Indian tale of transformation opens Melbourne Anglican synod

From Australia-

An Indian woman who transformed herself from a middle-class Hindu to a Christian disciple to the slums of Delhi marked a departure from the traditional opening of Melbourne's Anglican diocesan synod at St Paul's Cathedral on 19 October.

Dr Kiran Martin -- who, in turn, transformed the lives of women who had no addresses into being land titleholders and of young people who had no schooling into university graduates -- was engaged in conversation with the chair of the diocesan Social Responsibilities Committee, Bishop Philip Huggins, in lieu of a sermon during the opening Eucharist of the four-day synod.

Dr Martin, the founder and Director of Asha Community Health and Development Society in Delhi and Visiting Fellow at The Nossal Institute for Global Health at Melbourne University, is on a two-week trip to Australia. In Melbourne, she has had meetings at the Nossal Institute, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, the Australia-India Institute, ANZ Bank and Victorian Governor Alex Chernov, as well as speaking to students at several Anglican schools.

She told of her conversion to Christianity when she was 18 and of her conversion to improving the lives of slum-dwellers when, as a paediatrician, she initially went to a slum to treat victims of a cholera outbreak in August 1988.

"It was not enough for me to see a patient because some patients would come to see me again and again," she said.

More here-

http://www.melbourne.anglican.com.au/NewsAndViews/Pages/Indian-tale-of-transformation-opens-Melbourne-Anglican-synod-000198.aspx