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| Welcome to The Church Of The East - India |
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PATRIARCH |
METROPOLITAN OF INDIA |
EPISCOPAS OF INDIA |
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H.H.Maran Mar DINHA IV |
Most. Rev. Dr. Mar APREM |
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| Brief History |
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This Church traces its origin back to the Church established by St. Thomas, the Apostle in 52 A.D., like several other Syrian Churches. There are eight denominations, which claim to be descendants of the first Christian community established in the south west coast of India by St.Thomas. It was one Christian community receiving bishops from Persia, from the Patriarchate of the Church of the East with its headquarters in Seleucia Ctesiphon, Baghdad, etc.
Vasco de Gama came to south India in 1498 AD. In the Synod of Diamper in June 1599, Archbishop Alexio de Menezes forced the Syrian Christian community to be under the obedience of the Pope of Rome.
January 1653 thousands of these Christians in Malabar took an oath with a rope tied on a bend Cross and liberated themselves from the Portuguese fold. In 1665 a Metropolitan came from the East. Mar Gregorius of Jerusalem was his name. The Patriarch of Antioch sent him. The Syrian Christians received him. They were not aware of the split of the Syrian Christian community to East Syrian and West Syrian Churches. At that time no bishops came from the Church in Baghdad. The Patriarchate had been moved from Baghdad to different places and finally it was in Qudshanis in Kurdistan.
In 1796 AD. the Shakthan Thampuran, the famous Maharaja of erstwhile Cochin State (now part of Kerala) brought 52 Christian families to Thrissur with a view to develop Trichur as a center of trade and commerce. The Mart Mariam Big Churchwas constructed in 1814 AD for the worship of those Christian families.
This Church is under the Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. The present Catholicos Patriarch H.H. Mar Dinkha IV is residing in Chicago, U.S.A. His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV was born in Northern Iraq on 15 September 1935. He became bishop in Teheran, Iran on 11 February 1962. He was consecrated Catholicos Patriarch on 17 October 1976.
There are four archbishops (Lebanon, India, Iraq and Australia), and seven bishops under the Catholicos Patriarch.
This Church now uses the Gregorian calendar. Patriarch and Pope John Paul II signed a Common Christological Declaration on 11 November 1994 in Vatican. |
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