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Mar Thoma Syrian Church | |
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Abbreviation | M T S C |
Type | Oriental Protestant Christian |
Classification | Oriental Protestant[1][2][3][4] |
Orientation | Anglican[5][6][7] Syrian Christian[8][9][10] |
Scripture | Holy Bible |
Theology | Protestant theology[11][7][12][13] |
Polity | Episcopal |
Mar Thoma Metropolitan | Theodosius Mar Thoma |
Region | Universal |
Language | Malayalam, English, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi |
Liturgy | Reformed Liturgy of Saint James (West Syriac Rite)[3] |
Headquarters | Poolatheen Aramana, Thiruvalla, India |
Possessions | Australia, Canada, Germany, Middle East (Gulf Region), Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Nigeria |
Founder | Saint Thomas the Apostle (AD 52), through apostolic succession by sacred tradition; Abraham Malpan, leader of the Anglican inspired, 19th century reformation[10][14][15] |
Separated from | Malankara Church[10][16][17][18] |
Separations | St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India (1961) |
Number of followers | 1 million[10][19] |
Ministers |
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Missionaries | 700 (approx.) |
Places of worship | 1,246 |
Hospitals | 12 |
Nursing homes | 13 |
Official website | marthoma |
Slogan | Lighted to Lighten |
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History |
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The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, often shortened to Mar Thoma Church, and known also as the Reformed Syrian Church[20][21][9] and the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, is an autonomous Oriental Protestant Christian church based in Kerala, India. While continuing many of the Syriac high church practices, the church is Protestant in its theology and doctrines. It employs a reformed variant of the West Syriac Rite Divine Liturgy of Saint James, translated to Malayalam.[3][4][13][7][11]
The Mar Thoma Church sees itself as continuation of the Saint Thomas Christians, a community traditionally believed to have been founded in the first century by Thomas the Apostle, who is known as Mar Thoma (Saint Thomas) in Syriac,[22][23] and describes 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".[24]
Until the beginning of the 20th century, Mar Thoma Christians lived in a few districts of Central Travancore (Pathanamthitta, Kollam, and Thiruvananthapuram districts) and Kunnamkulam (Thrissur district) in Kerala. Since that time they have spread with the 20th-century Indian diaspora to North America, Europe, the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. According to the figures provided by the church itself,[25] it currently has over 1 million members.[26] Their mother tongue is Malayalam, the language of Kerala, and historically the variety known as Suriyani Malayalam was associated with them.
According to the 2011 Census of Kerala it was, with a membership of 405,089, the sixth largest Christian church in the state, coming after the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (2,345,911), the Latin Catholic Church (932,733), the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (493,858), the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (482,762), and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (465,207).[27]
The Mar Thoma Syrian Church, which represents the Protestant Reform movement, broke away from the Syrian Orthodox Church in the 19th century.
The Syrian Orthodox also became the target of Anglican missionary activity, as a result of which the Mar Thoma Church separated from the Orthodox in 1874, adopting the Anglican confession of faith and a reformed Syrian liturgy conforming to Protestant principles.
On the death of Mathews Mar Athanasios, Metran of the Malankara Syrian Church, in 1877, he was succeeded by Thomas Mar Athanasios, who lost control over most of his parishes and church buildings in a series of lawsuits filed during his sixteen-year reign by rival Metran Dionysios V. Subsequently, his movement was renamed the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, and gradually absorbed elements of both Anglicanism and evangelism, as new parishes were established and reforms effected. It remains today the most Protestant of all the Malabar Syrian churches.
Metropolitan Juhanon Mar Thoma called it "a Protestant Church in an oriental grab."...As a reformed Oriental Church, it agrees with the reformed doctrines of the Western Churches. Therefore, there is much in common in faith and doctrine between the MTC and the reformed Churches of the West. As the Church now sees it, just as the Anglican Church is a Western Reformed Church, the MTC is an Eastern Reformed Church. At the same time as it continues in the apostolic episcopal tradition and ancient oriental practices, it has much in common with the Oriental Orthodox Churches. Thus, it is regarded as a "bridging Church".
The Mar Thoma Church combines evangelical and reformed doctrines with ancient forms of worship and practices. As a reformed Church with progressive outlook, it agrees with the reformed doctrines of Western Churches. Therefore, in the days of ecumenism, there is much in common between the Mar Thoma Church and other reformed Churches. At the same time as it continues the Apostolic Episcopal tradition and ancient Oriental practices, it has much in common with the Orthodox Churches. Thus it is regarded by many in the ecumenical world as a bridging Church.
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