A SHORT WALK TO A LONG JOURNEY

A SHORT WALK TO A LONG JOURNEY
With several hours to catch up on our sleep before attending Thursday night’s Church of South India convention as guest of the bishop, Bill, Larry and me (Joe) crawled out of bed at about 10 a.m. Karela time.
They are staying at the home of John Matthew and his wife, Annie, an active member of the local Anglican church. Annie greeted the three Oregonians with an Indian breakfast, featuring Masala Dosas (potato, coconut and spices wrapped in rice bread) and bananas grown on the trees outside their front door.
After breakfast, John Matthew took Bill, Larry and me on walk past the small forest of rubber trees near his property. We wound up at the front door of a seminary up the road. Francis, a young man in his seventh year of study to become a Roman Catholic priest at the cloisters community (three years philosophy, four years theology) gave us an hour long tour. About 260 young men attend the seminary. Francis graciously welcomed us into the seminary’s most public places -- its library and inspiring, icon-kissed chapel -- and some of its most private, including the a meditation room where only the choir of birds singing from the rubber trees breaks the quiet contemplation of students.