to formulate a good way to go about having conversations with people we meet during our travels.

Our next meeting is not for another month, but in the meantime Jimmy will be speaking with Dave Hudson and Bill Edwards. Margaret suggested pursuing an end run around the Presbytery committee that did not fund our grant request. We are still seeking funds to cover her airfare and internal transportation costs. Hopefully that can come from the Peacemaking Committee, chaired by Rev. Bill Edwards, Pastor Emeritus of FPC Smithtown.