Our Lord Jesus taught us that rules and regulations apply to all and he
demonstrated it by paying the Tax due to the secular rulers, Caesar and also
insisted that st. Peter also pay the same. Let us have a Church and fellowship
where all are treated as equal as far as the rules and regulations and conduct
are concerned.

Any organization which is directly or indirectly funded by the Church should
have transparency in dealings and its records and information should be
available to all the Church members. Maybe the person seeking the information
should have to pay a processing fee (like the Right to Information Act). It
should equally apply to all the instututions which use the name of the Church
for the purposes of Goodwill or for masquerading as a minority institution.

As per the Supreme Court ruling minority institutions are meant for the benfit
of the community for whom it is set up and that is the basis for exempting them
from reservation rules etc.

All the educational institutions should list out the merit list for the
Management or community quota seats and selling of seats or cornering by vested
interests should be stopped.

Make the church organizations vibrant by imparting compulsory management and
administrative and christian value training to all officers irrespective of
their status.

No person should be allowed to occupy any position for more than two terms.

All positions in the Church should have a retirement age.

Members of monastic orders should not have personal assets or bank accounts and
the Church should set up generous grant for the maintenance of retired Bishops,
priests and sextons.

Sexton should be made a stipendiary position like that of the Vicar and sextons
should meet minimum educational qualifications and should also undergo atleast a
18 months training on liturgy, music, theology, and human relations. Sextons
could be effectively used in the book keeping and other administrative matters
through proper training.

Women should have equal representation and voting rights in all matters of the
Church and should be allowed to occupy all administrative positions. In fact one
vote per adult subscribing member shall be implemented instead of retaining the
current male centric practices. Atleast you can ensure more decent behavious in
General Body meetings if women are allowed to participate.

More input will follow.
.........................................................

Moderators' Note:
Dear Mani P. Sam, we really appreciate that you took the time to write this
thoughtful message. This kind of messages are exactly what we are looking for at
this time. We would like to hear from more people like this before we make
further discussion on any particular issue. We encourage everyone to dream the
ideal church, and then compare it with our present-day church.

We may also search the other groups and online magazines for similar input.

Meanwhile, let us all read these messages very carefully, and formulate our own
thoughts and opinions.

At this point, please refrain from posting comments about the messages of
others. What we need is your own original ideas. However, you are welcome to
seek clarification from an author if needed.