In a very recent communication from Dr Cally Rogers-Witte, implying implicit blackmail, she has stated that she could advice the Trustees of Jaffna College funds to take measures that are bound to be supportive of the dollar-flushed, spiritually void and directionless church founded by the Rev Jeyanesan. Dr Cally Rogers-Witte who is going to Nepal for ten days at the end of the month has also stated that the WCM-UCC will be forced to recognize Jeyanesan’s rebel contraption as a partner of the United Church of Christ. She may say whatever she wants about the WCM-UCC but as far as the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds are concerned, let her understand they are out of bounds to her office and for that matter, any board or individual in North America.“. . . . . . evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” 2 Timothy 3:13.
Appropriate whatever you can from the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India (JDCSI) seem to be the mission of the Rev Selvadurai Jeyanesan of the Church of the American Ceylon Mission (CACM). His latest ploy is to unashamedly use the name of Sri Lanka’s oldest bilingual newspaper, The Morning Star that rightfully belongs to the JDCSI. Either he is short of good ideas or determined to continue to act in a manner that defies just about everything that is socially proper, morally obliged, ethically expected and spiritually a must for a consecrated priest.
No priest should ever be an embodiment of disaster to the community he wants to serve. In the US where the Rev Jeyanesan has traveled on many fund raising missions, several priests have brought about much distress to churches and congregations. In one state, an entire diocese has become virtually bankrupt paying damages to victims of priests who did not behave properly. We do not want such American “Fast Food” type evangelism or “boru” shows and tamashas in Sri Lanka.
American gospel gold mines are producing billions and billions, and dollars flow for the mere asking citing human disasters of all kinds. The Rev Jeyanesan is fully integrated into this system. Not so long ago, he even took two children around on one of his US tours to collect funds claiming them as orphans from eastern Sri Lanka. Ignoring that these are public funds, he remains sealed in the murky regions and hardly ever treads in the transparent zones.
Such people, in order to show off to create a favourable public impression, often make the mistake of opting for lifestyles that sooner or later expose them; eventually their efforts become counterproductive. The US is laden with many such imposters of the faith working on the gospel gold mines. Between 1984 and 1987, the evangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker paid themselves annual salaries of $200,000 each and on top of it Jim Bakker helped himself to rewards of $4,000, 000 as bonuses. They were the epitomes of unbelievable excesses in their pursuit of greed, love of glitz and shamelessness.
During the last three months, we have already seen the early traces of it amidst us in how the Rev Jeyanesan charter-flew his supporters to Manipay and then the pomp and showy pageantry that marked the ordination spectacle in the east to which he had even brought some people from India.
Photographs of that event are being sent to all parts of the world where our people have made their homes and also to mission boards and agencies in the US, Europe and even in Israel to further develop the Gospel Gold Mine that is expected to provide an ongoing flow of millions to the Rev Jeyanesan.
In rebelling against the JDCSI, the Rev Jeyanesan has received support and comfort from the Executive Minister Dr Cally Rogers-Witte of the Wider Churches Ministries of the United Church of Christ (WCM-UCC), a successor to the United Church Board of World Missions (UCBWM).
His church has not announced any canonical or doctrinal differences with the JDCSI except to claim it was a re-born American Ceylon Mission following a letter from Dr Rogers-Witte who obviously wants the split to propagate American interests in North and East Sri Lanka via the dollar-flushed spiritually void new church, the Church of the American Ceylon Mission, popularly dubbed the Church of the American Ceylon Mammon.
Someone once observed that Christianity began as a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When it went to Athens, it became a philosophy. When it went to Rome, it became an organization. When it went to Europe, it became a culture. When it went to America, it became a business.
Appropriation of assets that belong to the American Ceylon Mission which is fully under the JDCSI has been the intention of the Rev Jeyanesan and that having failed, he went ahead on a desperate move to have his own church without handing over the assets that rightfully belong to his previous employer, the JDCSI and also the books of accounts that are in arrears for almost ten years. When the books were demanded on an earlier occasion when he was circuit priest in Kilinochchi and asked to move to the east, they disappeared mysteriously. Later burnt remains, some of them not totally destroyed, were found in a pit in close vicinity to the office of the church. It appeared to be a hurried job.
On another occasion a jeep caught fire one night and a large sum of money voted for its repair entrusted to the Rev Jeyanesan still remains unaccounted. Surely, no sensible person will keep that kind of money overnight in a jeep parked next to a chicken house! When it comes to submitting accounts, the Rev Jeyanesan has had a problem even with Bishop Jeyam Ambalavanar who was primarily responsible for taking him in trust for developing the Ambalavanar Mission Empire of Wanni and the East encroaching into areas where other churches were already active for years. Bishop Ambalavanar, quite an expert at preparing project proposals, was able to find free flowing funds for these from overseas sources and Jeyanesan apprenticed effectively under him.
When Bishop Ambalavanar was succeeded by the humble Bishop Jebanesan, a Tamil scholar of great repute, it was the Rev Jeyanesan who called the trumps. He was building his own empire Bishop Ambalavanar style in the Eastern Province. It was already evident his dreams were set on becoming the bishop of the JDCSI and he knew he had the advantage with the only good contender and that too a powerful one and a biblical scholar, would be no candidate because of the age consideration.
But as fate would have it, the Rev Jeyanesan misbehaved and for which he was taken to task on the Jaffna Diocesan Council floor by the aggrieved clergyman who made it clear in his presence and fellow councilors that he has a personal mission to ensure the Rev Jeyanesan never became the bishop. He succeeded in this mission.
Unfortunately for the Rev Jeyanesan he had to become the head of the church. But having failed this, he resorted to another means to overcome this failure. This is because he has a long line of AUYs - Accounts Unaccounted Years. He had failed to submit his financial reports and accounts that may be reckoned in the millions. This is why the Church of the American Ceylon Mission came into being and one can only speculate why and how the WCM-UCC came to be interested in this venture to the extent of offering comfort and support.
L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology once said: “If a man really wanted to make million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion.” The Bible has a warning reference to such people. At Romans 16:18 (New International Version) it is stated: “For such people are not serving our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naïve people.”
Until Tuesday July 10, 2007 Dr Cally Rogers-Witte was ignorant of the real happenings in Jaffna and especially the vow made on the Diocesan Council floor by the Rev Sebastian Anthony in 2005. She was only getting her directions from her deputy, Dr James Wijeyakumar, a friend of the Rev Jeyanesan from India seconded to work with the WCM-UCC. The two often met in Cleveland, Toronto and even in Sri Lanka. In a telephone conversation on that date she told this writer that she has to wait till James Wijeyakumar returned on Friday the 13th to be able to answer some queries. The details asked for must have come as a shock to her.
But by Friday there was no need to call her because between Tuesday and Friday it came to be known that Dr Cally Rogers-Witte was on a mission to do whatever James Wijeyakumar wanted from her. She had also betrayed the confidence James Wijeyakumar had placed in her to an unknown telephone caller.
Another interesting aspect about James Wijeyakumar is that he is on the board of the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds. A few years ago, some members of the Jaffna College alumni made a concerted effort to have genuine Jaffna College representation on this board. With so many of our alumni in North America and many of them experts in their fields and a credit to their alma mater and their profession, it was strange the trustees were continuing to be a pure-breed Yankee geriatric organization that had an annual Boston Tea Party. It appears they circumnavigated this criticism by appointing a “Brown Guy” who could not even spell “Vaddukoddai” let alone finding that village on the map.
After over 100 years of Jaffna College education, it was indeed an insult to this institution that there is not even one alumnus on the board of Trustees of Jaffna College Funds.
Jaffna College is not an American Ceylon Mission founded organization. It was founded by the people of the Jaffna District seventeen years after Batticotta Seminary was closed against the wishes of the people by the American Ceylon Mission. The Trustees of Jaffna College Funds was set up on the request of the founders of Jaffna College and they were from Jaffna. In all their functions, the trustees ought to take directions from the Board of Directors of Jaffna College and be always there to give them sound advice in relation to investment and other related matters for which fiduciary trusts exist.
In a very recent communication from Dr Cally Rogers-Witte, implying implicit blackmail, she has stated that she could advice the Trustees of Jaffna College funds to take measures that are bound to be supportive of the dollar-flushed, spiritually void and directionless church founded by the Rev Jeyanesan. Dr Cally Rogers-Witte who is going to Nepal for ten days at the end of the month has also stated that the WCM-UCC will be forced to recognize Jeyanesan’s rebel contraption as a partner of the United Church of Christ. She may say whatever she wants about the WCM-UCC but as far as the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds are concerned, let her understand they are out of bounds to her office and for that matter, any board or individual in North America.
A much-respected JDCSI elder in the UK expressed her concerns as follows a few days ago: “We need to know what kind of help Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah needs other than money to make the church grow again in the true spirit of people like Bishop Kulendran, Rev. Selvaratnam, and Chinnannan Yesusahayam. Furthermore, any details of the legal rights and duties of this Church of the American Ceylon Mission should be made available to the Jaffna Public, and that with their relationship with the USA needs to be made known to those in politics.
“I say this as the unpopularity of the US globally since Iraq makes them seek friends and bases wherever possible. India is keen to keep their international waters free of US base. Is the choice of Batticaloa a planned move to encourage and offer the US support behind the backs of the Sri Lankan and Indian Governments?”
The Rev Jeyanesan, obviously at great expense even including chartering an aircraft to dazzle the vulnerable with a show of strength has gone all out to try and blast the very church where his forefathers have worshipped for generations. It is also the church that served the community for almost 200 years especially in the fields of health and education apart from its religious mission. The whole thing sounds sinister from the very name of the church.
Ceylon is the colonial version of Sri Lanka; for the Portuguese it was Ceilos, the Dutch called it Ceylan and the British, Ceylon. Probably Jeyanesan thinks that the Americans will be comfortable with Ceylon! It is possible the Church of the American Ceylon Mission could be a Trojan Horse for American interests and the man who betrayed the church because he could not get the bishopric will not hesitate to betray his country.
As for her visit to Nepal, Dr Rogers-Witte may be going for a holiday in that politically ravaged Himalayan country but there may be more to it since she has shown exceptional interests in supporting Jeyanesan in the eastern and northern theatres of Sri Lanka. She may be an agent, wittingly or unwittingly of US interests that may be looking for a Diego Garcia-type station for the US in the proximity of India. Otherwise, what kind of mission board will support a person who wants to break away from an established church just because he lost the bishopric race and worse, without handing over all the properties of the JDCSI and not having submitted the financial records for ten long years?
When India attained independence, some American interests under cover of missionary activities helped to arm tribal communities in the Himalayan regions against India especially in Nagaland. Even today there are people in this region who speak American English flawlessly. Indian writers Anita Joseph and Susan Mathai in a recent feature observed: “During the late 1950s the Nyogi Commission exposed the role of such volunteers in the area of Nagaland where they promoted violence against the state under cover as religious missionaries engaged in community services.”
In respect of India’s security, Nepal is a sensitive area and with the kind of unrest prevailing there, one wonders what Dr Cally Rogers-Witte wants to do there. It is, however, none of the business of this writer to cast aspersions on her, but the situation she has helped to generate in Sri Lanka forces this writer to reluctantly raise the alarm on her, hoping that it is a false one. May be it is coincidental too, but her Indian deputy in Cleveland, Ohio, Dr James Wijeyakumar is also in India at this time.
As for the Rev Jeyanesan’s failure to submit his financial statements and also to hand over all JDCSI assets, we have to remind him that a high flying and fabulously dollar-flushed evangelist who had such a powerful clout among his followers, the Rev James Orsen Bakker had to resign from his office because of a sex scandal. Later, subsequent revelations of accounting fraud brought about his imprisonment and led to a personal disaster. This had an utterly traumatic impact on thousands of his followers. Flying his supporters on a charter aircraft, holding rallies and events to dazzle his vulnerable followers even an ordination with visitors invited from India, and the Diocesan Council floor accusation against him by a fellow clergyman, points to a James Bakker operation style in whatever the Rev Jeyanesan is doing today. We cannot have this in Sri Lanka even if Dr Cally Rogers-Witte and people like her want to encourage it. Another JDCSI elder and a much respected gentleman from Down Under recently expressed his distress thus:
"News about our church is depressing. At a time when our people are undergoing severe hardships the church is expected to take the lead and guide them through. The situation is pathetic and disgraceful."
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