THE P RTAL
October 2016 Page 6
St Thomas Christians
The Revd Mark Woodruff continues his round the Eastern Churches continues
In our travels round the Eastern Churches that contribute to the unity-in-diversity of Catholic communion so far , we have journeyed north and west of Byzantium , but we have yet to venture east of Jerusalem .
Let us now move to a new starting-point - Antioch , the city where we were first called Christians , capital of the Roman province of Syria Prima , once the third city in the known world and the first at which St Peter established his episcopal ministry . Now a ruin on the border of Turkey , in the first century AD it stood at the crossroads of the Silk Road from Asia and the spice routes from Arabia and from Persia over the sea to the coasts of India .
It was not only a strategic trading and political hub , but a centre for learning and religion . Here were Greeks and Romans , Georgians and Armenians from the north-east mountains , local Syrians and Jews speaking the Syriac dialect of Aramaic , the still spoken language of Jesus . It is not surprising that it gave rise to a number of Christian traditions . The Greco-Syrian tradition , of which St John Chrysostom and St John Damascene are famous sons , influenced Byzantine Christianity ; the Syriac-language regions and monasteries further afield , of whose dire struggles for survival we hear in the present Islamist onslaught , still bear traces of origins in the teaching and worship of the first Jewish followers of Jesus , including St James , after whom their Liturgy is named . Along the trade routes east went other disciples . St Bartholomew and St Thaddaeus are looked to as the founders of The Church of the East that once stretched from the Persian Empire to China , likewise holding on as the Assyrian and the Chaldean Catholic Churches in their current Iraqi heartland . We will visit these Churches another time , but first let us follow the traders across the sea .
The St Thomas Christians in Kerala trace their origins to sea-trade with Persia , through which they believe St Thomas came with his disciples – the Nasrani , the Nazarenes – to tell of Jesus Christ across southern India . Although written references go back only to the fourth century , doubtless there was Christian presence across the water in India , just as the Church spread around the Mediterranean , in the first .
When the Portuguese arrived to explore the southwest Indian Malabar coast in 1498 , the St Thomas Christians welcomed them , despite centuries of
isolation , as representatives of the senior see of St Peter at Rome . The ancient Syriac-cum-Malabar Christian tradition was not respected in return . At the Synod of Diamper in 1599 , the Latin Archbishop of Goa imposed changes to the St Thomas Christians ’ ancient liturgy ( older even than Rome ’ s ), clerical celibacy , Portuguese bishops and the Roman Inquisition . Such was the outrage that in 1653 the St Thomas Christians swore to reject the Jesuit bishops and broke from the Catholics . Pope Alexander VII sent Carmelite friars , and for many the rift was healed by 1662 . A split with the other St Thomas Christians , however , persists – some turned to the Syriac Orthodox Church for new bishops , and others re-established links with the Assyrian Church of the East . Members of the Ordinariate will sense an affinity with the story of painful breaches between fellow Christians in the past and a duty towards ecumenism for the present and future .
In 1896 , this Syro-Malabar Church at last saw the restoration of bishops from its own tradition , coinciding with a revival in its life . From 200,000 members in the 1880s , there are now four million worldwide . In 1923 , after four and a half centuries , Pius XI restored Catholic respect for this ancient apostolic Church . There is still work to do for , while the Latin Church is free to operate throughout India and indeed the world , the Syro-Malabar Church is restricted in its authority , its mission , and its responsibility for its faithful outside Kerala . But change is in the air . From October 9 th , Britain will have a new Catholic diocese , covering the country like the Ordinariate , for tens of thousands of Syro-Malabar Catholics . With a view to its future life and mission here , the newly restored and de-Latinised Holy Qurbana , their traditional liturgy , with its beautifully recovered chants of ancient Syriac , Persian and Indian origin , has been translated into English and additional music composed . The Syro- Malabar Church community thus joins the Ordinariate as part of the increasingly varied face of Catholicism in Britain – and in bringing the Gospel with fresh voices to our changing society and culture . Next time we will look at this ancient liturgical tradition , shared with our fellow Catholics in the suffering Chaldean Church .