O my G-d. I have been touched

I saw this photo today on a post by Andy Rowell about Bishop Lesslie Newbigen the first bishop of the Church of South India's Diocese of Madurai Ramnad. Now you see him sitting in a grey suit right in the center of the 1st row of the photo.

On his left is the great Orthodox priest theologian Florovsky and on his left is the delightful Karl Barth Sahib.


This Holy week in Kuwait our church was blessed to have our old parish priest now in the avatar of Retired Bishop the Very Rev. Michael John (first Bishop of the East Kerala Diocese) giving riveting messages in his very special style.

What is the connection?

Well I talked to and touched the Bishop on the shoulder while talking besides shaking hands with him. The Bishop told me that he talked to Bishop Newbigin in his "Aramana" (Malayalam word), palace while he was a young man. He called him a "genius". There must have been a shaking of hands.

And through the photo and the excellent article by Andy at the link above I know that Bishop Newbigin and Karl Barth and Rev. Georges Florovsky worked together for on the "Committee of Twenty-Five" theologians in preparation for the 1954 World Council of Churches conference. Lots of hand shaking.

So there you have it, I'm bursting with strange wonder how I can be linked to Barth and Florovsky. Wow!