Christmas in the Universities…

December 29th, 2015 by yohan abeynaike

December is a special time in the Universities in Sri Lanka with many students coming together to celebrate Christmas and the end of the year. This is also the most favourable time for the Catholic and Christian groups within the universities to publicly share their faith. The Catholic group which is the largest of the 2 groups usually organizes a carol service while the FOCUS affiliated Christian students join with them to witness to Christ’s love through singing, drama and acts of love. Below is a snapshot of some of the activities held this year.

Moratuwa University Appreciation Event
The Christian students at Moratuwa showed their gratitude to members of the service staff at the university as their Christmas event. They went as a group of students to informally meet service staff around the university, giving them thank you notes, and a piece of cake. They met with fifty members of the service staff in total, and spent time talking to them, learning about their stories and their struggles. Many of them were really happy to have been appreciated in this way.

Peradeniya Chapel Carol Service
The Peradeniya Chapel Carol Serice was completely organised by members of the Pera DC. The service consisted of a drama, carols and a message. Around 80 students, including several non-Christian students and staff participated in this event. The event also helped build the fellowship: new freshers were identified, and organising the programme brought a new leadership team to the forefront at the Pera DC. More than that, the end of the programme saw students joining together to have conversations on how to understand serious issues from a Christian perspective till 4AM! We are grateful for what God has done through this event.

Peradeniya University Medical Faculty Christmas Festival
The Peradeniya Medical Faculty held a Christmas Festival titled “Joy to the World” on the 17th of December with over 400 people attending. Those present included academic staff, non-academic staff, and the families of non-academic staff. The trilingual program was organised jointly by members of the Pera DC and the Catholic union and did not meet with the strong opposition that it faced last year. In fact, the new Dean was extremely supportive, and asked the student union of the faculty to lend their support. It featured a Kandyan worship dance in praise of God as well as stage décor done by the Buddhist Brotherhood!

University of Jaffna Christmas Program
The JUSCF jointly organised a carol service with the Catholic student union of the University of Jaffna on the 9th of December. Over 350 people attended including students, academic staff and non-academic staff. The members of the JUSCF had prepared a drama for the service called “In Search of Light”. It was about how we search for “light” in all the wrong places and pointing to God as the source of true light. The process of coming together to work for the service and practice for the drama brought the students of JUSCF closer together and helped to integrate the Sinhala students into the fellowship as they took part even though the drama was in Tamil.

Other Christmas events
Christian students of the University of Sabaragamuwa went around carolling for Christmas joining with the Catholic union. They visited the University hostels and other important places close to their university singing carols to those around. Meanwhile students of the Eastern University also had a Christmas program with the Catholic union on the 30th of November. The Christian medical students at the South Asia Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) had a Christmas event on the 17th of December. The well-planned event was organised enthusiastically by the students, and a Catholic priest came to deliver the message. Dr. Neville Perera shared his experience of faith at the program as well. Students there had fasted for one day, and intend to give the money they had saved to charity.

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