Staff Reporter
SEPPA, Feb 9: A proscription order issued by a religious organisation here, restricting its believers and leaders from taking part in the upcoming Nyokum Yullo celebration, has evoked condemnation from several quarters.
The East Kameng District Christian Revival Church Council in an order said it would be deemed ‘illicit’ for its believers, including its workers, church leaders, colony leaders, council leaders and wing leaders, to participate in the upcoming Nyokum Yullo celebration.
The violators would be excommunicated from the church for six months, the order read.
Reacting to the order, the East Kameng Social Welfare & Cultural Organisation (EKSWCO) in a statement condemned it, stating that the proscription order went against the ancestral festival Nyokum/Myokum Yullo.
“I expect our Christian organisations to be mature, kind and sensible towards the feelings of their fellow tribesmen. The very purpose of the churches should be reformation of the people’s behaviour by capitalizing on the believers’ abiding faith in god, and to unite people for peaceful coexistence,” EKSWCO chairman Dahey Sangno said.
“In Nyokum/Myokum, when no god is praised or genuflected, it does not tantamount to defilement of any scripture. Then why concoct an old tradition as a religion and seek to destroy it?” he said.
Citing Psalm 133:1 – “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” – Sangno appealed to the church to take back its controversial order “in the interest of communal harmony and the prestige of Christianity.”
