SCM and Fine Arts Inaugurations

Two Students Committees had their inaugural programmes yesterday evening, Student Christian Movement and Gururkul Fine Arts. Dr. George Zacharia was the main speaker for SCM. Director Dr. P. Manoharan offered words of greetings and Principal declared this year's programmes opened. The programme started with a word of prayer by Ms. Sonia John (M.Th. Theology) Student General Secretary. The SCM Committee Convener Mr. Aravind Jayakumar (M. Th. OT) welcomed the guests. Mrs. Rosalind SCM Secretary announced the various programmes for the year. The Staff adviser, Dr. Sam P. Mathew, said the closing prayer and benediction.

Mr. Ebenezer Paul, the programme Secretary of the North Tamil Nadu Region greeted the unit. He graduated fom Gurukul last year and the students were so glad to meet their old friend assuming the new responsibility and addressing them.

Dr. George Zachariah had been a long time associate of SCM and worked as the Programme Secretary of the Kerala SCM. He spoke from his experience as a SCM leader. He explained the implication of the name, Student Christian Movement and emphasized that it is not a Christian student movement, but a Christian movement of Students. SCM is an ecumenical organization with strong emphasis to commitment to Jesus Christ as its primary criterion for membership. Rev. Sajeev Thomas (M. Th. communications) witnessed how he was influenced by the SCM to join the ministry of the Church. Many conservative groups in the past have developed some kind of suspicious attitude towards SCM because of its radical movement character which goes sometimes against the status quo which some churches want to maintain. Sajeev Achen's remarks were very helpful to alleviate such misgivings about SCM.

The Fie Arts Committee programmes began with the showing of a film titled Mission. Ms. Anjali Lama, B.D. student from Nepal welcomed the gathering. Rev. Chellappa Packiraj introduce the film: This British film produced in 1986 pictures the story of Jesuit mission in 18th century Argentina. It starts with the martyrdom of the first Jesuit missionary to the Guranis. It also pictures the conversion of a Portuguese mercenary, Rodrigo Mendoza who became a missionary to the Guranis, many of whom he had taken earlier as slaves and transported to Madrid. The picture reveals many inside the stories of missions as well as the conflict with Portugal and Spain. Colonialism followed the mission. Two European countries, Spain and Portugal, are competing to bring the South American natives over to imperialist ways. The plunderers wanted to extract riches and slaves from the New World. The missionaries, on the other hand, wanted to convert the Indians to Christianity. The story starts with the older missions, founded between 1610-1630 on the Río Paranapanemá above the Guairá Falls, from which Paulista slave raids forced Guaranis and Jesuits to flee in 1631. The battle at the end of the movie evokes the 8-day battle of Mboboré in 1641, a battle fought on land as well as in boats on rivers, in which the Jesuit-organized, firearm-equipped Guarani forces stopped the Paulista raiders. The movie also tells the story of Mendoza who repented of his killing of his brother while fighting for the love of a woman. He finally became a devout missionary and started working with Father Gabriel. The missionaries want to promote a new society in which the natives will live together in peace with the Spanish and the Portuguese. But the royal governors, who would rather enslave the natives order the mission to be burned to the ground. But this event causes a rift between Gabriel, who wants to pray and pursue peaceful resistance, and Mendoza, who wants to take up arms and fight the Europeans.


The film had been nominated for 7 Academy awards and won two Golden globe and two Canne Film Festival Awards. Robert De Niro played the role of Rodrigo Mendoza. The story and direction was of Roland Joffe.Actor Jeremy Irons, played the Spanish Jesuit priest, Father Gabriel, who scaled Iguazu Falls during his missionary journey to the Guarani Indians.

The community needs to thank the Fine arts Committee for making it possible to see this challenging and eye-opening film. The would be missionaries of Gurukul will certainly benefit from the insights of this film, which also makes us aware of the pitfalls hidden in the their journey of good will.