THE ECUMENICAL WITNESS OF THE MAR THOMA CHURCH

-          Rt. Rev. Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius

-          (Bishop, Mar Thoma Diocese of North America and Europe)

Dear friends in Christ,

Greetings to you all in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I bring you greetings from the Senior Metropolitan Most Rev. Dr. Philipose Mar Chrysostom and Metropolitan the Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma. The Bishops of the Mar Thoma Church join me in greeting you on this occasion. Bishops Dr. Zachariahs Mar Theophilos Suffragan Metropolitan and Dr. Euyakim Mar Coorilos Episcopa join me as my predecessor–bishops in this Diocese and Bishop Zachariahs Mar Theophilus and Bishop Dr. Abraham Mar Paulos as former students of Boston University.

This is an honor and privilege for me and the Mar Thoma Church to be invited to the Commission on Christian Unity of the Massachusetts Council of Churches and I thank all of you who are present here, for this warm fellowship. Today I represent the Mar Thoma Church and the Mar Thoma Diocese of North America and Europe. We have membership in the World Council of Churches (WCC) and enjoy Communion relationship with the worldwide Anglican Church. The Church through the various dioceses has membership in the National Council of Churches in various geographical areas. The Diocese of North America and Europe enjoys the membership in the National Council Churches of Christ in USA, the Canadian Council of Churches, the Churches Together in England and Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. As a Church, we encourage the local parishes to enter into the regional ecumenical bodies to have meaningful participation in ecumenical action.

It is worth remembering now that the Most Rev. Dr. Juhanon Mar Thoma was one of the Presidents of the WCC and played a vital role in organizing its meeting in New Delhi in 1961. Later, Dr. M.M. Thomas, a lay person of the Mar Thoma Church served as the Moderator of the Central Committee of the WCC (1968-1975). Dr. Zachariahs Mar Theophilus was in the Central Committee of the WCC for two terms in the 90s and now Dr. Isaac Mar Philoxenos is serving as a member of the Central Committee and he is also serving as the President of the Senate of Serampore College which is the theological university of India. There are other members of the Church who are on the staff of the various global ecumenical agencies. These are indicative of the active interest of the Mar Thoma Church in the worldwide Ecumenical movement.

A Brief History of the Mar Thoma Church.

The St. Thomas (Mar Thoma) Christian community has a large concentration of its members in Kerala, the south west region of the Indian sub continent. It maintained its relation with churches of Persia, Syria, and other Oriental Churches prior to the arrival of European Missionaries in the 15^th Century. It was through the writings of the western scholars that St. Thomas Christians became known widely to the world outside.

The Mar Thoma Church traces its origin to the coming of St. Thomas, the Apostle of Jesus Christ to India around 52 AD and forming worshipping congregations at seven places in the Chera Kingdom. This community of St. Thomas had contacts with the Persian church from 345 AD when a group of around 400 families came and settled in the land. The influence of the Roman Catholic Church came with the coming of Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese sailor in 1498 to Kozhikode in Kerala. A historic declaration of independence of the St. Thomas Christians took place at Cochin in 1653. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the St. Thomas Christians remained in fellowship with the Syrian Church of Antioch. The Anglican Missions (CMS) sent missionaries as “Mission of Help” to the St. Thomas Community. They got the Gospel translated into Malayalam, the language of the people, in 1811. A Seminary was founded at Kottayam in 1813. Abraham Malpan and Kaithayil Geevarghese Malpan, professors at the Seminary, took upon themselves the God-given task of reformation within the Church. Now the Mar Thoma Church is the reformed group which has declared its independence and autonomy. It maintains the oriental form of worship with the language of the people and carries out the mission of the Church. The faith and practices of the Mar Thoma Church is based on the teachings of the Holy Bible.  The Holy Communion is celebrated only when there are participants other than the celebrant and the elements are served in both kinds.  The auricular confession is not practiced. The Church affirms its faith in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The first three ecumenical councils - viz Nicea, 325 AD, Constantinople 381 AD, and Ephesus 431 AD - are accepted as authoritative.

Nature of the Church

In his work on Christianity in Asia (East of the Euphrates, 1998), Dr. T. V. Philip says:  “the whole life of the Christian Community in the East was permeated with a missionary Spirit. Whether clergy or laity, traders or refugees, wherever they went, they tried to be the Ambassadors of Christ.”

Worship plays an important part in Eastern spirituality. The Eastern liturgy opens the doors into a rich world of worship, where beauty, form and wonder offer liberation, joy and freedom to the modern person. Christian worship in the East is community oriented as well as personal, spiritual as well as physical, mediatorial and vicarious. The Mar Thoma Church derives its identity and cohesiveness from the very liturgy it uses. The whole theology of the Church is embedded in the liturgy of the Church. The Word of God and its contextual exposition is an integral part of our worship and we take both the 'altar' and the' pulpit' seriously.

The Church is the Priest of the world. The Church intercedes for the world by being conscious of the various needs of the people. The Church is therefore the sacramental presence of Christ in the world. The witness of the Church is revealed from the very living and the dynamic relationship the religious community has with God, with each other and with the created order.

Ecumenical Witness

The Church is in the world. The meaning and relevance of the ministry and mission of the Church can be derived only in relation to the larger world outside the members of the worshipping community. The Mar Thoma Church, down through the centuries, celebrated diversity and plurality while maintaining the spirit of unity. The history of the Mar Thoma immigrant community in the United States is only a century old whereas the life of the Church in Kerala has a history of twenty centuries. The Mar Thoma Christians has had relationship with various Christian denominations within the country and outside. That does not mean that it always stood for unity; it also differed on certain fronts. The formation of the Church of South India in 1947 was a time when the Mar Thoma Church had serious discussions on Church Unity, in the sense of giving up its identity and becoming one.  But the decision was to keep the identity and to enter into an ecumenical communion relationship. The same position was maintained when the Church of North India (CNI) was formed in 1971. I am happy to inform you that this later paved the way for the formation of conciliar relationship with CSI & CNI forming a council called the Council of Churches in India. This is apart from her membership in the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) and the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA).

The Mar Thoma Church continues to have discussions with all the mainline Episcopal churches including the Lutherans. Ecumenism is to be seen as the pooling together of resources and sharing the riches of all the heritages.  Despite all limitations, God is using the Ecumenical movement for the greater unity of all God’s creation. That means the understanding of ecumenism has changed from the unity of the churches to the unity of all inhabited earth. Here the mission and development activities of the Church have more relevance.  Engagement in mission is to be the response to God's demand that life may be abundant. Participation in the life situations of the people, particularly the marginalized authenticate our Christian witness.

The spirit of Ecumenism is helping the Mar Thoma Diocese of North America and Europe to seek avenues to engage herself in mission in the name of Neighborhood Mission as far as local parishes are concerned, Mission to Natives as far as national level bodies are concerned and Outreach Mission as far as the Diocese as a whole is concerned. This is apart from the Diocese’s involvement in the ecumenical bodies of the country. Turning away from life-denying ways in order to address the existential problems of food and peace, global warming and ecological disaster has become our missiological and ecumenical imperative today.   It leads all of us in our common pilgrimage to the consummation of the Kingdom of God and our greater recognition of God as God.