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One
of the major thrusts of the Provincial Congress 2003 of South West Province was
‘Formation for Mission’. The Vision Statement of the Provincial Congress states
thus: “We are convinced that our Formation Programme should be more mission
oriented in order to equip ourselves for the mission and ministry in line with
our charism”. The Action Plan states: “Establish an Institute with a mission
oriented theological for mation programme” (no.2/a). With this thrust the
Province decided to start the Mission Oriented Theological Formation Programme
with effect from the academic year 2005-2006. Tejas is the name of the
Institute for Mission Oriented Theological Formation Programme. Tejas is a
pioneering effort in the theological formation in India. This concept has
found support and elicited a lot of interest in many people from different
quarters in the church such as formators, professors, missionaries, lay people
etc. The Joint Meeting of the National CRI in 2003, held at Dharamaram College
Bangalore had its theme ‘Formation for Mission’ and called for a new methodology
in theological formation in the direction we envisage it now. We hope that the
new efforts we make in theological formation would become an inspiration for
many others to rethink the methodology of theological formation imparted today
in the church in India and that Tejas may become the pilot project triggering a
similar shift in the theological formation in other congregations and seminaries
in India. Tejas is a pioneering movement, a new way of theologizing, a new way
of looking at our faith and mission, a new way of being the Church. It has to
establish its credibility by the effectiveness of the programme it intends to
initiate. We envisage it as a venture of the MSFS and at the moment for the
South West Province. If other provinces desire to associate with this programame
we are open to admit them into the programme. In the case of non-MSFS to be
admitted
in the future, they would stay outside our campus.
Foundational Vision of Tejas
It
has been found that more direct focus is to be laid on mission
oriented theological formation in order to equip the confreres in priestly
formation to face the demands of the mission and ministries of the congregation.
While the entire Formation is to be mission-oriented, the theological formation assumes
greater importance and relevance to grow in mission. This calls for a
Paradigm-Shift in our Theological formation. The Mission Oriented Theological
Formation Programme that we have initiated is being implemented in view of
equipping our younger confreres taking into consideration the changing and
diverse missionary situations of the province as we have missions in India, in
the Philippines and in Africa. Tejas will uphold and is bound by the law and the
tradition of the church to teach everything the Church demands of priestly
formation. We are concerned about a new approach, a new way of equipping our
young confreres in Formation taking into account and working out concretely the
charism and missionary character of our congregation so that they would be able
to respond to the call of the mission. Mission of God is not something static
as if given to us once and for all and that we know for certain what we should
do and how we should do. Mission is revealed to us afresh, every day, and in
different situations. For Saint Francis de Sales every situation is revelatory
of God’s Will. Hence the need to prepare our young confreres in Formation to
recognize and accept the call of mission in every situation. Thus with
confidence, optimism they should be able to embark on the mission of God and be
challenged to give new answers to the new problems of the people in the service
of the mission today. This is the foundational desire and vision of Tejas.
The
Living Dynamics of Tejas
Academic input and Social Exposure programme would form the living dynamics of
Tejas. Demands of academic performance would be high while the students would be
progressively initiated into social exposures, involvement in the ministries of
the congregation and getting equipped for mission while in theological
formation. The study of local/mission language a nd
knowledge of the cultures of
the people would be compulsory. The students will be encouraged to earn their
living in the contexts of the various ministries in the campus. The students
are to be initiated into the various traditional and innovative ministries of
the congregation in accordance with our charism while they are in theology.
Utmost insistence is given and demands made
on academic pursuits. But the
students will be exposed to missionary situations and they will be challenged to
respond to them through concrete involvement in ministry. They would be guided
personally and in groups by competent formators and resource persons. The Focus
of the Programme is Contextual, Practical, Missiological and Inter-disciplinary.
It is an institution but not institutionalized, in the sense, theology is taught
and theologizing is initiated very much outside the closed doors of the class
rooms and in relation to concrete situations.
The
Academic Programme of Tejas
The
academic programme would be Inter-disciplinary. Hence we would be conducting the
classes and programme net-working with our other institutes in the province such
as Indian Institute of Spirituality, Pastoral Sociology Institute, Charis Bhavan,
 FidesIndia,
etc. We envisage close collaboration with the Faculty of St. Peter’s
Pontifical Institute of Theology, Bangalore.
We have designated competent confreres with the responsibility of initiating this programme. Dr.
Mathew Kozhuppakalam MSFS, the former Rector of Suvidya College, our
Philosophate and Vinayalaya, our Theology study house, is appointed Director of
Divya Tejas and Rector of Tejas. Dr. Jacob Parappally MSFS, the former Dean and
Professor of Theology in Jnana Deepa Vidyapeet in Pune and the current President
of Indian Theological Association, is the Dean of Tejas. Fr. Shibu Thundathil
MSFS and Fr. Anil Thondampallil MSFS, who hold Masters in Social Work are the
other two pioneering members on the staff. Dr. Antony Mookenthottam MSFS, who
is a well known Professor of Theology and Philosophy will be the special advisor
to this Programme.
Live-in Experience in Families
The
pre-inaugural academic programme was already initiated from 01 June 2005. The
students along with the staff and the Provincial had one day of prayer in
Ashirvanam, Bangalore. Then the students were sent for a Live-in experience in
families for one month. Those who were from Kerala were assigned families in
Karnataka and those from other areas were assigned Kerala for this programme.
They were sent to averag e families, Christian and non-Christian, and were guided
to be part of their life by sharing their life situation. It was an effort to
initiate the students into unfamiliar, missionary and contextual realities of
mission in Kerala and Karnataka. Such experiences would enable the students to
be at home to build up confidence and inner freedom to approach, to take on and
to be committed to any missionary situation in future, familiar or unfamiliar at
the outset. Tejas is not a regional theology centre. The focus is not on
regional theology rather on contextual theology as we have missions in different
contexts of life. Our efforts are to equip the students to discern and to
respond to the call of the Mission of God in a contextual perspective rather
than in a regional perspective.
Proposed Location of Tejas (Divya Tejas)
The
proposed location of Divya Tejas and Tejas is in Kengeri on the Bangalore-Mysore
Road. It is a stretch of twenty acres of land and the campus of Divya Tejas
would be created on it with Tejas as the pivotal institution here.
Inauguration of Tejas
Tejas
- the Institute for Mission oriented and Contextual Theological Formation was
inaugurated with the Eucharistic celebration presided over by the provincial on
03 July 2005. The full name of the Institute is Tejas Vidya Vihar. The
programme is provisionally begun in Sudhirvana, Carmelaram, Bangalore as the
necessary infrastructure in Kengeri, the proposed location of the Institute, is
yet to be ready.
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