Five Decades After Faiths Come Together
With Bell Tolls in Srinagar (J & K) Church
There is a 120-year old church at Maulana Azad Road Srinagar Jammu & Kashmir, established by British in 1896. It was silent for for the last 50 years.
The British-era church lost its original bell 50 years ago in an arson attack. The bell was badly damaged in 1967 and rendered useless in the incident. The bell was not installed all these years because the community did not have enough resources to order a new bell after its damage. One of the roughly thirty christian families living in Srinagar donated the bell.
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| Image Courtesy : telegraphindia.com |
Member of tiny christian community of Srinagar assembled at the 120-year old catholic church on Sunday 29th October 2017 and celebrated the installation of the new bell, weighing 105 kg.
It was a rare occasion as representatives of different religions including Hindus and Muslims came together at Srinagar's
oldest Catholic Church to inaugurate the new bell, in a lesson on solidarity in the strife torn valley of Kashmir.
This inter-faith ceremony in which representatives of all major religions came together, reflected the traditional " composite culture" of Kashmir.
So as the new brass bell tolled resoundingly, the message is loud and clear that we are all one, no matter whatever faith , persuasion one has, but basically all are human beings.
