Man has turned to religion to tide over every kind of difficulty since time immemorial. Whether it is being saved from the persecution of tyrants, or personal problems of a temporal nature, they have turned expectantly towards their religious authorities to provide succour.

With most of the country going through a liquidity crisis following the demonetisation of high value notes, the time was perhaps ripe for a spiritual / secular intervention.

In an unusual and remarkable development, a church in Kerala has come to the rescue of its parishioners hit hard by the demonetisation drive. It has opened up its offering box for small denomination currency to tide over the currency crunch.

When believers turned up for Holy Mass on Sunday morning at the St Martin Syro Malabar Church in Thevakkal in suburban Kochi, they were greeted with an announcement allowing them to take money from the offering boxes, to meet their daily needs.

“We allowed parishioners to collect the change from the Hundis on the assurance that they would deposit the amount as and when they received cash from the banks,” said Fr Jimmy Poochakatt, the parish priest.

He is confident the church will get the money back once the believers received sufficient funds from the banks.

Within minutes, the two offering boxes with small denomination currencies were emptied without touching the old ₹500 and ₹1,000 currencies. Most of the people are from the lower strata of society and currency demonetisation has hit them hard due to the shortage of small denomination currencies, he said.

The church’s gesture can be considered a reciprocal gesture, giving the donated money back to believers in an emergency to tide over the cash crunch. “I am sure that they will return the money soon,” the priest adds.

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