Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church

From OrthodoxWiki
Revision as of 23:03, April 26, 2008 by Wsk (talk | contribs) (link)
Jump to: navigation, search

The Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church is an autonomous jurisdiction of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch in India.

Coptic Orthodox Cross

Churches of the Oriental
Orthodox Communion

Autocephalous Churches
Armenia | Alexandria | Ethiopia | Antioch | India | Eritrea
Autonomous Churches
Armenia: Cilicia | Jerusalem | Constantinople
Antioch: Jacobite Indian


History

Malankara Orthodox Church or simply Indian Orthodox Church is the oldest Christian community in India. It is believed to have established by Apostle Thomas in his journey to Indian in 52 AD.

Indian Church had connection with the Catholicate of East ever since its establishment in 410 AD by then Patriarch of Antioch. Catholicate of East came under the Patriarchate as an autonomous body of Orthodox Christianity within the Patriarchate of Antioch.

A group of Orhtodox Christians viewed that this Catholicate is only a deputy of the Patriarchate of Antioch. Another view was that the Catholicate is independent in its fucntional area, but is part of the Patriarchate.

This two views, conflicted each other since the re-establishment of Catholicate in India in 1912 AD. But the two Groups united each other recognising the Patriarch as the Spiritual leader and the Catholicos as the Supreme leader in Indian Churches in 1958 AD ending all disputes.

When the church was united a group of old fraction supporting the Patriarch split again and establised a new Catholicate to compete with the United fraction of 1958. This newly split fraction under the leadership of present Catholicos His Beatitude Mor Baselius Thomas I, establised a new constitution for the church in 2002, following their loss in the verdict given by the apex court in India.

Many a times this dispute has led to law and order problems in many churches in India. But still now, the Malankara jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church is not seperate from the Indian branch of autonomous Orthodox church. Dialogues and discussions exists from various corners for unification.

Leadership

The first hierarch of the Church is the Catholicos of the East. The current Catholicos is His Beatitude Mor Baselius Thomas I.

External links