Kobia, Graham Lotz to Speak at Largest Christian Gathering in Asia

By Jennifer Riley, Christian Post Reporter Monday, February 12, 2007

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia and Anne Graham Lotz are among the prominent Christian speakers to be featured at the largest Christian gathering in Asia this week.

The 112th Maramon Convention – which is taking place Feb. 11-18 at Maramon, Kerala, India – is expected to draw some 200,000 Christians throughout the country and from other continents for the weeklong event.

Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, will be the chief guest and one of the main speakers at the Maramon Convention. He will inaugurate the Platinum Jubilee (75th anniversary) of the Mar Thoma Youth Association on Feb. 17.

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Ann Graham Lotz, founder of AnGeL Ministries and daughter of world renowned evangelist Billy Graham, is included on the list of prominent Christian speakers at this year’s convention.

The annual convention is organized by the Mar Thoma Evangelical Association – the mission arm of WCC’s member church Mar Thoma Church. The ecumenical gathering brings together Indian believers from a variety of churches in February each year to study the Word of God and listen to Christian leaders from India and abroad preach and teach the Bible. Singing hymns and praying for the sick are also important activities at the annual gathering.

Christianity is India’s third largest religion with a Christian population of 24 million people – 2.3 percent of the country’s population. The two main regional concentrations of Christian population are in Kerala, South India, and in North-East Indian states.

Kobia’s weeklong schedule in southern India will include meetings with the executive committee of the church of South India and the Holy Episcopal Synod of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.

WCC member churches in India are: the Church of South India (CSI), the Church of North India (CNI), the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, the Methodist Church in India, and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India.