Divisions and Unity - HG Marthoma I & HG Gregorios Abdal Jaleel

The Christian community from Kerala has been united to point out that they were evangelized at the first century itself by none other than our St. Thomas the Apostle through Lord & God Jesus Christ.  Yes, the very one who was first to confess and cry out ‘My Lord and My God !”.

 The united Christian community  in 17^th Century from Kerala stood up to the interference  of the Portuguese Roman Catholics who were trying  to subjugate them and patiently awaited a change in their status for almost 50 years sending emissaries across the globe to come to their aid. The trust was that the same Lord and God who demonstrated His  love by becoming Man ,died and rose again for our Salvation will bring it about it in peace. The Christians in Malankara knew many such lived across the world and had encountered such in the history of the Church.

When matters were beyond any possible of reconciliation with Roamn catholics ,  Coonan Cross Oath (Koonan Kurishu Satyam) was taken on 3 January 1653 as a public avowal that they would not submit to Roman Pope and Latin Catholic Portuguese dominance in ecclesiastical and secular life.

Four months after Coonen Cross Oath, on 22 May 1653, Twelve kathanars (priests) ordained Thoma Kathanar as the first spiritual and temporal head of the Church by the act of laying hands on him together. The Roman Catholics   argued that his consecration by 12 priests was irregular . It was timely that in the person of the aged Bishop  Gregorios Abdal Jaleel from Jerusalem under the Syrian Orthodox Church in  1665. Thus started the intimate relation with the West Syrian Church of Antioch. During the succeeding centuries (18th and 19th) the Church slowly accepted West Syrian liturgical traditions.

Over the last three centuries the community adopted the  faith but the suspicion of foreign influence of the Church lingered on and led to division and two groups sharing the faith. History has shown as well that this suspicion was not without cause .The two groups - one under the Syrian Patriarchate and those under the Catholicate in Kottayam share the same Orthodox Christian faith in principle, but has a future that has to live it more fully this life with help of God.

It is perhaps no coincidence and  our Lord is calling out as  the need of the hour for Malayalee Orthodox Christians to see the positive in light of these trying times and make an united  effort in living the faith trusting in God . May the prayers of our Fathers Mathoma I and Abdal Jaleel whom we remember on April 25 and  April 27 be a solace and the Lord in His mercy guide us

In Christ,

George Varghese

May 3, 2020

Discipleship Course by Fr. Peter Farrington

It might not be possible to have a Spiritual guide / Father to help us . Nevertheless the Lord in His Mercy will provide opportunities and resources that will push to heed the call to lead a life as an Orthodox Christian. One such offering is a Three (3) month course on Discipleship By Fr. Peter Farrington. 

http://www.stgeorgeministry.com/discipleship-course/

Introduction to the course by Fr. Peter , Praying we make use of this offering. 

'..To discover Orthodoxy for the first time, or to increase our knowledge and experience of Orthodoxy, must be the same as becoming more completely Christian in accordance with the life of the first and the original and the Apostolic Christian community. It is not understood by Orthodox Christians as the expression of one denomination among many, but as representing the fulness of the Christian Gospel proclaimed by the Apostles themselves and preserved through the ages to the present time.

We cannot be born into Orthodoxy, or be Orthodox by accident, since it is Christianity itself. We are born again into Orthodoxy and must make a definite decision, even day by day, to embrace more completely this Apostolic life in Christ. The one who seeks to discover Christianity for the first time, the believer in Christ who is interested in the Orthodox understanding of Christianity, and the one who became a member of an Orthodox Church even in their infancy through sacramental baptism, must all follow the same determined investigation and increasing participation in the experience and understanding of Orthodoxy as the invitation to fulness of the Christian life even without knowing that is what they are doing, but knowing always that they desire more of God.

All of us are called and invited to become more Orthodox, more completely Christian, by a true, personal experience of the spiritual life which the Orthodox Churches have received from the Apostles, and by the grace and activity of the Holy Spirit, despite the weakness of men. It is by participating in Orthodoxy, in the fulness of Christianity itself, that we come to understand Orthodoxy as the life in Christ, the abundant life he offers. Each one of us begins where we find ourselves in this common journey. But the goal for all is the overwhelming, transforming and transfiguring experience of union with God in Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is what it means to become truly Orthodox, to become truly Christian, to experience and participate in the life of God by grace according to the Apostolic teaching, still taught in the Orthodox and Apostolic Churches as a present possibility and reality.  

This three month course is intended to present a programme of Scripture, Spirituality, Theology, History and other aspects of the Orthodox Christian life in a developing structure. By the end of the three months of the course it is hoped that a person who has tried to follow the instructions and study the short materials provided will have a better practical understanding and experience of Orthodox Christianity, not only in a theoretical sense but through their own participation. It is expected that an Orthodox person will have deepened their own spiritual life, and an enquirer into Orthodoxy will have a very good sense of what Orthodoxy is about.

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