Indian Orthodox Church.html



Indian Orthodox Church is the oldest of all Christian communities in India. It was Apostle Thomas, one among the 12 disciples of Christ who established the church in the East of Great Roman Empire. He himself is believed to have come to India in AD 52 with this mission. Indian church was from that time a part of the church in Persia known as the Orthodox Church of the East. It was known in history as Jacobite Church after the split of Oriental Orthodox Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church in the 4th Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. The Church was under the Papal supervision of Patriarch of Antioch from the begginning and under Catholicos of East since the establishment of Catholicate in Selucia-Ctesiphon in the late 4th century AD.

With the advent of Catholic and Protestant Churches in India as a result of European Colonisation, the Orthodox Church split into three separate fractions under different heads.

The Orthodox Church now comprises around 2.5 million adherents in India.

The three Orthodox fractions in India are:

• Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church
• Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church
• Malabar Independent Syrian Church

Orthodox Church was faced with many challenges and splits from the western Catholic and Protestant churches ever since the 15th century. Many unite fractions were born from the

• Catholic Uniates
  • Syro-Malabar Catholic Church split in 1663 AD
    • Knanaya Catholics
  • Syro-Malankara Catholic Church reunited in 1930 AD with the Catholic Church keeping the Liturgy of St. James

• Protestant Uniates
  • Church of South India split in 1830's AD
  • Marthoma Syrian Church split in 1876 AD
    • St. Thomas Evangelical church
  • Various Independent Congregationalists