CHILDREN FOR UNITY

It was in 1997, while doing my regency in a mission station in the Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu, India, that God gave me the first inspiration to do something concretely for the faith formation of the children hailing from the poor families of our missions. We had just opened one station in a thatched hut constructed in the land of a farmer who had embraced the Christian faith. Everyday I went around visiting the families of the people who showed some interest in the gospel. Together with the parish priest who was very friendly with me I visited practically all the mission stations of that region. We presented the gospel as a means for people’s liberation, for their integral development. Gradually I became more and more convinced that it is not so much through financial and material assistance that the poor could be liberated from their poverty and underdevelopment but through releasing the spiritual power dormant within them. Primarily this calls for a change in their way of thinking. In the context of India, the gospel of Christ can provide people with a new vision that can truly liberate them. Mere rituals and certain religious practices, supported by some one-sided or otherworldly spirituality, cannot help much. What is needed is a life transforming spirituality. During my five years of studies in Europe I keenly observed how human progress results from an integral spiritual vision coupled with dedicated and skilled work. Back in India in 1994 I was full of enthusiasm to work for the liberation of the poor not so much by material assistance but by imparting to them an integral spiritual vision and by training them to live this vision. My long association with the spirituality of unity revealed to me the various aspects of such a liberating life-vision. I shared my vision and aspirations with some of my close friends who always encouraged and supported me. But where should one start? Obviously with the children for it is to them that the secrets of the Kingdom of God are revealed.

This is the background of our initiating the “Children for Unity” which is now a missionary movement in the Malankara Catholic Church, India. In fact, it is an incarnation of the spirituality of unity as developed in the Focolare Movement within the ecclesial context, cultural background and socio-economic situation of the Malankara Catholic Church. The overall vision of this program is to work towards a united world, with a preferential option for the poor, and a commitment to the inculturation of the gospel. The concrete goal of this movement is to impart an ongoing formation to children selected from the poorest families who have embraced the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ in recent years.

The Malankara Catholic Church traces her origin to the Apostle St. Thomas who, according to tradition, proclaimed the Holy Gospel in India. In course of history, the St. Thomas Christians of India were divided into several fractions. The Malankara Catholic Church in its present form came into existence in 1930 when a small group of believers from Malankara Orthodox Church, inspired by the ideal of Christian Unity, under the leadership of Archbishop Mar Ivanios, reunited with the Catholic Communion of Churches. Mar Ivanios was a great visionary and a zealous missionary. Right from the early days of her existence as an individual Church in the Catholic communion, the Malankara Church concentrated her energy and resources in the work of evangelization. Actually, the work of evangelization in the Malankara Catholic Church was carried forward by the many committed missionaries not only from the Malankara community but also from the Syro Malabar Church and the Latin Church who had volunteered to join hands with the missionary vision of Mar Ivanios. As a result the Lord has led thousands of families to embrace the Christian faith. Most of them hail from the socially backward castes and strata of the Hindu society. They received the Christian faith because the gospel of Christ opened up before them not only salvation of their souls but also new possibilities for their social upliftment. Social liberation and economic development are made possible for the new Christians not so much through financial support or various material assistance but mainly through a psychological liberation and intellectual empowerment that the gospel of Christ can effect in them.

Missionaries of Unity
Missionaries of Unity, is missionary association within the Malankara Catholic Church. This movement may be designated as a flowering of the missionary thrust of the Malankara Catholic Church. It is particularly characterized by its commitment to the Kingdom of God understood as the gospel of unity and integral progress of all people. The members of the movement seek to live a spirituality of unity, in a dialogue of love with all peoples and indigenous cultures, and with a special commitment to the integral development of the children of God who are in some way or other poor and weak. The movement is open to all who are willing to share its vision and programs. Its members include priests, religious and lay missionaries of all walks of life.

The Children for Unity
The Children for Unity is the main apostolate undertaken by the Missionaries of Unity. It envisages a conscientization program based on sharing the experiences of consciously living the gospel of Christ. All its training programs are oriented to generating in the minds of children a new culture of dedication to work and sharing. Sharing with love creates unity. Unity empowers the children to tread the path of integral progress. The children included in the program come from families that are not only poor and socially backward but also ridden with so many problems such as centuries-old-caste discrimination and consequent psychological complexes, drug addiction of the parents and separation of the parents. The Children for Unity provides them with a new identity that they are all children of God, so much loved by the heavenly Father and called to communicate this divine love to others. They are facilitated to grow in the consciousness that God has given them a mission to work wholeheartedly for the unity and integral progress of so many brothers and sisters around them who are crushed under caste discrimination, and so many self-defeating and divisive tendencies.

Grass Root Organization: The members of the Children for Unity are selected from the age group of nine to fifteen. They are organized into Unity Groups of around twelve children each under the guidance of one or two adult volunteers who serve as their animators. Already around ninety such Unity Groups are functioning in the various mission stations in and around Trivandrum. These groups meet once a week for around two hours. During these meetings the children share their experiences of living the Word of Life. They study together and engage themselves in some form of concrete service for the benefit of the needy and sick people.

The Word Of Life: Living the Word of Life is the basic methodology adopted for the formation of the Children for Unity. Every month we take one sentence from the New Testament as the Word of Life for the month. A leaflet containing a brief meditation on the text with concrete suggestions regarding how to live it in our various life-situations is given to every child. All of us involved in this apostolate try our best to keep this word constantly in our mind, meditate on it and to live it out. The Word of Life is really the presence of Jesus in our hearts. By living the Word of Life in a collective way and sharing the experiences of living it with one another there occurs amidst us a special presence of Jesus. It is this Jesus that unites the Children for Unity. It is the Word that prompts us to go ahead in the path Unity and Integral Progress.

Unity Houses: We have four Unity Houses that serve as zonal centers of the training programs for the Children for Unity. Unity camps for children are organized regularly in the Unity Houses on weekends and during the holidays. Various groups of children come in turn to the Unity Houses for camps. As a rule every group gets chance to participate in unity camps at least three times a year. The unity camps offer the children the beautiful experience of being in a larger family, playing, praying, learning and working together. It is a heartening experience to see how much joy the unity camps generate in the minds of the children and how they share this joy with their family members when they return home after the camps. Besides, the Unity Houses organize special study camps for the children and regular training programs for the volunteers who serve the children as animators in the grass root level.

Residential Formation Program: The Unity Houses are also venues for a residential program of formation for a period of three or more years. At the moment around fifty children selected from the different unity groups stay in our three Unity Houses and receive a long- term formation. These children attend classes in the near by schools. Their formation program includes daily practice of Yoga and meditation, prayer, study, gardening and special assistance to develop personal talents and skills. Above all they try to live the word of life and share their experience of living the Word on a daily basis.

Service Team: In each of our regional centers we have a Service Team dedicated to the formation of our children. The service team consists of some priests, sisters and lay missionaries. At the moment Sisters from Missionary sisters of unity, sisters from the Congregations of Daughters of Mary, Holy Cross and Sisters of Charity render full time service to the Children for Unity. Also some lay missionaries generously offer their service as members of the service team. The members of the service team visit the unity groups and also the families of the children regularly in view of motivating them. They also organize programs such as classes and discussion for the parents and guardians of the children.

Saving and Sharing Program: One of the specific goals of the entire program is to give some sort of a vocational or professional training to every child included in the Children for Unity. As a matter of fact, almost 90% of the parents of our children have received no professional training and as a result they remain unskilled and unemployable workers. This is a root cause of their poverty and overall backwardness. They need to be motivated to do their best to ensure that their children obtain a professional education so that they become economically self-reliant. At the same time they are poor and unable to do this all by themselves. Our Saving and Sharing Program is intended to facilitate the vocational training of all our children. Our goal is that every one of our children, after their normal schooling, should obtain a professional training in one or other job he or she can take up. For this we encourage all our children and their parents to save small amounts of money regularly. What they can save is only a small amount, although it is a very significant contribution from their part. In fact, professional education in Kerala is very expensive and what the child can save will be only a small percentage of the amount actually required. The rest of the money needed for the professional education of the children, we hope to collect from generous friends who are willing to join us in this noble venture.
The apostolate of Children for Unity is primarily a conscientization program geared to the missionary formation of the children. It purports to empower the children and their parents towards self-help, through spiritual development, education and sharing their means with others. The missionaries involved in the apostolate render their service without any expectation of monetary remuneration. We do our best to avoid all kinds of organizational and office expenses and to invest all our resources directly to the formation of the children. The program costs a large sum of money every month. All expenses are met by the donations of so many generous friends who share the same vision and ideal that inspires us. We trust in the providence of God and go ahead with this small work towards the building up of God’s kingdom.