St. Arnold’s Church, Meghnagar

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

Khrist Jyothi Mandir, Meghnagar

The dream of setting up a Mission Pastoral Centre in Bhildesh in order to build up a strong local church among Bhils who are geographically scattered in the diocese of Ajmer, Baroda, Indore, Udaipur and to some extent in Ahmadabad too dawned on the young priest, Dr. Thomas Vellappallil SVD  while working in Panchkui way back in the early seventies. He believed that SVD as an international religious congregation an easily cut across the diocesan territorial barriers and bring them together. The centre he envisaged would facilitate the already existing faith formation programme among Bhils by promoting study of Bhili and Bhil Culture, by being the torch bearer in inculturation and liturgical renewal. His proposal for such a centre at Meghnagar locally known as ‘city of clouds’ received immediate support of the Superiors and the project was granted approval by the Society in 1977.

The beginning of Khrist Jyoti Kendra was very humble. A catechetical programme the first lasting ten weeks was conducted in a mud house. From then on KJK is regularly catering to the needs of the mission. Every month, on an average two programmes were conducted. Every year there was a pastoral course arranged for the SVD personnel who join the INC providing them with adequate facilities to learn languages. Attempts are being made in the field of incluturation especially in liturgy. The Missal is already translated into Bhili. Efforts are onto find out ways and means to make the sacraments more meaningful and relevant to the people. All the available Bhili bhajans were pooled together, compiled and published in the form a book called Bhajo Re, numbering above 250 bhajans and hymns. Also four Bhili Bhajan audio cassettes are published.

Fr. Leonard Jungblut SVD had already prepared an elementary Bhili grammar. KJK has now prepared a complete Bhili Grammar and Bhili language courses are conducted at the centre periodically. The centre has reprinted the elementary catechism book Hak Ni Vat (path to Happiness), making it a text for the Bhili Grammar. Another catechism book bought out by the centre is Wat No Divo (Light for the path). The centre also publishes a quarterly news letter in Bhili called Apadi Dania (Our World). The aim of this newsletter is to encourage people to write articles short stories, poems and also to promote Bhili language thus to standardize the language.

Meghnagar is a census town in Jhabua district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.  Meghnagar is a tribal town located on the western part of Madhya Pradesh bordering Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Situated on the National Highway connecting Indore and Ahmadabad, it is 155 kilometers from Indore and 264 kilometers from Ahmadabad. Delhi-Mumbai railway line also passes through Jhabua district with a railhead at Meghnagar. The villages are inhabited by tribals namely Bhils, Bhilalas and Patlias. The tribals live in scattered clusters with huts mostly in or adjacent to their own fields. The houses are mostly made of bamboo and clay. The roofs are low thatched type. The huts have small front door which is mostly about 1.21 meters in height and 0.90 meters in width. Windows are a very rare thing. The huts usually have one or two partitions. One of the partitions is used for keeping the cattle inside because of the high risk of robbery. The families are both nuclear and joint. Wood is the main fuel used for cooking. Awareness towards clean and healthy living is mostly missing. Disposal of garbage is near the house. As of 2001 India census Meghnagar had a population of 10,316. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Meghnagar has an average literacy rate of 62%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 69%, and female literacy is 54%. In Meghnagar, 18% of the population is under 6 years of age. There are 200 Christian families in and around Meghnagar parish which has 600 Catholics in the register.

The reason is that Meghnagar is the most backward town of Madhya Pradesh having most of the Catholics and undoubtedly the church has made all possible effort to work for the development of the area. The main activity in all those parishes is running school. Meghanagar is a Mass Centre given to SVD by the Diocese of Jhabua. Our presence in Meghnagar and Jhabua in the past 15 years is well known. Meghngar parish, St. Arnold’s Church, is given for SVDs perpetually. For the past few years, we are celebrating Mass in a small hall which is used for multipurpose. Eucharistic Celebration was held in a small chapel previously and as the number of Catholics is growing, the multipurpose hall is used presently.

In 1977 Fr. Thomas Vellappallil SVD established Khrist Jyoti Kendra, a mission pastoral centre for the Bible Training and other catechetical training in view of faith formation. Prabhudasi Sisters of Ajmer were assisting him. By the year 1995 there were around 65 Catholic families settled in the vicinity of Meghnagar. It was only in the year 1996 that Meghnagar was established as a separate Parish with Fr. Joseph Jeerakathil SVD as its first Parish Priest. Master Manual Ganawa was assisting Fr. Joseph Jeerakathil SVD in the catechetical work. The Parish was named as Khrist Jyoti Mandir. In the same year Fr. Joseph laid the foundation for an English Medium School. Initially the Benedictine Sisters were invited to work in the school. Later in the year 2008, Prabhudasi Sisters of Ajmer joined this parish for pastoral and educational apostolate. In the year 2010 Christ Jyoti Parish was renamed as St. Arnold’s Parish.

Mile Stones;

1977             Fr. Thomas Vellappallil SVD, the founder director and Fr. Thomas Peringalloor SVD, his assistant can certain be proud of the contribution KJK offers to the local church.

07/01/1985 Indore Diocese Social Service Society IDSSS organized a Holistic Health Workshop animated by Fr. Carol Huss of Dhayan Shanti Dham.

09/01/1992 Mission Animation Course for the novices of the Prabhudasi Sisters of Ajmer was directed by Fr. Thomas Peringalloor SVD, Dr. Patrick Pais SVD, Sr. Margarette Peringalloor SMA, Fr. Joseph Jeerakathil SVD and Sr. Eulali MSA.

17/02/1992 A Seminar on the Lumko method of formation of basic Christina communities and Bible sharing was organized for those who are engaged in direct evangelical work in the diocese of Udaipur.

21/09/2011 Report of Jhabua Unit Meeting: A Boys’ Hostel in Khrist Jyothi Kendra Campus: Starting a Boys’ hostel with an existing structure behind the KJK main building. All the members in the unit wholeheartedly welcomed the proposal and called for immediate implementation of the plan. As some confreres brought to the notice of the floor that this had been suggested previously by the Jhabua unit and the proposal got ‘go ahead’ signal from the then provincial administration headed by Most Rev. Durairaj the then Provincial and copy of the letter is found in the files even now.

Concerns to be kept in mind Regarding Starting the Hostel in KJK campus, Meghnagar:

1. To start with, renovate the existing building besides KJK main building and start functioning of the hostel from the coming school year 2012 June.
2. For the initial work of preparation provincial administration will officially appoint a person from within the KJK community.
3. Children who can afford to pay the fees in the school should be given preference. No concession will be given to them
4. Catholic children or the likeminded children from Bhil tribal population should be given preference.
5. Hostel fee should be collected & no concession will be given to them.
6. Decide the Standard from which we should have the children in the hostel.
7. Is there a need to write a project for the purpose? When project is sanctioned then who will execute the project?
8. Need to keep in mind the self sufficiency, transparency and participative trends in the church today.
9. District council could play a constructive role in the implementation of the project.

Revitalization of the animation centre at KJK campus:

01/06/2011  KJK is entrusted under the care of Fr. Casmir by the provincial administration in June, 2011. The sole reason behind the appointment of him was to renew the vision and mission of the centre as he holds educational qualifications for the same. Therefore he presented to the district confreres through the power point program the number of programs that he has for the Priests, Sisters, Catechists and laity. He expressed his view that he is fully prepared for any type of programs for the above mentioned groups of people. But he is sad that no group is coming to make use of the centre. Therefore he insisted that at least the SVD run parishes should be able to send different groups of people so that this centre could be made use for the purpose for which it is build. Opinions from the confreres:

1. When a high level delegation met the local ordinary Most Rev. Devprasad Ganawa SVD regarding the use of this centre, the Local Ordinary offered the SVDs in Jhabua diocese to use this centre as the Centre for Biblical Apostolate. Why then this was not actualized by the then District council along with the Provincial Administration?
2. In this regard the confreres asked the then District administration the reason for which the report of such serious discussion with the Local Ordinary was not circulated among the confreres of the Jhabua unit.
3. Confreres are of the opinion first of all if weekend programs for the people in and around Meghnagar could be conducted then the effect of which will attract people automatically from far places.
4. Confreres of the opinion that we cannot force people to attend programs.
5. No good experience of the people (catechists) who came to attend program in Meghnagar. Therefore no interest in such programs.
6. Confreres from SVD run parishes are of the opinion that if people have to come to Meghnagar for any program then it will be expensive (travel) therefore Director from KJK could go to the parishes to conduct such programs which will be less expensive for the people and more participation will be there.
7. Some suggested to conduct first of all ½ a day programs for the different groups of people on different themes then they will be attracted to attend big programs.
8. But Fr. Casmir emphasized saying that he is appointed by the provincial administration to conduct programs here in KJK.
9. When Fr. Casmir said that the Diocese could not afford to give some programs to be conducted here in KJK, Confreres asked him whether he presented the programs to the Diocesan council on time which he wanted to conduct here in KJK.
10. Provincial then asked Fr. Casmir Damor to prepare a very time bound program list with in October, November and December months and present to the provincial administration.
11. In this connection Snehalay was brought in as example for KJK to follow the method which is followed there by them and the time of arrangement of such programs.

Confreres who worked so far