Leaving out the political and religious hijackings happened to St. Thomas and doctrinal differences of the various denomination, do you find and recognise the appostolic lineage of Mar Thoma Church from my posts? I asked this because it may help the person who posted the original querry.
Should I ask aren’t we one in Christ?
Mr EagleWatch, I failed to notice this post you addressed to me. Although I am finished with posting on this topic (my difficulty in keeping away notwithstanding because I couldn’t resist the temptation to respond to any post that was in response to my comment), I wish to address your question.
To your "Aren’t we all one in Christ? " My answer is an emphatic YES. Personally I think that every genuine Christian, who shares the Christian faith as in the Acts of Apostles of the New Testament, as in the ecumenical Nicean Creed of 341, (many centuries before Protestantism was ever conceived) no matter to which Christian denomination they belong, is one in Christ. But only Jesus Christ can judge who is one with Him because He alone can look into the hearts and minds of human beings. He has said, “Not all who call me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of My Father.” So let us leave judgment in the hands of Jesus Christ.
As to the Jacobite Reformed Church you belong to, renamed Mar Thoma Church, and its connection to the Apostle Thomas tradition of the natives of Malabar Coast, is a different matter. I suggest you do a search of all my posts on this forum, because I have written way too much already, and do not want to bore you or others anymore.
The secular history of Malabar Coast and its Portuguese and Dutch settlements is vital to understanding the history of Christianity in present Kerala before the arrival of British Rev Claudius Buchanan and CMS missionaries (Lutheran Basel Mission Society worked with CMS but based in Malabar District of North Kerala until it was shut down at the beginning of World War I ) in the nineteenth century. It would be an eye opener to find out how VOC (Dutch United East Company) organized Dutch Reformed Church in their other colonies like Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Indonesia with their capital in Batavia (now Jakarta), because it stands to reason they would have done the same in Malabar Coast, where they were based for over 130 years. Find out what the organization of Scottish Episcopal Church and Church of Scotland (both of which has much in common with Dutch Calvinists and Dutch Reformed) and the churches established in Malabar Coast in nineteenth/twentieth century have in common. CMS, the “low” Anglicans trained non-Catholics on Malabar Coast for twenty years and taught them Syriac and about Syriac Liturgies in the Middle East as Rev Dr Claudius Buchanan envisaged. Two from the non-Catholic group had been educated at Madras Christian College established by Scottish missionaries in Madras. One of them would go on to head the formation of the Mar Thoma Church. Rev Dr Claudius Buchanan DD, who was first vice-provost and scholar of Latin and Greek in the College of Fort-William, Serampore, Calcutta, in the very first college established by the British in India, wanted a proper local church in Malabar Coast for the non-Catholics, which would be in communion with Church of England.
All the churches established in Malabar Coast in the nineteenth and twentieth century, except the Syro Malabar Catholic church, can trace its history back to the education that followed post visit of Rev Dr Claudius Buchanan in 1806, in the form of training by CMS missionaries/Church of England/Church of Scotland and academic work also by Lutheran Basel Mission.
I hope that answers your question. As I mentioned elsewhere, I see no mention of Coonan Cross Oath in the authentic history of St Thomas Christians. Portuguese Padroado and Carmelites of Papal Congregation of Propaganda Fide were two different Catholic jurisdictions in Malabar Coast. The ancient community was under Portuguese Padroado. It was the Jesuits who worked with the ancient St Thomas Christian community not Carmelites, who came only shortly before the arrival of Dutch, over half a century after Synod of Diamper. The native St Thomas Christians had no reason to break away. No colonial trader demanded that they give up their ancient heritage. All they did in 1599 at Synod of Diamper was to stop praying for Patriarch of Babylon and start praying for Pope in Rome instead. They had their own churches, their own Syriac Liturgy and their own priests, as they always had. The only difference was that instead of having a bishop from the Middle East, they now had a bishop from Europe and they had their distinct identity in See of Cranganore.
What happened after the Portuguese were ousted starting 1658, and completed in 1663 with capture of Cochin, including the lead up to their ousting with help from insiders, is politics of colonial traders, mixed race locals and new converts, involved in colonial trade. The European history of Malabar Coast, which spans nearly four and half centuries, involving Europeans, Hindu rulers of some kingdoms on Malabar Coast, local mixed race Christians and new local converts since 1500, who had to do with them, has nothing to do with native St Thomas Christians, who were in See of Cranganore since 1599.
So there, you have my opinion. I don’t expect you to agree with it, so we must leave it at that.
As to marriage between different groups of Christians in Kerala, it is really up to the partners themselves, and their families, if the couple would like to make their families an integral part of their marriage. In the West it is easy to choose any partner, even if families don’t agree to the match. But in India, marriage is between families and communities who share similar social and religious traditions. It is up to the families to decide if they can find common ground.
