St Peter’s Jacobite Simhasana church

elevated as cathedral
Thursday February 15 2007 09:08 IST

T’PURAM: The St Peter’s Jacobite Simhasana Church was on Wednesday elevated to the status of cathedral. A letter from the Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Zakka I Iwas promoting the church as cathedral was read out during the ‘Moonnimmel kurbana’ at the church by Mathews Mor Theodosius Metropolitan.

“Considering the importance of our Church to the Holy Church in general as well as its position as our main Church in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of the state of Kerala, we are pleased to accept the recommendation of our beloved Brother in Christ, his beatitude Catholicos Baselios Thomas I, and I hereby declare our St Peter’s Jacobite Simhasana Church there as a cathedral,” read the Patriarch’s letter.

From now on the church, established in the 1970s, will be known as the St Peter’s Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Cathedral, the church officials said.

The Jacobite faction of the Malankara Church now has a cathedral and another church in Thiruvananthapuram.

The Catholicos Baselios Thomas I led the ‘Moonnimmel kurbana,’ assisted by Metropolitans Mathews Mor Theodosios and Elias Mor Athanasius.

London Archbishop Mor Severios Thoma represented the Damascus-based Patriarch Ignatius on the occasion.

The two-day silver jubilee celebrations of the church also came to an end on Wednesday.