The first phase of training twenty thousand young people for leadership in the Church of North India in a year was ceremoniously concluded yesterday at the Centre for Human Potential Development, Nagpur.
Delivering the valedictory address, the Revd Enos Das Pradhan, General Secretary of the Church of North India, blessed and commissioned the thirty seven boys and girls who underwent the intensive training with a challenge to be servant leaders wherever they are placed. He gave away certificates and training manual to all the trainees while Mr Sudipta Singh, Director of Programmes, CNI, presented each of them with a sapling as an image of leadership at the Synod to take and plant in their Dioceses as a source of inspiration and encouragement for developing leadership temperament in young people.
Those gathered represent twenty Dioceses in the eastern, western and northern parts of India such as Agra, Amritsar, Bhopal, Barrackpore, Chandigarh, Chotanagpur, Cuttack, Durgapur, Delhi, Eastern Himalayas, Gujarat, Jabalpur, Kolhapur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Patna, Phulbani, Pune, Rajasthan and Sambalpur.
A specifically designed manual was used for the training and given to the participants as they have to organise the similar kind of programme in their respective Dioceses as soon as they go back. Based on theology, concepts were imparted on servant leadership in the context of pseudo-spiritualism seen in the church, heightened poverty shaking the bone of national economy, consumeristic whims and fancies of the rich, patriarchal injustice to women, globalisation of economy, culture and religion, peace and conflict resolution, communal harmony and inter-faith relations, ecological threats and youth movement.
A team of highly resourceful people who facilitated different sessions includes Dr Ipe Joseph (General Secretary, NCCI), Mr Sudipta Singh (Director, Programmes, CNI), Dr Sunil Caleb (Professors, Ethics, Bishop's College), Dr Roger Gaikwad (Director, Extension Education, Senate of Serampore), the Revd Packiam T Samuel (Executive Secretary, Inter-faith Relations, NCCI), Ms Sanjana Das (Coordinator, Children Concern, CNI), Mrs Rachael Pradhan (Coordinator, Women and Gender Concern, CNI), Ms Moumita Biswas (Associate Secretary, Mission and Evangelism, NCCI), Mr Dinesh Suna (Executive Secretary, Ecumenical Youth Formation, NCCI) and Mr Kasta Dip (Coordinator, Youth Concern, CNI).
As testified by the participants, the programme has served the purpose of developing youth leadership in the Dioceses of CNI to be the agents of transformation for the community they live in.
The training was inaugurated on 22 October 2004 at the same venue by Dr Ipe Joseph, General Secretary, National Council of Churches in India (NCCI).