Church Citizens’ Voice! An all-English Portal-CCV Why?
dr. james kottoor
Church Citizen’s Voice (CCV) is an all-English portal to unite people of Goodwill around the world. It is inspired by the radiant image of a beaming Jesus triumphant over his cross. That is life, crushing pain followed by comforting victory. No crown without cross, is the message. Life’s challenge is to: Bear the cross and win the crown.
CCV is not a one-man show but a team work of a triumvir if you please, to emphasis the central truth of human life: “United we stand, divided we fall”. Secret of success in life is not independence, but interdependence, sharing, caring and complementing, since no one is self-sufficient in today’s global village where no one is an island cut off from the rest of humanity. So take a look at CCV below that speaks through pictures and prose.
Office Bearers of Church
Citizens’ Voice (CCV)
15/06/2015, in www.almayasabdam.com; Contact: almayasabdam@gmail.com
By CCV Staff Writer
Editors of CCV
Dr James Kottoor
Editor-in-Chief
(jameskottoor@gmail.com)
Associate Editor
Joseph Mattappally
Associate Editor
Zach Nedunkanal
Church Citizens Voice (CCV), the all English Global website officially announced on 15/6/15 its team of workers: Dr.James Kottoor, Editor in Chief, and Sri Joseph Mattappally & Sri Zach Nedunkanal, associate editors.
Introducing CCV Editors & Global Team (CCCC)
Bowing Humbly to Readers
Introducing CCV Team Workers
Visit: www. almayasabdam.com · 18/06/2015
Church Citizens’ Voice (CCV) is not a single-person venture, but the result of a combined work for service, not profit, propelled by a vision for unity, fraternity, equality and liberty in an environment of total transparency called for by Jesus, Pope Francis and philosopher Voltaire.
A three-member team has been planning and working together for long. They launched the CCV project seven months ago without much ado, on Nov.6th 2014. There was always the belief, there still is, that anything started by Church Citizens (laity) without the active support and blessing of the clergy will never succeed. Team CCV instead believes that nothing started with divisive mentalities like, Clergy, Laity, Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, religious, agnostic, atheistic can never ever succeed for the simple reason: none of them has the substance of permanence due to internal feuds and competition for supremacy.
That may be why Pope Francis said: ‘My God is not a Catholic God.’ Only a humanely human and all embracing “Son of Man” vision of Jesus eloquently expressed also by Sri Narayana Guru: “One God, one religion, for one all-embracing humanity” alone can sail gloriously and peacefully above all man-made divisions. Recall here also Vayalar Rama Varma’s prophetic poem: “Man created religions and religions created Gods. Then humans, religions and Gods held the marathon conference and divided this gentle mother earth, divided the fertile minds of humans among themselves.”
These divisions should be wiped out of the face of the earth. With this conviction in mind the team worked silently and anonymously for the last seven months as a testing time to see how readers respond, that is, to see how many daily visitors (or ‘daily hits’ technically) the new website could attract. Of course CCV started very low, as low as 100, then it shot up to 200, 500 etc and to the organizers surprise daily hits touched 1350 on Nov.14th,2014 according to our technical expert, Sri Joseph Mattappally. That was a day of jubilation and James Kottoor announced it in one of his articles.
That was the time when the organizers decided to go public and finally announced the names in the Triumvir in CCV on 15-6-’15, as Zach, Jose and James, imitating distantly in their own way, the mysterious Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all equal but purposely reversing the order here, imitating Peter who got crucified head down and legs up to register his unworthiness to be like Jesus even in death. Thus team CCV also is registering its inability to grasp both the hierarchy and equality in a mysterious Godhead, but at the same time trying to stress and proclaim their equality in CCV team, even when one is called the Chief (or cheap) Editor and the other two as Associate editors.
However readers of CCV must now know who is who in the CCV. The first rung operators are the three already announced. Its second rung workers are the Contributors, Collaborators, Counselors and Correspondents (CCCC) around the world. We shall introduce them one by one as we go, for easy digestion.
So we now start with introducing one of our Associate Editors Sri Zach Nedunkanal. He is a person who hates to launch himself as a journalist or a writer on matters pertaining to Church renewal.
Still he goes on writing. Why? He does it, firstly because, at least his upbringing in his early youth was church related and therefore when some powerful idea about it germinates, grows and ripens he allows it to explode, that is, to get incarnated, like the Word made flesh.
Every honest Word conceived must be let out or be allowed to be borne. Suppressing it forcefully is equivalent to artificial termination of a pregnancy. Whenever he expressed himself thus, there was a loud applause and hearty reception, which alone prompts him to go on writing with double vigour. That is his version.
But the fact is he has had his higher studies in universities outside Kerala, including three years study in Sussex England, deepening his knowledge at the same time in English, German and French. Being linguistically versatile brought him in contact with many of the renowned and radical thinkers and writers of Europe like Hans Küng, Eugen Drewermann and philosophers like Nietzsche, Heidegger, sociologists like Eric Fromm etc.
He also kept notes on what he read and liked. As for his formal regular education in his youthful years, he says he profited practically nothing, except gaining elementary knowledge in maths and the two languages, English and Malayalam. Hence he sets no value at all on his formal education and hates to look at even his post graduate certificates in philosophy and sociology and hesitates to formulate a formal curriculum vitae.
He started his career in Mumbai as social worker and then as a trainee in Photo-typesetting at the firm SPADS at Worli, the very first firm in India to introduce computerized typesetting. He then moved to Canada and from there to Switzerland working for about 25 years in the field of Desk Top Publishing (DTP) and printing.
He dedicated his ample leisure time to avid reading and study of languages. Zach was borne on 28th January 1943 and lives at: Peringulam post, via Poonjar, Kottayam Dt. – 686582.Tel. 04822271922 / 9961544169, email: znperingulam@gmail.com. He is married with two children, both well employed in Switzerland.
What is important for Zach, as he is called by friends, is that he hates to promise big – A BIG ACHE DIN – and produce little. This interviewer also agrees with that view. So let us wait and see. We shall interview him after one or two years later. (Rest of the team to be slowly introduced)
Dated: June 25/15 Contact: jameskottoor@gmail.com, Mob:9446219202
Sri. Joseph Mattappally, Man of many Parts!
By CCV Staff Writer
A man of many parts, Sri Jose Mattappally is a hard nut to crack but a gentle person to deal with. He is too busy a person as he is the all-in-all, manager and administrator of two busy-bodies: first the “Church Citizen’s Voice”(CCV) www.almayasabdam.com, the all-English global website running strong; secondly and simultaneously an earlier one he has burdened himself with, the 11 year old “Indian Thoughts”, a secular website with spiritual content that reaches out to nearly 10,000 desktops each day around the globe.
No wonder why he has no time and too allergic to highlight his achievements or profile. Nay he hates to do it. Why? To shine in the glare of publicity, or “pea-cocking” as Pope Francis would describe “showy” bishops, simply is not his forte at all. It is for people who are too busy trying to look busy 24 hours but do little, he says. He doesn’t have to look busy, he is with too many things on hand.
It should be pointed out immediately here itself, that CCV actually grew out of the four year old bilingual (Malayalam-English) Almayasabdam, www.almayasabdam.blog.spot, to which he was very closely connected earlier But this blog is now under the direct control and management of the Kerala Catholic Reformation Movement (KCRM) even while Jose still continues to be one of its administrators.
So how to get a peep into his deceptive commoner façade hiding a treasure chest of talents galore and uncommon achievements and activities he is busy with? Even before hopping on to Indian Thoughts, he was the co-founder of Hamfest India. For his work in this field he was even honoured as the little Ham of the year in 1991, That means he was and is deeply intertwined with connecting people across all man-made borders and barriers through communication using radio or internet.
Reiky Master
In the midst of it all he also became a Reiki Master in 2001. That was because he happened to bump into Dr.Shamal Durey during his frequent trip to Mumbai to meet a college mate who guided him in Electronics. There he read books on Reiki and got enamored of it. Realizing that this was the philosophy he was searching for long, he attended Reiki Seminars under Shri. Rajiv Gaitonde of Reiki India Research Centre Mumbai of which the Chairperson was Dr. Shyamal Durvey.Through his regular visits to this Ashram in Bombay to study till 2002, he began “Individuality Development Workshops” on his own.
After six years of learning holistic techniques leading to healing he became a Reiki Master. The years he spent with Reiki made him introspect and change even his vision on the purpose of living. During those years he was instrumental in introducing Reiki in Kerala. In spite of the financial benefits it brought he became ill-at-ease with it and wanted to live in freedom doing individuality development classes. It was for this purpose he initiated the Indian Thoughts in 2004 which now is one among the most subscribed moral education online services in the world.
What is meant by subscribed members is that Indian Thoughts daily mails are not sent to any available address list but only to people who ask for it. Its contact email is: indianthoughts@indianthoughts.in and its website: www.indianthoughts.com. This is a “must read” for those who want to get an insight into its real worth. Subscription to it is done online through e-mail. It is free. This online arrangement allows everyone to choose their preferred writer or category or unsubscribe at will. The categories or topics treated from Monday to Saturday are: Health & Happiness, Realms of Value, Generation Z, Blooming Stars, Light a Lamp, Smart Plus, Life’s Lessons and many more. These are treated by eminent persons. Their names are available in the website.
Biggest Moral Educator?
Indian Thoughts is a free online moral education service going uninterrupted for the last 11 years, and now perhaps it is the biggest online moral education service in the world. This site now has for free browsing, more than 2000 moral lessons for copying and reading. Counting all the six categories it handles, Indian Thoughts has a subscriber strength of 9972 members to be precise, from all over the world. Indian Thoughts uphold a unique vision of spirituality beyond religions.
On its panel of contributors you can find an array of great names and thinkers like Swami Sachidananda Bharati (Founder of Dharma bharati Mission), Justice PK Shamsuddin, Dr. K S Radhakrishnan (former vice chancellor to Sanskrit University and present Chairman of Kerala PSC), Fr Joe Eruppakkatt (former Gen. Manager of St Paul’s Publications Mumbai, Dr Sunil Garg, Delhi, Shri Rakesh Mital IAS (Lucknow) and more Though the writers touch different topics they all give an insight into what Indian sages said and how they thought.
But how did it all get started is like unraveling a riddle. Reading hundreds of discourses and books that came out during the late 20th century, Sri Jose, was driven by an unstoppable urge to share those powerful ideas with the outer world. So he began compiling a list of acquaintances and started mailing thought-provoking morals and anecdotes limited to one or two paras. After one year it was christened in 2004 as Indian Thoughts using it as a banner in gmail. He really wanted it to make it a powerful website to store all stories and inspiring thought bits, precisely for the purpose of sharing them with an unlimited number of people around the world. For he knew that the 21st century was going to be of netizens and one has to switch over to instant on line communication to influence and change people for the better.
How it all Started
Did he do all these as a one man battalion? Not at all. God provided on the mountain top and help came from unexpected quarters. One small instance! During those days of search to share, accidently or providentially a youngster in the teens in the family circle found time to share with him frequently looking up him as his mentor and guide. On his part he was giving him spiritual and moral lessons. Seeing this youngster’s keen interest in web techniques and his dream to become a computer expert, Jose paid for a server space and asked him to manage Indian Thoughts. Surprisingly he did it well with his IT study and engineering background.
This was the beginning of two great establishments , Indian Thoughts and Webandcrafts This boy learned the nuances of intention setting and risk handling. Inspite of his being a dyslexia patient, now he runs a fast growing software company in Infopark, Koratty. In 2013, he was selected by a consortium of Indian IIMs as one among the most successful 30 entrepreneurs in India. In 2014, his commendable growth with limited resources was appreciated by US Secretary of Commerce. Jose says, he owes this company too much because it is this youngster who continues to sponsor CCV and Indian Thoughts.
Make CCV World Class
All these details give an insight into the resources Jose brings along to run the CCV efficiently. His current aim is to make the CCV a world class Global portal for the benefit of those who are ready to grow to the status of a world citizen and have something constructive to contribute for building a world community that promotes peace, fraternity, liberty and unity that overcomes all divisions based on class, caste, creed, community and country to overcome and end all sorts of divisions and infighting in the world today.
Sri Jose was born and brought up in an average agricultural Catholic family at Elamgulam (Kanjirappally), did his higher studies in Kuriakose Elias College Mannanam and St. Thomas College Pala from where I completed his post graduate studies in Eng. Lit. Jose is married with four children – one boy and three girls — all are married and settled. His only son is in Ahmedabad where he thinks he is destined to spend his old age. As for now, his whole time is spent on two things: Church citizens’ Voice and Indian Thoughs. His email is: jmattappally@gmail.com, and Mob. 9495875338. “You are most welcome, your servant at this end to share and learn”, says Jose.
He does most of the display work and postings helped by Sri.Zach. So he is the one to be contacted for posting your articles and comments, with copy to Zac and James as the triumvir of editors should kept in the know of everything happening in CCV.
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+++++++++++++++++++++ Readers’ Reactions:
1 Joseph Mattam <joemattam@jesuits.net> That is a great initiative; you and your team have all my support, encouragement and blessings, carry on the great work. I wish you and your team all success; make your voice heard in the Church. God bless you all. Of the many articles I have, you can print whatever you like. All the best. Joe
Very glad to be informed of Mr. Zach, his background and achievements. Assuring co-operation, John 3. C.Amirtha Raj Yes. It is a good move. Thinai, Nagercoil.
4. Virginia Saldanha <womynvs@gmail.com> Your aims of CCV is good. However in order to draw in women thinkers who are feminists I request you to please use inclusive language. If you do not, it will only drive a wedge between CCV and women. For example : "no man is an island" you can write "No one is an island". Secondly you may not have a one man show, but it definitely is a three man show! Can we see at least one woman on your team? If you want to present a face of the Laity it should be an inclusive face where both women and men play an equal role and are represented equally as well. Virginia
5. Jose Mullappallil, joemcitywide@gmail.com Hi Mr. Kottoor Thanks for the great message which might help to open the eyes of many. I have been reading all your articles. all are good. Hope and pray that you get lots of energy and time to write more.jose , Chicago.
6. Jose Kalliduckil, jose.kalliduckil@gmail.com Hi James We are all really proud of you for everything you are doing to keep our movement alive. I am confident that in the years to come we will be a force to be reckoned with and respected. Even though some of us are not rising up to your expectations, rest assured that we are all solidly behind you and this movement. Regards, Jose, Chicago.
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Dear dr. james kottoor,
Reading about the new venture. I wish you and the team an abundance of blessings..Church-related journalism isn't easy…@contents, readership, response from readers etc. But the experience and the experience "the Trinity" you speak of will bear fruit, I am sure.Affection.Bernard, NY.
