An inter religious celebration of Christmas was hosted by His Eminence, Cardinal Oswald Gracias on Saturday, the 17th of December at the Holy Name High School Hall. Distinguished heads of the Diplomatic corps of Argentina, Sri Lanka, Germany and Australia attended. The special invitees for the occasion were representatives of various religions from Mumbai. A good number of priests, religious and lay faithful were also present.
The programme began with a traditional Prayer dance. This was followed by the placing of the baby Jesus in the crib by Cardinal Oswald. The Holy Name Cathedral Choir, conducted by Mario Nazareth, then regaled us with Christmas Carols in English and Konkani ushering in the Christmas spirit. Gloria Arockiam and her troupe then brought to life some scenes from the Bible to the hauntingly melodious music of Fr. Proksh SVD and Fr. Charles Vaz S.V.D.
This brought us to the highlight of the celebration: a sharing of those of other beliefs and faiths on the theme, ‘The light of religions for a world in conflict’ moderated by Annabel D’Souza. The dignitaries who spoke on this occasion were Ervad Dr. Parvez M Bhajan, a Zoroastrian; Prabhu Keshav Chandra Das of ISKON; Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi; Brahma Kumari Gayatribahen; Dr. Surinder Kaur, a Sikh; Ms Shilpa Chheda, a Jain and Professor of Jainism; and Ven. Bhadant Rahul Bodhi. Lastly, Fr. Gilbert de Lima invited the audience to see how Pope Francis himself tries to ensure that the light of Christianity is made available to people all over the world.
Report by: Edelweiss Quadros (taken from The Examiner on Facebook)
Images: The Examiner on Facebook