The Orthodox Christians of India
The gift of Christ’s love reached the shores of India in 20 years of His death. The reality of His redemption has, eversince, inspired and guided the small community of early Christians in Southwest India, what is now Kerela. Remaining rooted in the positive aspects of indigenous culture, they have constantly tried to live by the original apostolic faith, revisiting reform or revision true to the spirit of the concept, Orthodox, which means The right Glorification of God.The unbroken continuity of this living tradition of nearly 2000 years can be traced to where it began. Appearing to the 11 disciples, gathered in Galilee, the Risen Christ said: Go out to the whole world, proclaim the gospel to all creation.(Mark 16:15) Thomas,for his part, took the eastern route, past the Roman empire, traveling by land, river and sea, across the continent of Asia. He preached the gospel in west and central Asia, In the Indo-Parthian kingdom in the northwest of India, beyond the coast of peninsular India and in China, before returning to India, to die a martyr near Chennai, in A.D 72.
St
Thomas Christians in Asia
Among all the churches founded by St Thomas,
in the course of his epic journey, the Church of the
East, in the Persian empire, concentrated in the Iraq
of today, spread, despite periodic persecution to be
the largest church outside the Roman empire, with an
extensive missionary wing. By the seventh century, it
suffered a split consequent on Christological controversies.
Under the Arab rule, there came to be two churches;
The Patriarch of the East at Seleucia, and thereafter
Baghdad; and the Catholics of the East at Tagrit, established
under Antiochean inspiration. But the assault of the
Mongols (1263)and by Timur (1394) led to a steady decline
and near extinction of both under Islamic rule. Today,
there is a scattered minority of orthodox Christians
in Iraq. Linked to the Syrian orthodox church who venerate
St Thomas as their Patron Saint. Not much is known about
the church in China founded by St Thomas, except that
Parsian records of the seventh mention the metropolitan
of China. The presence of Parsi missionaries around
635 is seen from the Sin-Gnam-Fu Monument in Shensi
provice of middle China. Christian communities, linked
to the(Persian) Church of the east, are known to have
existed in the North and west of India, until the Islamic
conquest. Significantly, the archeological museum in
Taxila records the visit of St Thomas to the town in
AD 40; it was the capital of Parthian king, Gondoforus,
as well as the ancient Buddhist learning centre, Takshashila,
of Ashoka’s time. Compared to the outer churches
founded by St Thomas, the one that established soon
after he arrived at the port of Kodungallur in A.D 52,
has had exceptional continuity escaping the fate of
persecution or annihilation, which the other churches
faced through their life. The worst that the Indian
church suffered, and that too in recent centuries, was
the repeated depletion, on the exertions of rather aggressive
western colonial missionaries. Traditionally known as
The Malankara Church, it has remained active and vibrant
to this day, in the peace and traditional socio-cultural
harmony of Kerela
The
Early Church In India
Until the 16th century when the Portuguese, followed
by the British, came to India with ambitions of religious
as well as colonial expansion, there was only one undivided
church in India, mainly in Kerela. It grew out of the
original 7 churches raised by St Thomas in Kerela. These
were located at Maliankara, Palayur,north Paravur, Gokamangalam,
Niranam, Chayal and Kollam. Of the same pattern adopted
by the other Apostels, each local church was self-administered
,guided by a group of presbyters and presided over by
an elder priest and bishop. The early church in India
remained at peace, treasuring the same ethnic and cultural
characteristics of the local community. Its members
enjoyed the goodwill of the other religious communities
as well as the political support of the Hindu rulers.
The Thomas Christians welcomed missionaries and migrants
from west Asian churches, some of whom sought to escape
persecution in their own countries. The language of
worship in the early centuries must have been the local
language mingled with east Syriac, received through
the church of the east, in the context outlined below.
Its history is happily intertwined, with that of the
smaller Indian Church
The
Church Of The East
At the beginning of the Christian Era, the Roman
empire and the Persian empire were traditional enemies.
Major Christian centers like Rome and Constantinopole,
Alexandria and Antioch were in the Roman Empire. The
church in the Persian Empire was known as The Church
of The East, loosely referred as the Persian Church.
The liturgical language of The Church of The East was
East Syric, as distinct from West Syric used by the
Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch. Both these variants
are derived from Aramaic, the language of the time of
the Christ. After establishing a missionary base in
Edessa, St Thomas, with the help of disciples like St
Addai, St Haggai and St Mari, evangelised Persia, Mesopotamia,
media, Assyria, Parthia, Kurdistan, Babylonia, and other
parts of West and central Asiia.By the end of the second
century, these churches were on a firm footing ( given
the non-interference of the Parthian emperors).
The
Catholicos of the East (Seleucia)
By A.D 226, when the Persians were back in power,
several bishoprics had come up in the region. To coordinate
them and to check the likely interference by churches
in the Roman Empire, especially neighbouring Antioch,
the metropolitan at the capital of the Empire-the twin
cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon on either side of the
river Tigris-assumed the little of the Catholics of
the East.Surviving prolonged persecution in the fourth
century, the church grew. A Synod of this Church in
A.D 410 affirmed the faith of the Council of Nicea(of
AD 325) and formally acknowledged the Metropolitan of
Seleucia- Ctesiphon as the Catholicos. In A.D 424, a
Synod of the Church found it necessary to reaffirm its
full autonomy and gave the Catholicos the title of the
Patriarch of the East, subject to none, but God.
Persian
Links
With India During these centuries,the relations
between the Indian Church and the Church of the East
was friendly and functional; they belonged together.
Prayers and songs and other religious literature reached
India, through the Persian route, translated from Greek
and other Western languages. East Syriac mingled with
the local liturgical language. During 415-420, a Metropolitan
was appointed for India. India was under neither the
Persian Empire nor the Roman Empire, and the Indian
Church remained distinct and free.
Controversies
and Consequences
Not long after, the peace of the universal church
began to be disturbed-starting with the Christological
controversy at the Council of Chalcedon (451) and resulting
in the split (536) within the Roman empire-between the
western wing (Rome and Constantinople)and the eastern
wing(Alexandria and Antioch). The former believed in
the dual nature Of Christ(human and divine). Under Alexandrian
leadership, the latter upheld the one united nature
of Christ.This, it must be clarified, is different from
the teaching of Eutycheus, ‘one nature, one person'
sometimes called ‘monophysitism’. Also, the
doctrine, ‘two natures, two sons’ supported
by Nestorius, was not very different from the pre-Chalcedon
stand of Antioch. (Nestorius was an Antiochean monk,
later metropolitan of Constantinople, and ex-communicated
by the Council of Ephesus, AD 431).
The
Church of The East Asserts
As the Alexandrian-Antiochean doctrine of the
one united of nature gained wide acceptance, the Church
of the East had two apprehensions: a) the unwelcome
influence of Antioch on its members; and b) the emperor
should not disturb the doctrinal distinctiveness of
the Church of the East from the neighboring churches
in the hostile Roman empire. At a synod in 468, the
Church reacted to the perceived threat from Antioch
by formally accepting the dual nature (in one person)
of Christ. As if to drive this home, the Synod also
accepted Nestorius, among other old-school Antiocheans,
as a father of the Church. Unfriendly Churches soon
began to brand the Church as Nestorian which was neither
correct nor fair, as the Church had its proper name,
the Church of the East. Under the Patriarch, the Church
grew. After the Arab conquest (640) of the Persian empire,
its missionaries began to move eastward into India,
central Asia, China and elsewhere, associating these
countries with the with the work of St Thomas. Their
base was the then flourishing theological school of
Nisibis. Around this time, the church moved its Patriarchate
from Seleucia to the Arab capital of Baghdad. The formal
name of its head became Patriarch of Babylon. By the
seventh century, specific reference to the India church
began to appear in Persian records. The Metropolitan
of India and Metropolitan of China are mentioned in
the consecration records of the Patriarchs of the East.
At one stage however, the Indian church was claimed
to be in the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Fars,
but this issue was setteled by Patriarch Sliba Zoha
(714-728)who recognized the traditional dignity of the
autonomous Metropolitan of India.
The
Catholicos of the East
Meanwhile, a movement was building up within
the church in Persia against its accepted Christological
doctrine and in support of the one united nature propounded
by the Alexandrian-Antioch an side. This was the West
Syrian Group active well before the church declared
the its official stand in AD 486. As Syria and Persia
were in the same caliphate under Arab rule, it became
easier for the Syrian Church of Antioch to support them.
Thus a renaissance of the pre-Chalcedon faith began
within the church in Persia. Availing the equable political
climate, a Maphrianate of the anti-Chalcedonians was
established in Tagrit by AD 628. The first Catholicos
of this (West Syrian) Church of the East was a Persian,
Mar Marutha. The jurisdiction of this Catholicos at
Tagrit extended to 18 episcopal dioceses in Mesopotamia
and further east, but significantly, not to India. This
Church flourished for several centuries and produced
several great scholars.A notable leader of the movement
for establishing it was the Syrian Orthodox bishop of
Edessa, Jacob Baradeus. The second council of Nicea
(787)imposed the term "Jacobite" to qualify
this new church, rather pejoratively.
Eastern
Churches Decline
Christianity in Persia and much of West Asia
began to decline steadily, from internal causes as well
as impact of Islam, affecting both the East Syrian Patriarchate
(Seleucia-Babylon)and the West Syrian Catholic ate (Tagrit).
The latter was re-established in India (Kottayam) in
1912, after it remained dormant with the death of the
81st Catholics, Benham IV in 1895; and, in similar circumstances,
the former was transplanted to America by the young
Patriarch Mar Shimeon in 1940.
Colonial
Impact
On the life of the church in India during the
first 15 centuries, the balance of historical evidence
and the thrust of local tradition point to its basic
autonomy sustained by the core of its own faith and
culture. It received with trust and courtesy missionaries,
bishops, and migrants as they came from whichever Eastern
Church-Tagrit or Babylon, Antioch or Alexandria, but
not from the more distant Constantinople or Rome. There
were times in this long period when the Christians in
India had been without a bishop and were led by an Archdeacon.
And requests were sent, sometimes with success, to one
or another of the Eastern prelate to help restore the
episcopate in india. The post-Portugese story of the
Church in India in the 16th century is relatively well-documented.
In their combined zeal to colonize an proselytize, the
Portuguese might not have readily grapsd the way of
life. Of the Thomas Christians who seemed to accommodate
differing stands of Eastern Christian thought and influence,
while preserving the core of their original faith. The
response of the visitor was to try and bring them under
Romo-Syrian prelates, apart from the new converts in
the coastal areas under Latin prelates. Finding that
the Thomas Christians used an east Syrian liturgy, the
Portuguese began calling those sticking to it, and not
the Latin liturgy, as Syrian Christians, a term which
entered and remained in government records for a long
time. Pushed beyond a limit, the main body of Thomas
Christians rose in revolt against the Portuguese and
took a collective oath at the Coonen Cross in Mattancherry
in 1653, resolving to preserve the faith and autonomy
of their Church and to elect its Head.Accordingly, Archdeacon
Thomas was raised to the title of Mar Thoma, the first
in the long line upto Mar Thomas IX-till 1816. At the
request of the Thomas Christians, the Syrian bishop,
Mar Gregorios of Jerusalem came to India in 1664, confirmed
the Episcopal consecration of Mar Thomas I as the head
of the orthodox Church, as it happened, in explicit
support of the traditional autonomy of the Indian Church.
History repeated itself in anther form when the British
presence in India encouraged ‘reformation’
within the orthodox church, partly through Anglican
domination of the Theological Seminary in Kottayam,
besides attracting members of the church into Anglican
congregations since 1836. Finally, the reformist group
broke away to form the Mar Thomas Church. This crises
situation was contained with the help of Patriarch Peter
III of Antioch who visited India (1875-77). The outcome
was twofold; a reaffirmation of the distinctive identity
of the Orthodox church under its own Metropolitan and,
at some dissonance with this renewal, an enlarged influence
of the Patriarch of Antioch in the affairs of the Indian
church. Thus a relationship which started for safeguarding
the integrity and independence of the Orthodox church
in India, against the misguided, if understandable,
ambitions of the Roman Catholic and Angelic Protestant
churches, opened a long and torturous chapter in which
concord and conflict between the Indian and Syrian Orthodox
Churches have continued to alternate, to this day. Three
landmarks of recent history, however, lend hope that
peace and unity might yet return to the Orthodox community,
riven rather unnaturally by divided loyality. First,
the relcation in India in 1912 of the Catholicate of
the East, originally in Seleuucia and later in Tagrit
and the conseration of the first Indian Cathelicos,
Moran Mar Baselios Paulos, in Apostolic succession to
St Thomas, with the personal participation of Patriarch
Abdul Messiah of Antioch; second, the coming into force
in 1934 of the Constitution of the Orthodox Church in
India as an autocephalous Church linked to the Orthodox
Syrian Church of the Patriarch of Antioch, and third,
the Accord of 1958, by which Patriarch Ignatius Yakkoub
III affirmed his acceptance of the Catholics as well
as the Constitution. The fact that the Christian church
first appeared in India, as elsewhere, as a fellowship
of self-governing communities, belonging to the same
body and born into the same life, may yet light the
path to a future of peace, within and beyond the Orthodox
community.
A
Living Faith
As in the other Eastern Churches, the Orthodox
faith is founded in a harmonious understanding of the
Bible, the Liturgy and the life and the works of the
Fathers of the Church. Starting with the Apostles of
Christ and their direct disciples like Ignatius of Antioch,
Clement of Rome and Polycarp of Smyrna, the Fathers
include other pre-Nicene Fathers of the second and third
centuries like Clement of Alexandria, Irenus of Lyons
and Hermas, the author of The Shepherd. The fathers
of the three Ecumenical councils-the Synods of Nicea
(325) Ephesus (381) and Constantinople (431), as well
as the Fathers who lived and taught during the period
300-450 AD, even if they were not present at these councils,
are among the founders of the Orthodox Faith. They include
Mar Athanasius (ca 296-373), Mar Baselios (ca 330-379)
Mar Gregorios Nizianzen (329-389), Mar Gregorios of
Nyassa (330-395) Mar Kurillos (died 444) and Mar Ivanios
(died 407). Of this period 325-451, mention must be
made of Alexander of Alexandria, Mar Eustathius of Antioch,
Mar Eusebius of Kcascaesarea, Mar Kurillos of Jerusalem,
and Mar Dioscoros of Amexandria. Many of these names
are commemorated in the intercessory prayers of the
Eucharistic liturgy, the last of them remembered in
the fifth thoob-den, is Mar Jacob of Edessa (died 708)
and Mar Isaac of Nineveh (died 700). Without attempting
an exhaustive list of the father’s of the church,
the great asset tradition of the monastic fathers like
St Antony, St Pachamios, St Makarios, St Simon, Stylites
and St Ephrem must be remembered as a bedrock of the
orthodox faith. The articles of the faith based on the
conclusion of the three great council of the early church
are contained in the orthodox Creed, an essential part
of the daily prayers of the faithful. The orthodox venerate
St Mary as the mother of God, believe in the 7 sacraments,
communion of the saints, prayers for the departed. They
observe five seasons of lent, view the Churches a divine
established body, except the 69 books in the Bible as
well as the Holy Tradition sustain the three-fold system
of ministry and uphold the Alexandrian doctrine of the
‘ One united Nature’ of Christ.
The
Ethos Of Church
The witness of the church is a quiet one. It
is founded more on a life of worship, of love, and of
service then on preaching and proselytizing. This worship-orientation
is its basis for all thought and action as well as the
reason for its survival through recurrent terms of trial.
For the orthodox, tradition is ever alive and is indeed
the witness of the Holy spirit, his unceasing revelations
of Good tidings. For the living members of the church,
tradition is not so much an outward historical authority
as the continual voice of God, not just the voice of
the past, but the call of eternity. There is no better
guarantee for the members of the Church that they are
following the right path than for them to preserve the
organic unity with the saints, the holy men and women
of the past generations who are known to have lived
in communion with the Holy Spirit. The principle of
Apolistic succession upheld by the orthodox church has
to be grasped in this light, as a living bond between
church members, preserving the unity of first hand life,
in spite of the constant flow of time. It is this concept
of unity in which the individual voluntarily merges
his or her life in the wider fellowship of the whole
body, which has helped the orthodox to preserve the
truth of the Christian revelation. The identification
with the familiar community, rather than discipline
through centralized authority, is the life breadth of
the church. From this flows the communitarian ethos
of the church and the fine balance achieved between
democratic functioning and Episcopal maturity. The role
of the Bishop is to sanction in the name of the church
an action performed by the Holy Spirit expressed as
the unanimous will of all the members of the church,
present and invisible, gathered to celebrate the Eucharist.
This principle sustains the Democratic orientation of
the Orthodox community indeed of all eastern churches.
Nothing exemplifies the ethos of the orthodox more than
the life and work of the only canonized saint of the
Indian church: Mar Gregorious of Parumala, 1848-1902.
It is neither possible nor necessary to appraise the
life of this man of God; but a lesson can be drawn from
his example-whenever the world became too much, even
for him, he drew closer to God. His life was a pure
offering, his work an uninterrupted prayer.
The
Structure of Governance
The Constitution of the Orthodox Church in India
(which has retained the traditional name, Malankara
Orthodox Syrian Church)was brought into force on 26
December 1934, with some amendments made later in 1951
and 1967. Article 4 defines membership of the church:
“ All men and women, who have received Holy Baptism
and believe in the divinity of the Holy Trinity, the
incarnation of the Son, the procession of the Holy Spirit
from the Father, The Holy Church, and the application
of the Nicene Creed, three-in-all, the divine inspiration
of the Holy Traditions, the intercession of the Mother
of God and the Saints, the commeration of the departed
ones, the administration of the seven sacraments and
the canonical observances like fasting and have accepted
the obligation to observe them, will be members of the
Church". The Constitution defines the institutional
structure of the Church for preserving its integrity
and autonomy and for administering its spiritual, ecclesiastical
and temporal functions.It upholds the historical tradition
that the Patriarchate of Syria and the Catholicate of
the East freely function,each in its own sphere,mutually
respecting and not interfering in each other's domain.The
Church is self-governing under the ethical and spiritual
guidance of its ecelesiastical head. The representative
basis of self-governance is assured at all the three
levels-the parish, the diocese and the church as a whole.
The Parish Assembly of all its members elects the managing
committee each year from among the lay members. The
vicar, appointed by the Diocesan Metropolitan is the
joint steward, together with the elected lay trustee
of the assets of the parish, and presides over the managing
committee and the parish assembly. Like wise, the diocese
is administered through the Diocesan Council representing
all the parishes. It is presided over by the Diocesan
Metropolitan and assisted by the Diocesan Secretary.
At the apex, the Church has a representative Association,
by the traditional name of Malankrs Syrian Association.
It consists of the priest and two lay members elected
by each Parish Assembly. The Church managing Committee
is drawn from among the members of the Association.
The Catholics, as the Malankara Metropolitan, presides
over the Association and the Managing Committee. Those
prelates having administrative charge of a diocese are
vice-presidents of the Association.
The
Catholicos of the East
"I am the good shepherd: The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep". This verse (John 10:11), recited at the consecration of the Catholicos, echoes the essence of the Christian calling, personified by him. The Catholicos is the supreme head of the Orthodox Church in India. The present Catholicos is the 91st chronological successor to the Catholicate of the East, founded by St Thomas the Apostle in Seleucia, later in Tagrit, and relocated in 1912 in Kottayam. The prime jurisdiction regarding the temporal, ecclestical and spiritual administration of the church is vested in him, in his capacity as the Metropolitan of the Malankara Archdiocese. He is the trustee of the central assets of the church, together with two elected co-trustees, a priest and a lay member of the Association. The Malankara Metropolitan, as all Metropolitans, is elected by the Malankara Association and approved by the Holy Episcopal Synod. The Cathelicos presides over the Holy Episcopal Synod which is the supreme authority in all matters concerning faith, order, and discipline in the Church.
The present CatholicoseHis Holiness Baselios MarthomaPaulose II was enthroned as the Catholicos of the East & Malankara Metropolitan (the Supreme Head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India) on Monday, 1st November 2010.
The orthodox church in India is one of the 37 Apostolic Churches dating from the time of Christ’s disciples. Nine of them were in Europe and 28 in Asia and Africa. Today, the India Church belongs to the family of five Oriental Orthodox Churches,which Include Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia and Armenia, and to the wider stream of the world’s orthodox churches, having in all over 150 million Eastern Christians.This Church now consists of about 3.5 million members, who are spread all over the world, though the majority reside in Kerala state. The Supreme of the Church and the present Catholicos is H.H. Baselios Mar ThomaPauloseII.His residence and the Head-quarters of the Church is in Kottayam in the Kerala State of the South-West India. The Church as a whole is divided into 30 ecclesial units as dioceses and each diocese is served by a bishop, administratively and spiritually.
