Mar Thoma Syrian Church

Uncommon card · No. 147498

The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, commonly called the Mar Thoma Church, is an autonomous Oriental Protestant church based in Kerala, India. It combines Reformed Protestant theology with the episcopal and liturgical traditions of Syriac Christianity. Its principal liturgy is a reformed form of the Liturgy of Saint James in the West Syriac Rite, used in Malayalam and other languages. The church is headquartered at Thiruvalla and reports about one million followers, with dioceses in India and among communities overseas. The church traces its heritage to the Saint Thomas Christians, whose tradition holds that their community originated with the mission of Thomas the Apostle to the Malabar Coast. After the divisions among the Saint Thomas Christians that followed Portuguese intervention and the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653, the branch from which the Mar Thoma Church developed adopted the West Syriac tradition. During the British period, contact with Anglican missionaries contributed to a 19th...

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