A humble man of God

I came to know Ven. Weerasuriya way back in the late 80’s when he was the chairman of Church of Ceylon, Diocese of Colombo’s architectural committee. I was appointed to this committee during this time for my architectural expertise. Very soon I became close to him. I found him to be hardworking and committed to seeing projects undertaken to completion. Meetings were called at regular intervals and all the church projects, whether big or small had regular scheduled site visits. He would come with me, ask questions regarding the project to get first-hand details on its progress.

I still remember going to Puttalam, Chilaw, Balangoda and Rakwana on site visits in his Toyota station wagon, which he used to drive, accompanied by his loving wife.

As chairman of St Luke’s elders’ home in Buthgamuwa, Rajagiriya, he knew each resident by name and looked after their welfare diligently and with love. During his tenure, he built the infirmary.

I greatly admired his commitment, hard work, integrity and God fearing qualities. He was one of my role models. In fact, he gave the homily at my wedding service in 1994. I still remember his beautiful calligraphy type handwriting. After his retirement, my family used to visit him every year a few days after Christmas with our traditional Tamil sweetmeats. He and his wife welcomed us graciously. I remember the Christmas card I received from him last December, written by hand.

I was extremely sad to hear of his demise on March 25. I treasure the memories I have of him and thank God for giving us a priest of his calibre and commitment. May God give his soul eternal rest and comfort to his grieving family.