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Malankara Orthodox-Jacobite church dispute

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The Malankara Orthodox-Jacobite church dispute or the Schism of 1912 was the split in the Malankara Syrian Church that led to an ongoing series of church disputes in Kerala, India. The dispute, also known as the Second Community Case or the Second Vaṭṭippaṇa Case (Malayalam: രണ്ടാം സമുദായക്കേസ്, രണ്ടാം വട്ടിപ്പണക്കേസ്), has been intertwined with continuous litigations and has resulted in the formation of two rival church bodies, namely the autocephalous Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, an autonomous church under the Syriac Orthodox patriarchate of Antioch.[1] Although the Indian supreme court judgement of 1995 made a terminal legal conclusion of the dispute, the disagreements related to the administration of the parish church property continues to cause occasional law and order problems and significant obstruction to a permanent solution of the dispute.[2] The dispute in three of these parishes was moved to the court and its final verdict was made by the Supreme Court in 2017, in favour of the Malankara Orthodox Church.[3] But the dispute remains unresolved, and police interventions to implement the judgement continue to meet intense protest and confrontation in churches currently administered by the Jacobite Church. The continuing dispute also led to increased sectarianism among members of the once undivided community and the solidification of the schism between the two rival factions.[4][5]

Malankara Orthodox-Jacobite church dispute
Emblems of both Churches (Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church)
Date1912 – 1958 and 1976 - present
Also known as
  • Orthodox schism
  • Orthodox Church schism
TypeChristian schism
Cause
  1. Power struggle between the trustees of the church, namely, Malankara Metropolitan Dionysius Vattasseril on one side and Korah Mathen Konatt and C. J. Kurian on the other
  2. Decision of Dionysius Vattasseril to:
    1. remove Korah Mathen Konatt as Priest trustee of the Malankara Church
    2. remove C. J. Kurian as the lay trustee of the Malankara Church
  3. Decision of Patriarch Ignatius Abded Aloho II to:
    1. suspend Dionysius Vattasseril as Malankara Metropolitan
    2. appoint Paulose Koorilos Kochuparambil as Malankara Metropolitan
  4. Decision of Ignatius Abded Mshiho II to
    1. Revive and relocate the autocephalous Catholicate of the East to India
    2. Elevate Paulose Ivanios Murimattathil as the Catholicos (Maphrian) for the Malankara Church
    3. Entrust the patriarchal rights to the Catholicos
Participants
Outcome

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "History of Church Cases at a Glance, Litigation Among the Members of Syrian Christians in Malankara - An Overview, History of Church, Baselios Church Digital Library". Retrieved 2023-09-23.
  2. ^ "Most. Rev. P.M.A. Metropolitan & Ors vs Moran Mar Marthoma & Anr on 20 June, 1995". indiankanoon.org. Retrieved 2024-02-25.
  3. ^ "K.S. Varghese vs St.Peter'S & Paul'S Syrian Orth.. on 3 July, 2017". Indian Kanoon. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  4. ^ Radhakrishnan, M.G. (24 September 2011). "Fractured Faith: Two church factions clash over a disputed shrine in Kerala". India Today.
  5. ^ "The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church". Catholic Near East Welfare Association. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
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