OUR CHURCH, ITS ORIGIN AND PLACE IN HISTORY

Our Church
Our congregation, the ‘St. Thomas Orthodox Syrian Church, Toronto’ belongs to the North East American Diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church under the Catholicos of the East, whose headquarters is at Devalokam, Kottayam, India. Malankara refers to the region of its origin at the Malabar Coast.


What do we mean by ‘Church’?
The Church is the community of disciples of Christ. The risen Lord commissioned the apostles to make disciples by baptism in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe His commands (Matt.28.19-20). Therefore, the Church is a community of disciples who are baptized and who observe Jesus Christ’s commands (teachings).


In the Gospels, the name ‘Church’ occurs only in Matt.16.18 and18.17. In 16.18 the name ‘Church’ is clearly applied to the future Christian community. With this name the local assemblies of Christians were distinguished from Jewish synagogues, which the first Christians also initially attended. The name ‘Church’ is used locally as a parish, congregation or a dedicated building of worship and universally as the Christian community, though distinguished by individual denominations. The Church is referred to    in the New Testament as the Israel of God (Gal.6.16), descendants of Abraham (Gal.3.29) the twelve tribes of the dispersion (James 1.1), spiritual house (1 Pet.2.5), chosen race, royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession (1 Pet.2.9) and the people of God (1 Pet.2.10). The Church is, therefore, rightfully the true Israel.


Christianity was brought to India by St. Thomas the Apostle with his arrival at Cranganore near Cochin, Kerala in A.D. 52. He established seven and a half Churches in Kerala and was martyred and buried in Mylapore, South India in A.D.72. Subsequent close contact with the Middle Eastern Syriac speaking Church in Persia and with the adoption of its Syrian liturgy and doctrines, the Church in South India also came to be called Syrian Church. There had been several migrations of Syrians to the Malabar coast between the fourth and ninth centuries, like that of Thomas of Cana and a community from Edessa (in 345), whose direct descendents are known as Canaanites.  We, the descendants of the original community, are still called Syrian Christians.  Acknowledging our allegiance to St. Thomas the Apostle, the founder of our Church, we are also called St. Thomas Christians.


The universal Church today could be divided in three major groups: Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant, of which Protestantism has a history only from the 16th century. Regional differences apart, the Roman Church and the Orthodox Churches shared the same faith and were in communion in the early centuries. The Roman Church eventually grew on its own in the Western world. Protesting against many of the Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, Protestantism emerged with Martin Luther from 1517.


We belong to the Orthodox family of Churches. ‘Orthodox’ is from two Greek terms: Orthos is ‘straight’, ‘upright’ and doxa is ‘opinion’, ‘glory’. Orthodox has come to mean, ‘right opinion’, ‘right glory’ and ‘right doctrinal stand’. Orthodoxy is the state of being orthodox in belief and observances. With the start of controversy about the Trinitarian concept of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matt.28.19), the main line of the Church defended the right doctrine of the Trinity against heretical teachings. The New Testament does not use the term ‘Trinity’. In the teachings of Jesus Christ and the New Testament writers, Trinity is a strong underlying principle that demands faith. The defenders of the right doctrine came to be referred to as Orthodox. Orthodoxy tolerated the complexity of the mystery of the Trinitarian unity, whereas heresy oversimplified and rejected what it could not understand.


Recognizing the mystery of unity of the Father and the Son, the first ecumenical Council of Nicea in 325 formulated the first draft of the Christian Creed, known as the Nicene Creed in challenge to the heresy of Arius that had reduced the Son to a creature.  This Creed was reaffirmed and finalized at the second ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381, further stating the Holy Spirit as equal, ‘worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son’. The Nicene Creed which we use is in fact ‘Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed’. At the next ecumenical council of Ephesus (431), presided over by St.Cyril of Alexandria, the churches stood together to accept Cyril’s Christological statement of ‘one incarnate nature of God the Word’. Further discussion on the statement led to misinterpretations at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, where under the influence of Bishop Leo of Rome, political animosities and episcopal rivalries caused a lasting division between the Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian factions. Those who rejected the Chalcedonian position have been wrongly branded as monophysites (proponents of one nature of Jesus Christ), in spite of their real stand that the Son is one Person without division natures of Godhead and humanity. We are non-Chalcedonians and we stand by the faith of the first three Ecumenical Councils (of Nicea, Constantinople and Ephesus). Orthodox came to be divided into Eastern and Oriental. The Oriental Orthodox Churches are: the Coptic Orthodox (Egyptian Church of Alexandria), the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, the Armenian Orthodox, the Orthodox Syrian Church of India (also known as Malankara Orthodox Church) and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and their subdivisions. The Oriental Orthodox Churhes do not accept the Council of Chalcedon and its deliberations. The Eastern Orthodox Churches (the Byzantine Churches like Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox etc) belong to the Chalcedonian faction. In the ecumenical arena there have been serious attempts to expose old misunderstandings and improprieties about the mysteries of faith and to get both factions agree on the essentials of faith in order to reestablish the long-lost relationship between the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches.


From the middle of the sixteenth century the Portuguese cast their eyes on the Syrian Christians to bring them under subjection to the Roman Catholic Church. They put a stop to all communications of our Church with the Syrian Church of the Middle East. In 1599 Archbishop Alexio de Menezes of Goa succeeded in subjugating our Church completely under Roman Catholicism. A Syrian metropolitan from the Middle East arrived in Cochin and he was drowned in the sea by the Portuguese. In protest, almost the entire Community revolted against the Portuguese and took a solemn oath to break all connections with the Roman Church. This is known as the Coonen Cross (bent Cross) Oath in Mattanchery, near Cochin on January 16, 1653. Archdeacon Thoma Parampil was installed by the title Mar Thoma I as the head of the Syrian Christians. Soon the Pope sent a bishop and some Carmelite fathers to recapture the Christians and it succeeded in getting more than half the population back under the Roman Church. In ten years’ time the Dutch defeated the Portuguese. In 1665, Mar Gregorios of Jerusalem, a bishop of the Syrian Church of Antioch arrived in Kerala and the remaining Christians accepted the Syrian jurisdiction. The Orthodox Syrian Christians are their descendents.


As regards our place in the world, the World Council of Churches is the modern forum where our Church plays a leading role from the time of the Council’s foundation. One of the first presidents of the Council was the late Miss Sarah Chacko from our Church. His Grace the late Dr. Paulose Mar Gregorios (Fr. Paul Varghese) served as Associate General Secretary of the World Council and later as president.  He and the late Fr. Dr. V.C. Samuel were outstanding scholars whose contributions to the ecumenical movement are well attested. Fr. Samuel’s Ph.D. thesis at Yale University that exposed the mistakes of the Council of Chalcedon is the basis on which the long-lost relationship between the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches is being restored. Our Church continues to play a leading role in the ecumenical movement.  


India has traditional Churches and numerous new denominations. We are proud of  being  traditional. Traditional Churches are those that are linked to and have fraternal relationship with ancient Churches and the new denominations are the Reformed and Protestant. In conclusion, I would ask you to list the Churches in Kerala under (1) Traditional and (2) Reformed and Protestant. You may also raise  questions of interest that I may answer.

I am embarking on a task of creating a collection of literature on Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church’s beliefs , traditions and its relevance today.  

I am  targeting those who do not have any theological background, youth, non-orthodox denomination and non-christians. The goal of this collection will be to draw the general people’s attention who do not have the appetite for intricacies of theology and religion and will be trying to make the content as contemporary as possible. These documents will be available for reference for us and our future generations.


I will be striving to take the readers through some fundamental and critical information while not getting them lost in complexity of theological analysis. Also helping to find our bearing and dusting up our inherent sense of reasoning.


Areas covered – I will be shedding some light on our origin  and some of our fundamentals to help us make sense when we are questioned the rationality behind what we do. The questions that might come from our children tomorrow.