THE
ORTHODOX CHURCH OF INDIA One of the oldest Christian communities in the world, the Orthodox Syrian Church of India traces its history to the first century A.D., to its founding associated with the name of St. Thomas the Apostle. Though this ancient Indian Church maintained its Eastern character and integrity without a break till the sixteenth century, subsequently it came in contact with Western Christianity with consequences of various kinds. One such was that in the sixteenth century it was forced to accept an unwilling allegiance to the Pope of Rome. When it repudiated this allegiance after about a century, the Church lost a considerable part of its membership to Roman Catholicism. Then in the 19th century the Church of England sent to it a Good-will Mission, whose work, though it did much good, also led to two other splits. Thus, a section of the community joined the Anglican Communion, and another organized itself into what later came to be called the Mar Thoma Syrian Church. Despite the separation of these three bodies, the ancient Syrian Church continues in India in the Orthodox faith as a member of the Eastern Orthodox family of Churches. Before the Sixteenth Century The history of this ancient Orthodox Church in India till the sixteenth century is not easy to be treated in any detail. There are however, a few significant facts relating to it, which are rather well known and which may be noted here briefly. In the first place, from very early times this Church had maintained an intimate relationship with the East Syrian Church of Mesopotamia. This connection made it possible on the one hand for bishops from Mesopotamia to come to India from time to time, and on the other fro several batches of East Syrian Christians to flee their country in times of persecution and settle down in India in the course of a few centuries following they fourth, Secondly, this Indian Church did not have native bishops. But while being satisfied with the spiritual oversight of episcopes visitors from Mesopotamia, it had its temporal administration vested in a succession of Archdeacons. Thirdly, as a community it enjoyed a certain level of high standing in even a succession of kings holding political authority over Indian society, and at one time it had in its membership them.
Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese General, arrived in Southern India in 1498. This was followed in course of time by the establishment of a Portuguese Empire in India, which lasted or about a century. Roman Catholics by faith, the Portuguese brought with them ecclesiastics belonging to Roman obedience, who became pioneers of Western Christian missionary enterprise in India with Goa as the center of their activity. In addition to their other labours they tried to convert the entire Syrian Christian community in India to their Church, though their efforts bore no fruit for over half a century. But in 1599 Menezes, Jesuit Archbishop of Goa, came to Kerala and convened by force a meeting of representative of the various parishes of the Syrian Church. He managed the meeting in such a say that the participants were all compelled to sign its decrees, which declared the Church’s submission to the Pope of Rome. This forced conversion continued unchallenged till 1653. By that time the Portuguese power in India had begun to wane, and the Dutch, who maintained a policy of religious neutrality, were on the way to take their place. In that year there spread a rumor among the Syrian Christians that an East Syrian bishop who had come to visit them had been seized by the Portuguese authorities who still controlled the harbor and kept under custody. Now a large crowd of Syrian Christians came out to the port of Cochin to force the release of the bishop, but they were told that the foreign ecclesiastic had been drowned in the sea. Infuriated by this news, they tied a rope to a stone cross which was there and, holding the tope in lien of touching the cross, look a solemn oath together renouncing all connections with the Portuguese and the religion which they represented. In spite of this historic pledge a large part of the community, faced with the disorganized state of their Church, went back to Roman allegiance within a decade. The remaining body came to be organized gradually and in 1665 Bishop Mar Gregarious of Jerusalem came to India. He consecrated the first native bishop for this ancient Indian Church. Mar Thoma I, as he was called, was followed in succession by five bishops, all of whom took the name of Mar Thoma. The last of them Mar Thoma VI, who also received the name Dionysius, lived till the beginning of the 19th Century. The Nineteenth Century The political power of the Dutch in India yielded to that of the British. This change had a far-reaching consequence for the Syrian Church. From the year 1806 missionaries of the Church of England began to make contacts with it, and encouraged by the sympathy which they expressed, the Syrian Church welcomed the offer of a Good will Mission to be sent by the Anglican Church. The Mission started its work, but in less than two decades it proved a failure. So in 1836 the Syrian Church severed its connections with the Mission. But this led to two divisions. One group of Syrian Christians accepted the Protestant teaching of the missionaries and embraced the Anglican Church. Another group endeavored to reform the entire Church in the light or ideas imbibed from the missionaries. The work of this latter group is of some importance for an understanding of the nineteenth century history of the Syrian Church supported by the Anglican mission, they sent their nominee, Deacon Mathews, to the Syrian Patriarch of Antioch in the hope of having him consecrated as Metropolitan of the Indian Church, so that through him their reform activity might be carried out successfully. Thinking in all probability that he was helping the ancient Church of India, the Patriarch consecrated Deacon Mathews as Metropolitan Mathews Mar Athanasius, without a proper enquiry into the question at issue. He was in fact the first Indian bishop to be consecrated directly by the Syrian Patriarch of Antioch. On his return to India, Mathews Mar Athanasius had to face strong opposition from the Church, which had now become split into two groups one supporting the new Metropolitan and the other referring him. The party opposed to Mar Athanasius made representations to the Patriarch and even sent their candidate Father Joseph, for consecration as Metropolitan. He came back as Metropolitan Joseph Mar Dionysius and began to work in opposition to Mar Athanasius, who had now lost his confidence with the Patriarch, Mar Athanasius died a few years later and his party appointed a successor without reference to the Patriarch. The struggle between the two parties lasted several decades with litigation in court, which was decided finally against the reform party. Now they organized themselves as an independent Church and in course of time assumed the name. Mar Thoma Church. In 1875 Patriarch Peter III visited the Syrian Church in India and strengthened it by consecrating six Metropolitans in addition to Joseph Mar Dionysius. The Twentieth Century In spite of the fact that during the three centuries following the sixteenth century the ancient Syrian Church of India came to suffer a considerable loss in its membership, it emerged in the twentieth century as quite a strong Christian community in Kerala, South India. But soon it fell into evil days involving internal feuds and litigations in court, which lasted about half a century. However, this was also a period of many developments and great achievements. Thus the Catholicate was established in 1912. This was opposed by three Syrian Patriarchs in the Sea of Antioch and about a third of the Church’s own membership and resulted in a split in the Church for half a century. However, the problem has been solved by the present Patriarch Ignatius Yacub III who recognized the Catholicate unconditionally. By this action of Patriarch Ignatius Yacub III unity has been restored in the Orthodox Syrian Church of India. During this period again the Church organized the Sunday School Association. Youth Movements, women’s Guild, and Evangelistic Associations. The Church has also reconstituted its Theological Seminary along modern lines and organized churches and congregations in almost all-important cities in India as well as in a few places outside. The Orthodox Church of India in the Family of the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Orthodox Church of India is one of the ancient Churches of the East, which do not accept the Council of Chalcedony held in 451 A.D. In fact this Indian Church was so far away from the scenes of the disputes following the Council of Chalcedony that it took no part in the Christological controversies at that time. But later in its history its connection with the Syrian Patriachate of Antioch brought it into the non-Chaleodonian camp. On the Christological question this Church stands in the theological tradition of St. Cyril of Alexandria and St. Severius of Antioch, a tradition which is maintained by the Syrian Church of Antioch.
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