THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 116-year-old Mateer Memorial Church in the heart of the capital city is in the spotlight again. For a section within the Church of South India (CSI) is planning to convert it into a cathedral, drawing flak from parishioners. Banners proclaiming “Don’t convert M M Church into Cathedral” were placed at vantage positions on the granite-paved church wall. But after the TNIE lensman took photographs, they were removed on Sunday evening.
MM Church, located over 16.50 acres in the LMS Compound, is one of the prominent landmarks in Thiruvananthapuram. Opened on December 1, 1906, it is one of the oldest of its kind in south India. The South Kerala Diocese (SKD), which is 60 years old, has 630 churches under it currently. During 2009, under the then CSI Thiruvananthapuram Bishop J W Gladston, there was a move to convert MM Church into a cathedral. Faced with stiff opposition, the proposal was cancelled. Now, the 14 church committee members have unanimously passed a resolution, and handed it over to the incumbent Bishop A Dharmaraj Rasalam, who they allege is keen to change the status of the church.
Premchand Johnson, a church committee member, told TNIE that the motive of the CSI Bishop is to sabotage the democratic setup prevalent in the MM Church.“Apart from the towering MM Church, which has 2,500 families as parishioners, there is a small CSI Cathedral at the rear, which has 160 parishioner families. There is a move to have a shopping complex constructed between the land belonging to the Wills Hostel and the CSI Cathedral. So their ploy is to bring the parishioners from the cathedral to the MM Church and to turn it into a cathedral. Our church has a long heritage. It was set up by foreign missionaries and that tradition cannot be revoked,” said Premchand Johnson, the great grandson of the late Rev J Lazarus who had held many posts in the MM Church.
The church cemetery, which has several thousands of bodies buried there, including that of celebrated actor Sathyan, recently saw 130 family vaults being constructed. The MM Church also generates sizable revenue by renting out their Parsonage Complex to commercial enterprises. A levy of 20% from the earnings of the church, including offerings from parishioners, is paid to the South Kerala Diocese. Dharmaraj Rasalam, who is also the CSI moderator, said he is unable to speak on the matter as he is away in Bengaluru for a meeting. Tense moments prevailed on Sunday evening when a section of the parishioners, under the behest of the top CSI authorities, removed the banner put up against the move to convert the church into a cathedral.
Meanwhile, T T Praveen, administrative secretary of the South Kerala Diocese, rubbished the allegations raised by the Church committee members. Speaking over the phone from Bengaluru, he said parishioners have no right to put up banners on the MM Church premises. “The MM Church belongs to SKD and we haven’t denied the parishioners the right to worship. There are 24 dioceses under CSI and all except the MM Church have been converted into cathedrals. We don’t have any plan to construct a shopping complex. Though the church committee has been paying a 20% levy, they haven’t been paying the 50% share from the proceedings of the various establishments. They are creating baseless allegations and are trying to create false news in the media,” Praveen said.