Year 2022 marks the 1950 years of Martyrdom of St. Thomas. Special celebrations are organized nationwide to celebrate the event.
July 3 is celebrated in India and worldwide as St. Thomas Day, commemorating the martyrdom of St. Thomas the Apostle in 72 AD near Chennai.
An ecumenical gathering of all Christian Churches in India declared July 3 as the Indian Christian Day in 2021. The purpose is to have an annual day of “remembrance and celebration of the person and message of Lord Jesus Christ in India”.
The vision of the movement is “to celebrate the person and message of Lord Jesus Christ that was brought to India in 52 AD by St. Thomas the Apostle, while preserving our identity within the Indian cultural heritage and promoting unity.”
The watchwords of the Indian Christian Day are: Love, Serve, Celebrate. It elaborates as Love the neighbour, Serve the society, Celebrate Jesus and Bless India.
The organizers of the Indian Christian Day (Yeshu Bhakti Divas) also declared 2021-2030 as “a Decade of Celebration to honour the 2000th anniversary of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ whose teaching and life principles have helped to shape and transform India and the world. “
The programs envisaged include festivities, cultural programs, community service, health and literacy camps, food and clothes drive, environmental cleanup and workshops. “As followers of the Lord Jesus, preserve our identity within the Indian cultural heritage, while uniting with all who wish to celebrate, irrespective of language, custom, creed, region or religion”.
Indian Christian Day / Yeshu Bhakti Divas is a People’s Movement without any legal entity or any formal mechanism for control, administration and fund-raising.
The entire vision of the Movement is of grass-roots volunteer effort, and grass-roots donations supporting grass-roots initiatives for the purpose of celebrating July the 3rd each year as ICD/ YBD by means of love, service to the poorest and most disadvantaged, and celebration. The Movement exists to encourage individuals and groups who share the vision.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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