Church of The Epiphany Annual Convention-2019

The Annual three-day Spiritual Convention of the Church of the Epiphany, Gurgaon took place from the 16^th of August to the 18^th of August 2019. The theme this time was, “Walk with Jesus” and the speaker was Revd. Dr John Jaswant.

A gist of what we learned during the three-day convention from the speaker was that Walking with Jesus might not be an easy task especially for those who are not able to be consistent in their prayers. Walking with Jesus has a lot to do with prayer and to walk with Jesus one needs to know how to pray. According to the speaker, Dr John, it all depends on the kind of relationship one has with Jesus. For a prayer to be effective one needs to understand what kind of a relationship one should have with Jesus. It is a relationship that exists between a father and his son or daughter.

Dr John Jaswant likened an effective prayer to a Superhighway to God. To be on this Superhighway, one would have to ensure that in order to pray effectively one should pray with a clean heart, not an unclean one. A clean heart is often reflected in the visage. The speaker went on to state that an effective prayer pre-supposes that the supplicant is fully devoted to the Lord.

The speaker talked about three kinds of prayer that play an important role in the Spiritual life of a Christian and they include a Morning prayer that provides us with freshness to face the day with, an Evening prayer and a whole-night prayer. Dr John Jaswant impressed upon the gathering how Prayer is like a Royal Telephone that works without a SIM and helps the supplicant to speak to God. This, according to him is a two-way communication in which God responds in his own ways.

Dr John also spoke about the importance of developing a sound prayer life. To do so it is important to be in the spirit of prayer, to persevere, be steadfast and earnest in prayer. In all these instances, the speaker supported his observations with numerous references from the Holy Writ.

The Speaker also talked at length about the importance and meaning of the Holy Communion. He spoke about how important it is for a partaking of the Communion one should be transformed. But then for the Holy Communion to really have its impact one should have undergone through a process of spiritual cleansing. Dr John talked about the need to examine one’s self, ensuring that one was clean while speaking with others-ensuring that one’s blessings were not mixes with curses; to beware of the potent tongue that boasts and kindles fire. He stressed that if the lips honour the Lord, then the heart also needs to be with the Lord, not away from him. The eyes need cleansing for eyes that spew anger would render the partaking of the Holy Communion ineffective. The need to clear one’s ears of all that prevents the supplicant from hearing the Lords voice is equally important. Having metaphorically clean hands, hands that have not committed wrong, feet that have not gone the wrong way is required as a preparation for the Holy feast.

We were also graced by the presence of Revd. Sunil Ghazan on the third day of the convention which was also part of the Sunday Mass. The Choirs (both Hindi and English) created the right tone and atmosphere for the convention.

A few snaps of the Convention are posted below:

The three-day Annual Spiritual Convention of the Church of Epiphany, Gurgaon was held under the guidance of the Presbyter In-Charge, Revd. Daman Rodgers.