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Home My WebLink AboutTimes-Advocate, 1985-03-06, Page 16Page 4A Times -Advocate, March 6, 1985 Priest from India speaks at World Day of Zurich's choice of Father Murray Abraham S.J. as speaker for the in- terdenominational World Day of Prayer service held in Zurich United Church Thursday was most ap- propriate. This year's program was written by a group of women in India, the country the Jesuit priest has-call- ed ascall- ed home since 1948. In 1959 Abraham, a native of Cape Breton, was appointed principal of St. Alphonsus School in the Darjeeling district of Bengal. (The school, found- ed at Kurseony by the Jesuits in 1888. sits under the shadow of Kanchen- junga, the third-largest mountain the the world, in the Himalayans 40 miles from Tibet. I Two years later Abraham travell- ed across Canada asking for support to improve conditions for the 450 students housed in a dangerously dilapidated buildling. He persuaded 1,200 families to give up Fridasy night dessert and provide funds to begin construction of a new building. For the next 10 years the St. Alphonsus School's students and staff worked an hour each day, con- tributing in labour one-eighth of the cost of a modern building complete with large library, tabs, drama hall, gym, and playing field cut out of the side of the mountain. In 1963 Brucefield farmer Malcolm Davdison began corresponding with Father Abraham, after reading a moving poem, Pacem in Terris, writ- ten by the priest and published in the Globe and Mail. The two met five years later. when Abraham was on one of his periodic speaking and fund- raising tours in Canada. Through the letters, Davidson learned that Abraham had started a poultry operation on the .roof of the school, and was thinking of adding other agricultural programs as sources of income. The following year Davidson spent six weeks at the school to see if his practical expertise in hogs and corn could be of use. Father Abraham had been given a e subscription to a pork producers' magazine, and ruefully admitted that though Jesuits are supposed to be highly educated, he couldn't under- stand 75 percent of the magazine's specialized content. On -returning home, Davidson drew up a feasibility study which was given the unqualified approval of Canadian Executive Service Overseas. He and his family were preparing to pack up and move to India for a two-year stay under the auspices of CESO when Davidson was killed in a tragic accident. After Davidson's death, Abraham became personally involved in the agricultural project. '['oday the school has 1,450 students, and work is a vital cart of t e u - ricu um . en percent o e stu r en s pay for their own education. Of the re- mainder. 35 percent receive stipends from the tea plantations where members of their families are employed. 35 percent receive govern- ment assistance and the remaining 20 percent are in the schoors work - scholarship program. Each morning work -scholarship children spend one hour before school and another after classes caring for an 8.0(10 -bird flock of Shaver hens (a breed developed by a Cambridge farmer 1. an 18 -sow farrow to finish operation. a dairy herd of 16 Holstein - .Jerseys. or working in terraced fields no wider than an American car, grow- ing corn and vegetables on the mountainside. Work becomes education. The children automatically learn math and science as they study animal nutrition, give injections. or calculate the p11 level of soil. One parent from each family in the work -scholarship program is employed at the Sl. Aphonsus social and agricultural centre (SASAC) which has evolved from the program. ( it her outgrowths are an adult educa- lion program in reading. nutrition and home medicine for 160 women. and a school -supply employment depart- ment where poor. handicapped mothers operate a feeding program for the poor and make school uniforms. school bags. and clothing for needy children in the school and for destitute families. In the headstart program, 150 of the poorest five -year-olds from the Kur- seong slums and surrounding villages are trained by Montessori methods to bring them up to the level of the other children by the time they begin regular classes. The program was set -up by an 80 -year-old teacher Abraham met while speaking in B.C. She had been a pupil of education pioneer Dr. Maria Montessori, whose Montessori system was originally designed for the poor. Headquarters of the SASAC is a villa once owned by the Jesuits, where Abraham lives with an extended family of 86. The core group is 60 young people who have come through the work-scholarhsip program at St. Alphonsus. They are continuing their education while working, living and learning at SASAC. Besides their studies, they spend three hours daily producing and marketing meat and eggs from the 8,000 layers and a broiler flock. Other members of the SASAC family are widows and their children, a refugee family, a homeless old man and a few others. The project has gained widespread attention. Abraham has been inter- viewe(1 by Roy Bonisteel on Man Alive. He and the St. Alphosus social and agricultural centre have been the topic of an article in the Readers Digest, and a CBC program aired in December. As many graduates of the school marry and join the community, numbers are outstripping available land and facilities. When Abraham returns to Kurseong, he will oversee the division of SASAC; a portion of its members will pioneer a new com- munity resource centre further up the mountain. At present Abraham and two young people from SASAC are in Canada to thank their supporters, and en- courage them to continue. Their hostess in this area is Jane Davidson, Malcolm's widow. Jane finally went to India in 1972 to see what life would have been like if her husband had lived. She stayed for a year, working with the poultry, teaching needlework and English, and becoming part of the communi- ty. She has been drawn back almost yearly, often as head of a tour to the St. Alphonsus community. She acts as personal contact and public relations person in central Canada for SASAC. On World Day of Prayer, Jane spoke in Bayfield and Abraham in Zurich. Abraham outlined the growth of SASAC to a rapt audience, relating it to the Day's topic, Peace and Action Through Prayer. He emphasized his belief that prayer is action. He said when we who are part of une of the most wealthy - and wasteful - elites the world has even known, fervently pray for those in the Third World, we don't turn away from distressing pic- tures, but put ourselves in the place of the mother holding her starving baby, or the homeless refugee, or the unemployed father coming home emptyhanded to a hungry family. Then we do something to help. Abraham espouses the way of Prayer peace, rather.than violence, to bring about changes. In an article on prayer, he wrote: "The only hope for radical changes without hate is a revolution of the Spirit. And the medium of this revolution is prayer. For prayer does violence where violence is most needed, in the only place where violence can both kill and cure. Prayer gets at and destroys the root of injustice, the core of evil. The selfish human heart ZURICH SERVICE - Taking part in World Day of Prayer; held this year in Zurich United Church were (back left) Beatrice Rader, UC; Elizabeth Grainger, UC; Mary Lou Denomme, St. Peter's; Mari Steckle, Zurich Mennonite; Eileen Consitt, UC; Birdie Finkbeiner, UC; Ina Neeb, UC; Theresa Bedard, St. Boniface and (front) Mary Ducharme, St. Peter's, Helen Gingerich, Zurich Mennonite; UCW president Flo Mur- ray; guest speaker Father Murray Abraham; Cecilia Farwell, St. Boniface and Donna Klapp, Lutheran Church, Zurich. SUPER SPECIAL DR FROM ORM 'A' 11117 BLADE (\� O� FRESH OR SNORT w PORK ROASTS SIDE SPARERIBS 3.92/ks SLADE BONE REMOVED • SUPER SPECIAL CUT FROM MME 'A' BEEF BONELESS 3.26/kg -ib. _ • SUPER SPECIAL FRESH BONELESS VISITORS .FROM INDIA - Father Murray Abraham brought two young people Sudhir and Cecilia, from the St. Alphonsus Social and Agricultural Centre in West Bengal with him on a cur- rent speaking tour in Canada. 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