Abraham Malpan and his Mar Thoma Church

Palakunnathu family`s Mar Thoma Church, an Anglican church in disguise

The Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar—also known as the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, having its principal seat at Poolatheen, Thiruvalla, Kerala, represented by Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan—may also be identified as the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church headquartered at the SCS Complex in Thiruvalla, Pathanamthitta, under the stewardship of Metropolitan Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma.

The newly founded community known as the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, or simply the Mar Thoma Church, traces its institutional shaping to the reforming work of Abraham Malpan (30 May 1796 – 9 September 1845). Although generally associated with the year 1898, the movement took form in Kerala under the pronounced influence of Anglican (CMS) missionaries. Its identity today stands as roughly ninety percent Anglican in theological orientation and ten percent Syriac in linguistic and ritual inheritance, reflected in the Malayalam liturgy sprinkled with select Syriac expressions and the use of adapted Syriac vestments during the celebration of the Holy Qurbana. Certain traditions were borrowed from the larger Malankara Church, itself the result of earlier historical developments in the seventeenth century and further fragmented in 1912 into the Malankara Orthodox Church and the Jacobite Syrian Church owing to disputes regarding supreme ecclesiastical authority and allegiance to the Patriarch of Antioch. Through this historical branching, the Syriac heritage gradually became dispersed among the various “Syriac” communities of Kerala.

The people historically called the Malankara Nasranis included Persian East-Syrian Christians who emigrated to Kerala between 450 and 520 CE, fleeing Roman Catholic oppression in Edessa. Their descendants famously refused to submit to the Portuguese Latin missionaries in 1653, culminating in the Coonan Cross Oath. Within this ancient milieu emerged the distinct path charted by Abraham Malpan. A defining peculiarity of his reformist church is the consolidation of authority within his own lineage: all significant ecclesiastical ranks are chosen from the Palakunnathu family, and the position of Metropolitan is traditionally entrusted to a member of this house. Even the properties of the church are regarded as being under the familial dominion. Abraham’s father belonged to the Eastern Syrian stream, and Abraham himself married after receiving priestly ordination from Mar Thoma VIII while he was a teacher at the Malankara Old Seminary in Kottayam.

Afflicted by diabetes, Abraham Malpan succumbed to illness at fifty and died on 9 September 1845. He was interred the next day at the Maramon Church, with his funeral rites conducted by his nephew, Mathews Mar Athanasius Metropolitan. Abraham left behind no will or formal documentation, and debates over transparency in the selection of church leadership have persisted ever since, with the Mandalam having only limited influence beside the authority of the family.

The Mar Thoma Church maintains several affiliated bodies, including the Mar Thoma Evangelistic Association, Mar Thoma Sunday School Samajam, Mar Thoma Yuvajana Sakhyam, Mar Thoma Suvishesha Sevika Sangham, the Mar Thoma Voluntary Evangelists’ Association, and the Department of Sacred Music and Communications.

As for the pattern of belief, it is widely perceived that allegiance to the Malpan family forms an unspoken cornerstone of church culture, as the institution operates effectively as a family-governed religious enterprise. Though its doctrinal framework resembles that of the Anglican tradition, the church’s identity diverges from the ancient Malabar Church in its adoption of a translated and re-crafted Anglican liturgy rendered in Malayalam, simplified and shaped to suit its theological orientation, with vestigial Syriac elements retained only in altered form.

The Mar Thoma Church holds the Holy Bible—specifically the English Reformed canon of sixty-six books—as its foundational authority, together with the Nicene Creed. It upholds the threefold ministry of deacon, presbyter, and bishop, and observes a range of sacramental and ceremonial rites, including church consecration, baptism, Holy Communion, matrimony, unction of the sick, funeral rites, and the liturgical rhythms of Sundays, Lenten seasons, and dominical feasts.

Its present administrative center is in Thiruvalla, Kerala, under the leadership of His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Theodosius Mar Thoma Metropolitan, who serves as the chief executive head of the church.

The question of transparency for Rank selections has been a dominating problem in the church. Mandalam members have very little say before the Malpan family.