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| Sunday, 17 October 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Bishop Cyril Lakshman Wickremesinghe : Failure to solve National Problem by Sydney Knight
I was in Colombo that day for I was one of those, summoned by the good Bishop, to be "instructed" to help with the work of the diocese of Kurunegala, while he was recovering from a massive heart attack, at a Nursing Home in Colombo. Within a few hours of that typical Bishop Lakshman "pep talk" he was gone. I was thunderstruck. I remembered the late Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru's words to the world over All India Radio when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated: "The light has gone from us." For us Bishop Lakshman was the "light." If I am asked to name the one single human influence in my life, I will have no hesitation to name Bishop Lakshman as that influence. I first met Bishop Lakshman as the Secretary of the Trinity College Student Christian Movement in 1958. He had then moved to Peradeniya as the National Christian Council Peradeniya University Chaplain. Our Chaplain at Trinity, Fr. John Elliott, had invited the then Fr. Lakshman to do a Bible Study with us at Trinity. It was an after dinner meeting. Fr. Lakshman walked in with Fr. John. All of us in that room that night were highly captivated by this tall, fair, handsome, nice looking priest, in his well-ironed white cassock. He was the focus of all our eyes. After the formalities, he wanted a passage from the Bible read for the study and discussion. The response was absolute silence. Looking back I think we were all so centred on his presence that we were not even prepared to read!!! So he said "I am surprised, by the silence, anyway can we ask the Secretary of the T.C.K.S.C.M. to read." Thus began a twenty-five year old friendship, 1958-1983. Reflecting on his life, his work and words, twenty-one years after his untimely death, the pertinent question is, what has he left behind? His contribution is multi faceted. He has left his mark both in Church and in Society. A critical study of his legacy will make the student realize that what he was able to do could be traced to his home, education and worship. From this crucible emerged a well-rooted and grounded spirituality which he used for ministry and discipleship. I discovered this when I began the process of getting to know him. From Trinity I had moved to Peradeniya for my studies. As Chaplain he was more than a Chaplain. He became a friend. While living all alone in that spacious Chaplaincy he had enough room to make one of the rooms his private chapel. There he spent hours. He once said that he began the day looking at Jesus on the Cross and meditating on the absolute love of God for all creation and life. Sustained and nurtured by that kind of Spirituality, Bishop Lakshman lived and worked in Church and Society. A few months ago when, the present Vicar of Christ Church, Mutuwal, interviewed the late Edna Hall as a part of the preparation for Mutuwal's anniversary, Hall stated that the then Fr. Lakshman will always be remembered in Mutuwal. His concern for people, all people, which emerged from his prayer life, was great. Not only did Bishop Lakshman pray for people, but kept in touch with them. His last letter to me from Birmingham a few months before he died said, "I have lived long enough to see you grow as a priest." Bishop Lakshman recognised growth in others because he was one who was prepared to change and grow under God. For example at Peradeniya when he was Chaplain he had reservations when we, his students in the Chaplaincy, organised help, medical and English classes for the "workers" living in the vicinity of the Chaplaincy. This was because he thought that they were squatters on property acquired by the University. But when the 1970 Government took over the estates and places like Kandy were getting "flooded" with the workers from the Estates, Bishop Lakshman entered the scene to take care of them. I was one of those hand picked to visit them and take care of them in the Kandy area. To help these folk to earn a living, Bishop Lakshman began projects in plantation areas in his diocese, for example the basket-making project in Pussellawa etc. Bishop Lakshman's spirit of ecumenism went beyond churches getting together. It was this spiritual, ecumenical giant of our times, a first class in Political Science who lived and worked on the thinking that politics is the affairs of the polis, the city. His theology motivated him to enable the City of God entering the city of humanity. So Bishop Lakshman's formation in Fr. Basil Jeyawardene's then St. Paul's Kynsey Road, the influence of persons like, Canon Foster and Dr. R. L. Hayman at Gurutalawa during the war days and certainly Fr. Celestine Fernando when Bishop Lakshman was a student at the then University in Colombo. All this made Bishop Lakshman enter the affairs of Society in a very big way. Hence his bonds with the Christian Workers Fellowship, the Civil Rights Movement and Devasarana. His involvement in Society was such that in the 1977-1983 era the then President J. R. Jayewardene once asked at a public forum in Dompe, "why are Lakshman Wickremesinghe and Tissa Balasuriya so angry with us?" The CRM responded to the Jayewardene intervention. It was, however, the National Problem that became Bishop Lakshman's main concern till he died. Bishop Lakshman once told me that his brother Esmond had asked him to come back from Britain to participate in the post 1956 era in Ceylon. To this Bishop Lakshman responded creatively. At Peradeniya he organised studies and debates on the issue of the National Languages. Through the CRM and as Bishop in Kurunegala he was involved in our society fully. In his last Charge in Kurunegala in September 1983 he said "I am one of those who has tried and failed to solve our National Problem." This was his response to July 1983. |
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The month of October is with us once again. With it come anniversaries.
This October we keep the 21st anniversary of the death of Bishop Lakshman,
which occurred on Sunday, 23rd October 1983.
