28th diocese of Indian Orthodox Church Inaugurated
Ahmedabad: The 28th diocese of the Indian Orthodox Church – better known as the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church – was inaugurated in Ahmedabad on Saturday, as church leaders pledged to extend their social services in education and healthcare while confining liturgy only to Christians.
The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church traces its origins to St Thomas – one of Christ’s 12 apostles who came to India in 52 AD.
Though largely concentrated in Kerala and made up of Malayali followers, it has expanded its dioceses to six other areas in the country, with Ahmedabad being the seventh.
The orthodox denomination is largely fashioned after the traditions of the Old Testament and the liturgy is still mostly conducted in Aramaic, though it has been translated into Hindi lately. The Church is organised into dioceses headed by Metropolitans, under which are a number of parishes, which is again made up of numerous chapels.
Unlike the Catholic Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church is headed by an Indian based in Kerala.
Though the denomination has dioceses in Delhi and Mumbai, the Ahmedabad diocese has been established to take care of its followers in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, according to Mathews Mar Severios, Metropolitan of Kandanadu and Secretary to the Holy Synod, who inaugurated the new diocese today. Leaders of several church denominations attended the inauguration ceremony at St Mary’s School in Naroda. They included, among other, the bishops from the Church of North India, Methodist Church of India, Marthoma Church and the Catholic Church.
The leaders pledged to work together to render social services to “the poor, the marginalised and the oppressed”.
The orthodox church has worked mainly in the urban areas, but has in recent years, focused on education services (both adult and child education) in the rural areas as well.
Reverend Vinodkumar Malavyya, the Church of North India’s Bishop of Gujarat, said: “The fact that our social work has not stopped even after the anti-conversion bill was passed, proves that conversion is not our aim.”
Retired IAS Officer and former Additional Chief Secretary of the Gujarat Government, C K Koshy, who was present at the inauguration, termed religious intolerance as “one of the greatest threats to democracy”.
