The supreme head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church is the Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan . The Church has dioceses and churches in most parts of India as well as in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Western Europe, Persian Gulf nations, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. The official title of the head of the Church is the "Catholicos of the East and the Malankara Metropolitan". The present Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan is H.H. Moran Mar Baselios Mar Thoma Didymos I, who was enthroned on October 31, 2005, at Parumala Church by the Holy Synod amidst the Holy Eucharist.
The Church, though modern in its vision and outlook, keeps the traditional Oriental Orthodox faith and liturgy. It accepts the first three Ecumenical Synods. The Church has suffered considerable persecution from Western European colonial forces after Vasco da Gama set foot on Kerala soil on A.D. 1498. The liturgy now in use is the translation of the liturgy adopted from the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antiochian since their relationship started in 17th century. It had an earlier relationship with the Churches of Edessa, Tigris and Selucia and these Churches sent bishops to look after the spiritual needs of Malankara church. Today the Church uses liturgy in Syriac, Malayalam, Hindi, and English.
The Church has a Theological Seminary at Kottayam, Kerala, which was established in 1815 after the conquest of the Kingdom of Kochi and the destruction of the center of Christian learning from earlier centuries at Angamaly by Sultan Tipu. Another seminary is situated at Nagpur (St.Thomas Seminary), Maharashtra. The latter was established fairly recently in the latter part of the 20th century by the efforts of LATE H.G. Stephanos Mar Theodosious |
