The church’s centuries-old dispute cannot be resolved with a judicial decision alone and the government must intervene for an amicable settlement, the petition read.
The Jacobite faction of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church has demanded a law to resolve its centuries-old dispute with the Orthodox faction and has submitted a massive memorandum to the Kerala government in this regard. Signed by five lakhs of Jacobite church believers, a group of church representatives, including Mathews Mor Anthimos Metropolitan, presented the memo to Industries Minister EP Jayarajan at his office in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.
The Jacobites and the Orthodox are two groups of Syrian churches based in Kerala. The dispute between the two factions escalated following the implementation of a 2017 Supreme Court order, which granted the Orthodox faction possession of more than 1,000 churches and properties attached to them. According to the recent petition from the Jacobite faction, the centennial church dispute cannot be resolved with a judicial decision alone and that the government must intervene for an amicable solution, a statement from the church reads.
The Jacobite faction is of the opinion that various measures taken by the Left Democratic Front government led by the CPI (M) so far to solve the problems in the church, including the recent Kerala Christian Cemeteries Law (Right to Burial of bodies) “bold”. They want more such legislation to end the dispute between the two factions, he said.
The Jacobite group also said that the only solution to resolve the dispute between the factions was to hold a referendum in the churches and both factions had tried and succeeded in most of the churches in Malabar before, the statement added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held talks with representatives of the Jacobite and Orthodox factions in New Delhi this week with the aim of resolving the dispute. He met with three high-ranking priests from the Jacobite faction in his office on Tuesday, a day after discussions with representatives of the Orthodox group there on Monday.
Previously, the CPI (M) government had tried to mediate talks between the factions to end their dispute over the administration of some 1,000 parishes. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s effort to improvise a mutually acceptable peace formula did not work.
While the Orthodox faction upheld its demand that the 2017 Supreme Court order be implemented, the Jacobite faction alleged that the other group was “misinterpreting” the order and “taking over” their churches unethically.
Protests by both groups have often resulted in public order problems in various parishes across the state, including delays in the burial of deceased parish members.
