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Christianity
in Kerala was established in the year 52 AD by the Holy
Apostle of Christ, St. Thomas. The then instituted
Malankara Apostolic Church continues today as the true
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. It is East Syrian in
Origin due to it's association with the Persian Church
from the third to the Fifteenth Century. Later after a
brief period of Portuguese Latin occupation, it was
revived by the West Syrian Syriac Orthodox Church. However
the Church has always maintained it's autocephaly.
Due to its
continuous associations with West Asian Churches
throughout History, although meant to establish help
maintain sacraments and Liturgies in an heathen
Surrounding, often the Benefactor tried to impose it's
authority which was rightly challenged by the Church. But
this has splintered the Holy Church. Today it is the
second Largest Christian Denomination in Kerala having
suffered the loss of half the populace as the Syro-Malabar
Catholics (Portuguese Latin Catholic Conquerors), later to
the Protestant Anglican Reformists as the Marthoma Church.
Much
recently it was split vertically between legally warring
factions over the role of the Syriac Orthodox Prelate in
the managing of affairs in Malankara. This schism
continues to this day and the group which augurs to
maintain the independency of the Orthodox Church under the
aegis of the 'Catholicos of the East' is currently the
Malankara (Indian) Orthodox Syrian Church. The 'Catholicos
of the East' was an ecclesiastical title given to
the followers of St. Thomas by the Jerusalem Synod in 281
AD. The Catholicate was transplanted to Kerala in 1912
conforming the Apostolic succession of the Church from the
Holy Throne of St. Thomas.
The Other
Orthodox Faction (till recently known as the Patriarch
Faction of the Malankara Orthodox Church) chooses to
declare the 'Syriac Orthodox (Jacobite) Patriarch of
Antioch' based at Damascus in Syria as their head and a
local Catholicos (parallel to the autocephalous Orthodox
Catholicos of the East) as the local prelate. They have
split away with churches of their majority to form a new
Church Body known as the 'Malankara Jacobite Syrian
Church' with its head, a newly instituted Catholicos
(subject to the Antiochene Syriac Orthodox Patriarch)
owing adherence to a newly framed constitution in complete
violation of the 1934 Malankara Church constitution.
The Orthodox
'Catholicos of the East' also assumes the additional title
of 'Malankara Metropolitan' according to the outcome of
the Election of the 'Malankara Association', the body in
charge of such issues according to the 1934 constitution
of the undivided Malankara Church.
Many parishes
remain locked in legal wrangle, many others have shut down
whereas in many laity of both factions do co-exist due to
traditional family ties. The situation is beginning to
take an ugly turn recently by means of street
demonstrations and petty stone throwing incidents.
Please pray
for the unity of the Malankara Church and for peace
amongst both the factions.
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