Holy Spirit Church, Palda

Vision

To grow as a participatory community of vibrant Christian families, nourishing ourselves on the Word of God and the Sacraments, and proclaiming and propagating gospel values and creation of a just society of Human person living with respect and dignity free from any type of oppression and exploitation.

Mission

To renew the Christian family, to make the parish a fully participatory community, to make the parish a self reliant community and to build up human communities based on Gospel values through various apostolate such as Education, health service, family visit and prayer and social service.

How it all started:

The expansion of the Indore city and the migration of Catholic   to the outskirts of the Indore   and the   distance from the Cathedral Parish necessitated erecting mass centers    in three SVD institutions namely Catholic Ashram Palda,  Satprakashan and Snehalay.   A committee of four SVD confreres was constituted to study the feasibility of a Parish in the month of September 2006 by the SVD Provincial Council.   The positive report of the study encouraged the Provincial administration to request   Rev. Bishop George M. Anathil SVD, the Bishop of Indore to erect a new Parish bifurcating from the St. Francis Assisi Cathedral, amalgamating the three Mass Centers in 2006. The Society being true to its Charisma of establishing Parishes, decided to give one acre of land for the Church.  The Diocesan council consented to the request and appointed a committee under the leadership of the Vicar General Fr. Soosai G.  Fr. Joemon James SVD, the chaplain of Satprakashan, Fr. Michael Kerkatta SVD, the Chaplain of Palda and Fr. Manuel Pereira SVD, the Rector of Catholic Ashram Palda were the other members.  They went around seeing the areas to be allotted to the new Parish.  The Diocesan Council approved the boundary   proposed by the committee. Namely  Agrassen Chauraha and Mhow Nakha  to north,   Bijalpur village  to the north west,  Simrol to the west,  Namavar Road  up to Double Chaukki to the south  Supreme Auto Garage , Ring Road  at the East.

Fr. Alangaram Arockia Sebastian Durai Raj SVD, the Provincial Superior   after consulting his council requested the Bishop to dedicate the church to the Holy Spirit as St. Arnold Janssen had a special devotion to the Holy Spirit. In accordance with the Proposal of the Provincial Superior   and after discussing with the Diocesan Council, Bp. George M. Anathil SVD appointed Fr. Manuel Pereira SVD as the Parish Priest of the Parish on May 27, 2007. With the letter dated June 1, 2007 to the Provincial Superior, Fr. Sebastian Durairaj, Bp. George  M. Anathil  SVD officially erected the Holy Spirit Parish dedicated to the Holy Spirit with effect from 8^st July 2007 and entrusted it to the Society of the Divine Word, Central Indian Province.  The Holy Spirit Church Palda came to existence with the inaugural Eucharist on July 8, 2007 at 8 am officiated by His Excellency Rev. Bp. George M. Anathil SVD in the Jubilee hall of Catholic Ashram Palda.

Holy Spirit Church Palda had 90 Catholic families and 14 religious houses in its jurisdiction. The number of Catholic Families grew to 105 at present.  Since then the liturgical services are held in the hall of Catholic Ashram Palda.   Fr. Manual Pereira SVD continued as the Rector and Parish Priest for a period of 3 years.  Fr. Anuranjan Dung Dung SVD the dean of studies in Palda was appointed as the second Parish Priest of the Holy Spirit Church.  After one year on June 24, 2011 Fr. Joemon James SVD was appointed as the parish priest with a mandate of constructing a church of its own in the land given by the Society.  On June 24, 2011. The effort to construct a church was on from the beginning, but could not tap the resources.  Fr.  Anuranjan  Dung Dung SVD had applied some projects to a few funding agencies when he handed over the leadership to Fr Joemon James SVD.

Fr. Joemon  James SVD as soon as he took up the pastoral leadership motivated the people to contribute and seek support from various sources and began the prayer for the construction of the church.   On January 29, 2012, the ground blessing ceremony officiated by Bp. Chacko Thottumarickal SVD.  Due to lack of funds, the construction work could not begin immediately.   Meanwhile the process of diversion of the land and seeking building permission begun.  On June 16^th we began to excavate the land and began the construction.  The exquisite church stands tall among the greenery of Palda. The architecture and design are done beautifully and the sanctuary is aesthetically constructed. The function began at 5 pm with the entrance dance. Fr. Michael Cherian SVD, the master of ceremony introduced the proceedings after which the procession began from the presbytery to the entrance of the church.

The archbishop, Most Rev. Leo Cornelio SVD inaugurated the church by cutting the ribbon. The keys of the church were handed over by the architect, Mr. Johny Sacria and Mr. Biju, KP Constructions to the local ordinary, Most Rev. Chacko Thottumarical SVD and then the local ordinary handed over to Fr. Joemon James Alackal SVD, the parish priest. Then the elaborate ceremony of blessing and dedication began, sprinkling of the holy water, incensing the church, anointing the altar with chrism oil, litany of saints and other prayers. The choir was conducted by Fr. Anuranjan Dung Dung SVD and it added devotion to the ceremony. In his homily, Most Rev. Bishop Chacko Thottumarickal SVD said that the temple built by bricks, iron, cement, wood etc can be destroyed but the temple at the Holy Spirit cannot be destroyed. Therefore, parish should be built around the Holy Spirit to whom the church is dedicated. The elaborate ceremony lasted for 3 hours.

A short felicitation programme was held. In his speech, Fr. Provincial Superior, Nicholas Martis SVD recalled the history of parish-how it has grown from a mass centre at the Jubilee Hall of Catholic Ashram Palda to a quasi parish and to full-fledged parish. He also said that how he had knocked at several doors raising funds for building the church. He thanked all those who contributed towards the construction of the church and funded for this great venture. On this occasion, Fr. Roy Chirappurath SVD released the cover page of the Souvenir of the Holy Spirit Parish, Palda and Fr. John Wakhla SVD released an audio CD namely, Bhataanjali. Concluding the facilitation programme, Fr. Joemon James Alackal SVD thanked all who contributed to the building of the church and gave taken of gifts to architect, contractors, engineers, electricians, painters and other workers. After that meal was given to all who came for the function.  

When we turn the annuals of the Parish we find that the whole parish has been divided into 7 small Christian Community Groups with a leader having monthly prayers. The parish has steadily progressed and formed Mata Mariam Sangh, St. Joseph’s Sangh, Youth Movement and Balak Yesu Sangh for all sections of the people to get involved.

Miles stones:

22/02/209 Fifty one People Confirmation   

29/01/2013 First Holy Communion (18) and confirmation total 28

Till date: 95 baptism

17/11/2013    Blessing and Dedication of Holy Spirit Church, Palda: It was a historic day of the Holy Spirit Church, Palda when the newly constructed Church was dedicated and blessed on November 17, 2013 by Archbishop of Bhopal, Most Rev. Leo Cornelio SVD and Bishop of Indore, Most Rev. Chacko Thottumarickal SVD, in the presence of, Provincial Superior, Fr. Nicholas Martis SVD, large number of priests, religious and laity. 

Confreres who worked so far