Our Church: History
The Early Church in India
Until the 16th century when the Portuguese, followed by the British, came to India with ambitions of religious as well as colonial expansion, there was only one undivided Church in India, mainly in Kerala. It grew out of the original seven churches raised by St. Thomas in Kerala. These were located at Maliankara, (Kodungallur), Palayur (Chavakkad), North Paravur (Koovakayal), Gokamangalam, Niranam, Chayal, (Nilakkel) and Kollam. Of the same pattern adopted by the other Apostles, each local Church was self-administered, guided by a group of presbyters and presided over by an elder priest or bishop.
The early church in India remained at peace, treasuring the same ethnic and cultural characteristics of the local community. Its members enjoyed the goodwill of the other religious communities as well as the political support of the Hindu rulers. This Oriental religion (of Asiatic origin) remained deeply assimilated with the Hindu society around them. In several of the rituals and customs relating to marriage, birth and death they retained the Hindu traditions and format. But proving themselves capable and useful “in maritime and internal trade, in agricultural activities and in methods of war on land and sea” they scattered privileges and immunities from the princes and chieftains of the territories in which they scattered. Integration between the communities was indeed complete. Temples and churches were built in close proximity to each other, Christians made offerings in temples and Hindus in churches, some Christians were trustees in temples and Hindus in churches, and churches and temples lent each other ceremonial umbrellas, elephant drums and musical instruments during festivals.
The Thomas Christians also welcomed missionaries and migrants from west Asian Churches, some of whom sought escape persecution in their own countries. The language of worship in the early centuries must have been the local language mingled with East Syriac, received through the Church of the East. Its history is happily intertwined with that of the smaller Indian Church.
In the 16 century it came in contact with the Roman Catholic Church through Portuguese colonialism, which after a century’s contact and interactions resulted in the enforced domination of Roman Catholicism over the church of the St. Thomas Christians. The Synod of Udayamperoor (1599) played the decisive role in this regard. Thus this synod laid the firm foundation for all the problems which arose later on in this church. For about 54 years thereafter the St. Thomas Christians remained under Rome’s occupation and then onwards in a divided state.
In 1653 through an Oath, the St. Thomas Christians Church as a whole overthrew their enforced subjection to Roman Catholicism and resolved to restore their freedom as a church of India and to revive their Oriental Church heritage and indigenous characteristics. But due to various pressures their unity was broken, mainly due to the overwhelming action of the Roman Catholics who had immense support from the Colonial powers. A group of the Thomas Christians were induced to the Roman Catholic side and later on became the champions in the propagation of Roman Catholicism among the Thomas Christians. Moreover, those who were taken over to the Roman Catholic side did not allow their opponents, who had discarded Rome, to travel on freely to their destination as a free church. After many years of intense tribulation, struggles and loss of faithful to the Roman Catholics, those who stood against Rome, emerged as independent Church entering into free and friendly adherence with the bishops who came from the West Syrian Patriarchate in South-West Asia. This began from 1665, soon after the change in the political and colonial scenario of South India, when the Portuguese were ousted out the advent of the Dutch in the region