KOCHI: Parishioners of St Mary’s Syrian Orthodox Cathedral at Piravom, which was previously with the Jacobite faction, on Tuesday approached the Kerala High Court seeking to prevent the consecration of the new catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The consecration is proposed to be held at Parumala on October 15.
The petitioners alleged that the Patriarch of Antioch has not been canonically invited for the consecration of the catholicos and it is against the Supreme Court judgment in the K S Varghese case. Though the cathedral has been handed over to the Orthodox Church following the Supreme Court’s verdict in 2017 in the Malankara Church dispute case, the majority of parishioners are Jacobites.
The Malankara Association meeting is scheduled to be held at Parumala on October 14 during which the Church Synod’s nomination and managing committee’s endorsement to ordain Metropolitan of Kandanadu West diocese Dr Mathews Mar Severios as the next catholicos and supreme head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church is likely to be approved.
The consecration is proposed to be held at Parumala on October 15.