Revd Isaias Chachine, Bishop Garth Minott, and Revd Vimal Tirimana CSsR, members of ARCIC III, at the dialogue meeting in Larnaca, Cyprus. Photo credit: Neil Vigers ~ 11 May 2023

Series: Vimal Tirimanna

Rev. Vimal Tirimanna, C.S.s.R., is a Redemptorist priest and a professor of moral theology at the National Seminary of Our Lady of Lanka, Kandy, Sri Lanka, and the Pontifical Alphonsian Academy in Rome. He has served as a member of the Office of Theological Concerns for the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) from 1996 to 2012, and as its Executive Secretary from 2002 to 2012. In 2021, he was appointed to the theological commission for the Synod on Synodality, and in 2023 he was appointed as a non-episcopal voting member of the same Synod.

Ecumenism is a sustained theme in Tirimanna’s academic and public work. He has presented on historical causes of division and on the theological and pastoral opportunities for dialogue. In public interviews and webinars, he has commented on contemporary ecclesial processes — most recently on the synod — arguing that recent reforms represent irreversible momentum for change (“Things will never be reversed again. It’s a giant step, not a small step.”). In other settings, he has emphasised theological humility about diversity (“Reality is diverse; God has made it that way.”). These short statements capture two recurring emphases in his work: the need for structural openness in the church and a theological acceptance of plural realities in Christian life.