BANGALORE: HG Dr Abraham Mar Seraphim is the new President of the Orthodox Syrian Sunday School Association of the East (Outside Kerala Region-OKR).  This is as per the new Kalpana issued by His Holiness Moran Mar Baselios Marthoma Paulose II, Catholicos of the East, in February 2017.
Mar Seraphim who became the Metropolitan of Bengaluru Diocese since 2010, is enthusiastic about bringing about fresh changes to this important spiritual organization.
After the formal announcement, Mar Seraphim held a meeting for the first time at the OSSAE Central Office, Catholicate Aramana, Devalokam, to understand the activities of this important spiritual body.
His Grace feels that mainly ‘geographical distances’ are a main barrier in order to jointly coordinate the work among all the 7 outside Kerala dioceses.
It has been decided to hold the first executive and General Body meeting with the Sunday School executive members and others from September 15 to 17 at Nagpur Seminary. A clear picture of the future prospects will only come out after that.
In a recent interview, Mar Seraphim admits that OSSAE office at St Thomas Orthodox Theological Seminary (Nagpur Seminary), in Kalmeshwar, Nagpur, needs to have a good office system and a suitable office person who can help with its day-to-day functioning.
To begin with, the Metropolitan is trying to meet all OKR diocesan committees to elicit their concerns on how to go about it.
Presently 7 OKR Dioceses namely Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Delhi and Brahmavar will come under the preview of the Metropolitan.
Asked about revision of syllabus, Mar Seraphim says the present syllabus was revised last year.
With regard to a query regarding revision of syllabus, Mar Seraphim pointed out that the OKR as such cannot revise the syllabus, since it is done by the OSSAE in 2016. OKR representatives will be in the revision committee, His Grace added. – LC