Sri Lanka's Jaffna parish gets new church after 30 years

( Feb.02,2010): In Sri Lanka, dreams of parishioners for a new church have finally come true after nearly three decades. St. Thomas Church in Point-Pedro, Jaffna diocese, was officially opened last Saturday (Jan.30) on the site that used to be a battleground in the civil war. “Faith, determination and great effort have paid off for the Tamil parishioners,” said Bishop Thomas Savundara-nayagam, who consecrated the building. “Now people have a new and spacious church in which, they can worship in coming years,” he added. The colourful ceremony was attended by a large number of priests and nuns and thousands of parishioners, many of them fisher folk.
The church in the harbour town has taken 27 years to complete. The new building can accommodate 3,000 worshippers. The foundation stone for the new church was laid in 1982 by Bishop Savundara-nayagam. Unfortunately, the following year, saw the intensifying of the Tamil rebels’ armed separatist struggle, which caused serious problems for the parish. Problems included finding construction workers due to the war, an economic embargo, bombings, gun boat attacks and curfew.. “Amid all difficulties the parishioners stayed united. They persevered despite having disasters, war, cyclones and the tsunami,” said parish priest Father John Xavier Bernard Regno.
According to church reports Jaffna diocese contributed 200,000 rupees (US$1,800) and initiated the fundraising for the church. Fishermen offered one day’s catch in every month to the church fund, and the Tamil Catholic Diaspora contributed heavily.