Thrikkunnathu Seminary - Closing and Later History

Closing and Later History

When the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church split again from the Indian Orthodox Church in 1975, the seminary's resident metropolitan bishop had been diocesan head of the Orthodox church body since the late 1960s. The seminary building, church and grounds stayed with the Indian Orthodox Church. Ownership was disputed in the aftermath and two years later, on 6 December 1977 the seminary and church were closed. The Syrian Hostel was renamed and put to other use. Indian Orthodox metropolitans still reside in the seminary building.

In 1997 Philipose Theophilose, a metropolitan of the Indian Orthodox Church, died while staying at the old seminary building and was entombed next to the church. This tomb was later rebuilt as another room of the church building itself.

Since the early 1980s Jacobite Syrian Christians in Aluva have worshipped in a rented building called Mass Hall not far from St Mary's Church. In 1990 the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church opened the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Seminary in new buildings about 25 kilometres south at Udayagiri, Mulanthuruthy in Ernakulam.

Mediation efforts to settle disagreements over the use of St Mary's Church have been unsuccessful. On 3 July 2005, one month and a half before the first anniversary of Mar Athanasius' canonization as a saint, local police were called to the closed church when violence broke out over the long standing ownership dispute. A government lawyer's automobile was set on fire, priests and others were reportedly hurt and there were claims of police brutality. In January 2009 the church had been closed for over 31 years when The New Indian Express, after speaking with a spokesman for the Indian Orthodox church, reported that "the Orthodox faction was not averse to letting the faithful of both factions worship in the Church, but the top Church officials of the Jacobite faction cannot be allowed in."

In January 2006, the Hindu reported that "A meeting of various groups under the Orthodox Church on Sunday at the seminary said that they would protect the seminary property at any cost and warned that the Government would be responsible for the fall out of anyone using force to enter the seminary premises."

In January 2007, the Hindu further reported that "Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan Moran Mor Baselios Mar Thoma Didymos I, on Tuesday, warned the Government that the path of peace and tolerance being adopted by Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in the Thrikkunnathu Seminary row should not be taken as weakness" and "The Catholicos alleged that the Government decision permitting entry of Baselios Thomas I and other metropolitans of Jacobite Syrian Christian Church into the disputed Thrikkunnathu Seminary church was 'hideously diabolic.'"