ERNAKULAM (UCAN): In Kerala, southern India, priests and laypeople from two rival Syrian Christian communities clashed inside a church shortly before Sunday Mass on August 9, prompting police to register criminal cases against 22 individuals, including priests.
The violence at St. John’s Bethlehem Church in Piramadom, near Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district, was captured on social media and television. Priests in liturgical vestments and cassocks were seen confronting and attacking each other near the altar, while members of the congregation also exchanged blows and threats.
Police registered separate cases after both sides filed complaints. The charges include rioting, unlawful assembly, criminal trespass, voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt with dangerous weapons or means, and criminal intimidation.
Police have barred both groups from entering the church to prevent further violence. No arrests had been made as of August 11.
The confrontation erupted when Father Abin Abraham, a priest of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, accompanied by a group of Christians, entered the church citing a recent order from a subordinate civil court, which they claimed entitled them to take possession, according to police and eyewitnesses.
They said they intended to celebrate Sunday Mass and assume control of the church.
They were confronted by Father Lalmon Thambi Pattarumadathil, the parish vicar, and members of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, who have been in possession of the church, sources said.
The Orthodox side maintains that the church is under its administration in accordance with the court order. The Jacobite side, however, asserts it holds the church under an earlier order issued by a lower civil court.
This latest confrontation is part of a century-old dispute between two branches of the Malankara Syrian Christian tradition: India’s Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, which recognises the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, which is self-governing.
Both were once part of a community that developed through historical ties between Kerala’s ancient Christian community and the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch.
They first split in 1911 but reunited in 1934 under an agreed constitution, recognising the Catholicos of the East as their common head. They split again in 1973, with each side taking control of church properties in areas where it had greater support.
The Jacobite Church remains under the spiritual authority of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, based in Damascus, while the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church has its own Catholicos based in Kerala.
The dispute over church properties has persisted ever since.
