By R. Kulasingam –

Jaffna is one of the more than two dozen Dioceses of the Church of South India. The apex administrative body of this Church known as Synod based in Southern India elects its officers once in three years. These officers include a moderator, deputy moderator, secretary and treasurer. The last elections were held in January 2023. Since the election of the Moderator was found invalid by the Supreme Court of India recently, it is likely that a new Moderator will be elected soon. It is in this context that all eyes are now on the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India.

Below we explain why the Jaffna Diocese, while being a minor player in numerical terms, has drawn so much attention in this electoral process. The Jaffna Diocese has historically been one of the small dioceses (if not the smallest diocese) of the Church of South India. The Diocese faced a major schism in 2006 and a clear majority of its members broke away and formed a new congregationalist church known as the Church of the American Ceylon Mission. This resulted in a sharp in decline in the membership of the Jaffna Diocese from which it has never recovered.

According to credible reports, the current baptized membership of the Jaffna Diocese can never be above 5,000. As a result, as per the Constitution of the Church of South India, the Jaffna Diocese is entitled to nominate only six members to the CSI Synod. However, readers will be surprised to learn that under Bishop Pathmathayalan’s leadership (and earlier under Bishop Thiagarajah’s leadership too), the Jaffna Diocese engaged in massive fraudulence by inflating its total baptized membership for official and electoral purposes. Instead of six members, the Diocese sent fourteen members to the Synod sessions held in Karnataka in 2023 and earlier.

The Constitution of the Church of South India stipulates that a Diocese is eligible to send fourteen members to the Synod only if its membership stands between 50, 000 and 75, 000 (click here to view the relevant clauses of the Constitution). The Indian Supreme Court may not be aware of this fraudulent act on the part of the Jaffna Diocese as it is located outside of India, but by all means the deceit committed by the JDCSI did make the electoral process in 2023 a skewed and unconstitutional one, favoring allegedly corrupt, authoritarian elements within the Church.

If the Supreme Court of India orders a proper census with the help of independent persons in Jaffna, it will be proven beyond doubt that the total baptized membership of the Diocese is nowhere near 50,000. CSI activists for rule of law and justice should use all legal avenues for available to expose this fraudulence by the leadership of the JDCSI. This will help establish that the current officers of the CSI were elected through an illegal manner.

With the election of the moderator fast approaching, many in Sri Lanka and India are keenly watching how many members the Jaffna Diocese is going to send to the Synod this time. Will it be six or fourteen? Will Bishop Pathmathayalan resort to fraudulence once again to please his masters in India, who are facing serious corruption and other allegations, or will he change course this time around and declare the actual size of the Diocese’s baptized membership?   

The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) and other Christian bodies in Sri Lanka can no longer turn a blind eye when one of their member churches engages in an act comparable to daylight robbery. Will the NCCSL advise the JDCSI to be transparent and act in line with the CSI Constitution? Or will it treat this as a private, internal matter of the JDCSI and CSI that does not concern the other members of the Council? We will know soon.

Why are we concerned?

The power the leadership of the JDCSI amasses by extending support to totalitarian actors in South India has far-reaching consequences for local institutions in Sri Lanka. Such power is used to create dictatorial systems of governance within the JDCSI and the institutions that are affiliated with it. For example, the current and previous Bishop of the JDCSI have used their proximity to the CSI leadership that they helped elect by sending inflated delegates, to tighten their grip over institutions like Jaffna College, a school originally envisioned as a multi-denominational institution but later came under the domination of the JDCSI. By demonstrating that they have the full support of powerful figures like Advocate Fernandes Rathninaraja, the General Secretary of the CSI and Thol. Thirumavalavan, Member of Parliament (India), Bishop Pathmathayalan and his supporters create the impression locally that they are a power unto themselves, unquestionable and invincible.

Unleashing fear among ordinary members of the Church and those who are employed at its institutions, such display of power only results in the deterioration of democracy and good governance in the Sri Lankan institutions associated with the JDCSI. It discourages local members from protesting against malpractice and creates a culture of sycophancy and subservience. This is why holding the JDCSI leadership accountable with regard to its claims about the Baptized membership of the church is extremely important. It is one of the first steps to put things in order at places like Jaffna College.

*The writer is an alumnus of Jaffna College currently based in the USA