Some Kind Of Church

It’s Thursday and we are planning to attend a team dinner tonight in downtown Chennai with a majority of the Quality and Engineering Team and the General Manager as well. My head cold is still hanging in there, so I know I’ll have to fight through this, but it should be OK and I know I’ll enjoy the fellowship.

Then, Jaya (Quality Manager) walks in and announces we leave at 04:00 because she really, really wants us to see some historic sites in Chennai before we leave. This is where I groan because I really don’t feel up to all that walking and doing and have dinner, too. But in total politeness, I ask what she has in mind.

Jaya replies “I want you to see some kind of church. I don’t know much about it, but it supposed to be famous in the Christian religion.” Now, I am always up for a beautiful cathedral, so we agree to go visit “some kind of church”.

We drive outside the Triangle for 1.5 hour into the city centre of Chennai and arrive at “some kind of church”.

Some Kind of Church, she says?

It’s only THE Some Kind of Church known as “Saint Thomas Basilica” where Thomas was entombed after traveling to India in 52 AD then was martyred in 72AD for spreading the Good News!!!!!

My jaw hit the floor! Yeah, I’d have to say it is some kind of church all right. The epitome of understatement.

A very beautiful church building. It is an active Church and while we there, they were conducting The Rosary (In Hindi), so there is this beautiful songlike chanting echoing off the walls all around us as we walked through this wonderful place.

(I did capture a great panoramic video of the interior where you can hear the Rosary Chant, but it is too big too load here.)

We move around back, remove our shoes, and enter the underground tomb where you can see a 6’ x 6’ spot of dirt covered in glass with an alter that was built above Thomas himself. The room is a small church itself with maybe 20 rows of pews and a few artifacts along the walls. A list of Popes and other church dignitaries who have visited is on display. Of course, you will forgive me for not having any pictures of this area as they are not allowed.

I did learn that there are only three churches in the world built on top of one of the twelve disciples … Peter at the Vatican, James in Spain, and Thomas here in Chennai.

Jaya asked me to explain some of this to her, and I did the best I could, but we did share a good chuckle as I pointed out that that the various paintings and frescoes depicting Thomas and other persons with blondish colored hair and light skinned European looking faces, was probably not very accurate as I think Thomas was more her skin tone since he was from the Middle East. She appreciated that recognition and did agree with me.

But such a beautiful place and other than a few tourists with cameras, there is no hint of commercialization, which was quite comforting to me.

And it just goes to show, that regardless of where you are, when someone says “Hey, let’s go visit Some Kind of Church”; you had better accept (ignoring any physical ailments) because you never know what kind of wonderful surprise you may discover!





The Ceiling with Wood Inlay