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He was an Indian ecumenical advocate for Adivasi rights and economic and ecological justice.
Stanley launched his career in community development work in 1978 in Tamil Nadu with the Centre for Rural Health and Social Education. In 1980, he helped to establish and led the Integrated Rural Development of Weaker Sections in India with the aim of enabling the poor, especially Adivasis, Dalits and fisherfolk, to regain their rights over land and livelihoods. His development work helped communities to regenerate the forest in large areas.
Over decades, Stanley spearheaded numerous campaigns, from fighting corporate land-grabbing and the displacement of Indigenous communities to advancing calls for climate justice for vulnerable communities at the United Nations climate conferences. He played leading roles in the Orissa Development Action Forum, Indian Social Forum, and the Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change. For his outstanding work with the impoverished, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by the Academy for Church Administration in India.
Stanley served as the coordinator of the Division for Social Action of the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India from 1981 to 2007 and contributed in various capacities to the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the World Council of Churches.
Prof. Rev. Dr Jerry Pillay, WCC general secretary, said: “Stanley offered his time, research, and advocacy skills generously and wholeheartedly in various WCC working groups such as the WCC Ecological Debt Study Group as well as the WCC Alternative Globalisation Addressing People and Earth (AGAPE), and Poverty, Wealth, and Ecology Reference Groups. He joined the WCC Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in Colombia in 2018 and was a delegate at the WCC 11th Assembly of in Karlsruhe.”
More recently, he served as general secretary of Oikotree Global.
Dr Rogate Mshana, former WCC acting deputy general secretary and programme executive for Economic Justice said: “I met Stanley as a young activist for peace and justice in 1984 when he travelled to Tanzania for a social transformation programme promoted by the LWF. We were among the founders of the Jubilee South movement for the cancellation of third world foreign debt and engaged the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to stop devastating Structural Adjustment Programmes. He was a staunch supporter of Indigenous knowledge and brought church and other groups to Orissa to witness the struggle of the Adivasis to regain their land from mining corporations. The ecumenical family and my family will miss him very much.”
Athena Peralta, WCC programme executive for Economic and Ecological Justice said: “Stanley was an activist inside and out. He centred notions of development on the marginalized in our societies and was a trailblazer in pushing for the recognition of ecological debt. His abundant passion for justice, indomitable spirit, and contagious laughter inspired younger generations, including myself. While the ecumenical movement and broader civil society has lost a powerful voice that has consistently stood up for the down-trodden whether in India or in Palestine, Stanley’s legacy lives on and will be remembered by the grassroots communities and the global ecumenical movement he served faithfully and joyfully.”
Dinesh Suna, programme executive, WCC Ecumenical Water Network said, “ I knew Stanley and his wife (also a social worker) from my childhood days, as they worked with my church (Jeypore Evangelical Lutheran Church) back home in Koraput, Odisha. He is known as a committed and pioneer social worker and an activist in the operational areas of JELC. When I worked for the National Council of Churches in India in the early 2000, I had several opportunities to bring international students for a live in experience in IRDWSI villages. His untimely departure creates a void in Ecumenical Diakonia in my church / region, back home.