Mar Thoma Syrian Church
The Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar or Mar Thoma Church is a Christian denomination based in the state of Kerala in southwestern India. Its members are part of one of the Saint Thomas Christian community, which traces its origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century.
The church emerged from a reformation movement within the Malankara Church inspired by contact with British Anglican missionaries of the Church Mission Society. Beginning in 1836, Malankara Church clergyman Abraham Malpan instituted changes in his parish at Maramon, including translating the Holy Qurbana service from the traditional Syriac into the local Malayalam language and introducing Protestant-influenced doctrines. This led to a rift with the church hierarchy; Malpan's nephew was consecrated as metropolitan bishop by the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch in 1842, establishing what would later be known as the Mar Thoma Church.
Until the beginning of 20th century Marthomites lived in a few districts of Central Travancore and Kunnamkulam in Kerala. Since that time it has spread with the 20th-century Indian diaspora to North America, Europe, the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and currently has around 500,000 members in Kerala, and another 50,000 throughout the diaspora. Their mother tongue is Malayalam, the language of Kerala. The Mar Thoma Church defines itself as "Apostolic in origin, Universal in nature, Biblical in faith, Evangelical in principle, Ecumenical in outlook, Oriental in worship, Democratic in function, and Episcopal in character".
Read more about Mar Thoma Syrian Church: Definitions, Administration, Portuguese Period, Dutch Period, British Period, Cleansing of The Church – Reformation, Liturgy, Places of Worship, Organizations, Ecumenical Relations
Famous quotes containing the words mar, syrian and/or church:
“But whether or not a man was asked
To mar the love of two
By harboring woe in the bridal house,
The bridegroom wished he knew.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“If in that Syrian garden, ages slain,
You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,
Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright
Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night
The hate you died to quench and could but fan,
Sleep well and see no morning, son of man.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)
“It’s better to sit in the bar and think of church than to sit in church and to think of the bar.”
—Swedish proverb, trans. by Verne Moberg.