Rt. Rev. Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius, Diocesan Bishop of North America and Europe of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar met Rt. Rev. Dr. Derek Hoskin, Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Calgary during his recent visit to Alberta. The purpose of the meeting was to promote inter-church activities under the auspices of the agreement for full intercommunion between the two churches.
The respective metropolitans of the two Churches signed this agreement when they met during the Vancouver assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1983. Anglican Bishops of Calgary have fulfilled their part of the terms of agreement by providing pastoral care to the members of the Mar Thoma Church in Calgary. Now that the Mar Thoma Church in Calgary has grown to the level to have a resident priest, it was felt that there was a need for the two bishops to get to know each other and to explore ways and means of furthering the ecumenical collaboration.
The two bishops met over breakfast on Friday, 16 October 2009. The formal part of the meeting was the exchanges of good will gifts. Theodosius Thirumeni presented an autographed copy of the festschrift volume published in honor of his 60th birthday. In turn, he received a copy of Bonhoeffer’s Letters from Prison signed by Bishop Hoskin.
Thereafter the proceedings became informal over breakfast when the two bishops established a quick rapport with each other.
Theodosius Thirumeni thanked Bishop Hoskins for looking after his sheep, by attending the festival of Christmas carols last year and musical evening recently organized by the Calgary Mar Thoma Parish and for providing a letter of support for the newly appointed Vicar Rev. K.J Mathew to obtain a Canadian Visa. Rev. K.J. Mathew was also present along with a selected group of Mar Thoma parish members. Soon the discussion moved to how the new Vicar could obtain a marriage license, whether there was any precedent of having Associate Parishes and if it is a reasonable and practical for the Mar Thoma Parish to become one. Another question was how we could get access to ‘Entheos’ a retreat center near Calgary. Bishop Hoskin answered all queries happily, giving an impression that he came well prepared.
As Bishop Hoskin had to attend the Diocesan Synod the very afternoon, he took leave of the group of the assembled Marthomites. The bishops agreed to have further discussions later perhaps, at the next visit of Theodosius Thirumeni to Calgary. It was obvious that both the bishops were very happy to meet each other and to establish a personal connection.
It is reported that Bishop Hoskin gave an account of the meeting between the two bishops that very afternoon during the Anglican Synod (Calgary) meeting. Of course, such meetings become true successes only if they are followed by further contacts and actions.