Accompanied by the Spirit: A Brief History of Kerala Pentecostals in New York and United States

Revd Dr. Geomon George*

On a hot summer day in 1972, my aunt boarded an Air France flight for the first time from Bombay, India to land at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City. She offered a prayer and recited as many Bible verses as she could in Malayalam, beginning with Psalm 91. My aunty is part of a larger economically, politically, and socially diverse community of Pentecostals from Kerala, India who have called the United States their new home. While we do not have an exact count of the total number of Indian Christian churches in the United States representing diverse Christian traditions, there are more than 1,500 Indian immigrant churches and over 400 of which are Kerala Pentecostals. Some of them include India Pentecostal Church (IPC), Assemblies of God, Church of God, Sharon Fellowship, and various independent Pentecostal churches. More than half of the Kerala Pentecostals live in New York, New Jersey, California, Oklahoma, and Texas.

The first wave of Pentecostals from Kerala came to the United States for theological studies or at the invitation of non–Indian Pentecostal churches in the United States. In the 1940s, Pastor P. J. Thomas came to Wheaton College for postgraduate studies after completing theological studies in Australia. After his graduation, Thomas briefly taught at Wheaton College before leaving for India for ministry in 1952. The Assemblies of God pastors M. C. Samuel and C. Kunjumon visited different churches in the United States in 1947.

Pastor K. E. Abraham, one of the founding members of the Indian Pentecostal Church of God, and Pastor P. M. Samuel came to the United States at the invitation of the American Swedish Pentecostal church in 1948. When they arrived in the New York port, pastors from the Norwegian Pentecostal churches were there to welcome them to the United States. By this time, K. C. Cherian had also arrived in New York from the United Kingdom. Since there were no Kerala congregations, they ministered among the Italian, Spanish, Estonian, Finnish, Norwegian, and American Pentecostal churches.

In August 1948, all these leaders met with the American Assemblies of God and Church of God leaders to discuss a way to work together in Christian witness to the Gospel in India. While there was progress made in the early stages, their plan failed to materialize due to a lack of consensus among local leaders in India. By the 1950s Dr. T. V. Thomas (the first MA rank holder among Kerala Pentecostals), T. S. Abraham and John Karthikapali came to the United States for higher education and in 1952 the Church of God pastor T. M. Varghese came to the United States. Testimonies of their experiences encouraged others to dream about going to the United States.

In 1962, Achoy O. Mathew attended Oyster Bay Bible College in Oyster Bay, Long Island (later Long Island Bible Institute). He later married Tatana Marr, an American, on July 31, 1965. This was probably the first Kerala Pentecostal marriage in the United States. T. G. Esau, George Philip, M. S. Samuel, Joy P. Oommen, and many others attended the Long Island Bible Institute. It became a hub for many early Kerala Pentecostals for theological education. After they completed theological education, they stayed back in the United States for ministry and work.

By the 1960s, the lack of opportunities forced people in Kerala to look outside of their state for a job. Due to a shortage in the medical field in the United States, the State Department started issuing exchange visas for those that were qualified, with an understanding that upon the contract expiration they would return to India. Kerala Pentecostal women saw this as an opportunity for economic mobility. Immigration and Nationality Acts of 1965 enabled them to continue their residency in the United States.

The role of women in the early formation of Pentecostal worship is undeniable. For example, many Kerala Pentecostal nurses were staying at Beth Israel Hospital Nurse Cottage, and pastor C. M. Varghese would gather them for worship in the late 1960s. Pastor Joy P. Oommen and pastor A. C George were also very helpful to nurses who needed support. During the 1970s and 1980s, Kerala Pentecostals began to take root especially when their parents and siblings came to the United States under the family unification provision in the law. Pastor Joy P. Oommen and Grace Oommen bought their first house in 1971 in Richmond Hill, Queens, which became a safe space for so many early immigrants.

It must be stated that while there was a focus to support the people of Kerala, there was an openness to share the Gospel with non-Keralites as well. For example, when pastor K. K. John arrived in 1962, he worked with the ChiAlpha campus ministry at the University of Minnesota. Pastor A. C. George was so passionate about evangelism that he went on a two-month mission trip to Puerto Rico. Both pastor Achoy Mathew and pastor M. S. Samuel left the Kerala community to pastor a multicultural church.

Early Indian church gatherings in the United States were ecumenical and one could often find members belonging to different denominations gather together for worship. However, as the Indian population grew in America, pastors began to invite people along linguistic and denominational lines. On February 18, 1968, pastors Achoy O Mathews, M. S. Samuel, A. C. John, John C. Daniel, Abraham Samuel, Mathew George, and Thomas Pushpamangalam met at the residence of Mathew George for a discussion on forming a Kerala Pentecostal church. As a result, the first Indian Pentecostal Church in America is registered under the name India Christian Assembly. They Started to meet at All People’s Church in NYC, and as the church grew, it moved to the Hungarian Baptist church on East 80th Street in Manhattan and then later to the United Nations Church Center. The church continued to find different locations to serve the Kerala Pentecostal community.

In the early 1970s, while pastor A. C. George was renting a space at a Spanish Christian Church at 1644 Park Ave in New York City, his pastors Frank Negron and Thomas Perez encouraged him to register a church. So, in January 1974, Pastor A. C. George started a church with the name India Pentecostal Church of God. The work of the Church of God was started at the residence of Thankachan Joseph in Manhattan. Pastor P. Philip also offered early leadership to these gatherings. When pastor Mathai P. Mathai came from Mumbai in 1973, he organized a church with the name Brooklyn Church of God and when the church was moved to Elmont, New York, the name was changed to First Church of God.

The first Assembly of God church was established in 1971 in New Jersey. Pastor C. M. Varghese was instrumental in the formation of this church. In 1971, pastor K. P. Titus started the first Assembly of God church in New York called New York Bible Church. This was later changed to the New York Bible Assembly of God. Pastors M. C. Jacob and V. S. George also served together with K. P. Titus. Beyond the regular Sunday worship services, Saturday evening cottage meetings, tarry meetings, conventions, Sunday School, youth gatherings, and women's ministry, many other ministry programs were also developed. Special charitable and mission boards were also established to support and start Gospel work in India. The Sunday School Network International (SSNI) was formed to offer a Sunday School syllabus that is contextually relevant for the diaspora Keralite Pentecostals.

During the 1970s there were hardly any young people in the church. By 1977, there were about five teenagers in the New York Gospel Assembly. The Church formed Christ Ambassadors led by Sunny Philip, an active youth in his twenties. At the same time under the leadership of Pastor A. C. George, Indian Pentecostal Church started a youth group for their handful of young people. Another leading youth leader was Pothan Chacko. A conversation among the churches began to happen, and it was suggested that a combined meeting should take place. As a result, the first Indian Pentecostal Youth meeting took place at the Indian Pentecostal Church. Sunny Philip was appointed as the first coordinator by the pastors of these churches to form a youth organization. Subsequently, three meetings took place at the residences of M. A. George and the late Kuruvilla and Tom Zachariah. In 1981, after months and years of conversations between pastors, parents, and youth, the Pentecostal Youth Fellowship of America was created with a handful of smaller churches. Since then, many other youth organizations have been formed such as Pentecostal Youth Conference of Dallas, Pentecostal Youth Fellowship of Florida, Oklahoma Pentecostal Youth Fellowship, and Houston Youth Pentecostal Fellowship.

The India Christian Assembly also hosted the first Kerala Pentecostal convention held on April 11-14, 1968, with pastor K. E. Abraham and pastor George Varghese as guest speakers. Since then, many more conventions have been organized in different states. During the 1980s, pastor Oommen Abraham began a dialogue on offering a multi-state gathering of Kerala Pentecostals. As a result, in 1983, the first conference was held in Oklahoma under the banner “The Malayalee Conference” with 200 people attending from Texas, Illinois, and Oklahoma. The following year, another multi-state gathering was held in New Jersey. Residents from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, and Canada came for this meeting. In 1985, a national conference was held at Lee University in Tennessee with about 900 participants, during which the name Pentecostal Conference of North American Keralites (PCNAK) was adopted and it continues to serve as a common ground for all Kerala Pentecostal denominations on the continent.

Since the 1990s, there has been an intentionality in caring for young people and churches began offering English worship services to accommodate young people. A new generation of younger pastors has taken pastoral leadership and pastors Benjamin Thomas, John Johnson, and Robert Johnson took the mantle of serving a new generation of the Kerala Pentecostal diaspora.

At the same time, there is a reimagining of the church to become more missional in the local community. Bridge Community Church in Floral Park, New York was formed in 2013 to reach the local community and the Indian Pentecostal Assembly recently changed its name to Cornerstone Church to reflect community outreach. Pastor Cecil Mathew build on the foundation of the First Church of God and started a Community English Church. Though they had a wider community focus, the leadership remained in the hands of Kerala Pentecostals. More recently a few churches including the International Gospel Church NYC in the Bronx have emerged with multicultural leadership.

Members of the Kerala Pentecostal diaspora are also involved in mission work in India. Many new religious organizations and non-profit organizations are registered both in the United States and in India. Individuals are also actively supporting pastors and ministry leaders in India. In so doing, the Kerala Pentecostal diaspora has played a paramount role in the expansion of Pentecostal churches in India.

In conclusion, the church plays a vital role in the life of the Kerala Pentecostal diaspora. It offers a safe place to create community, construct identity, transfer values and faith to the next generation, and be missional both locally and globally. Kerala diaspora Pentecostals continue to maintain cultural, religious, and economic connections to India and are shaped by transnational relationships. Furthermore, a new generation of leaders is reimagining the nature of the mission of the church amid new realities. What we are witnessing is that the Kerala Pentecostal churches are not static but are finding different ways to adapt to the new realities of our times. In so doing, shaping the religious, economic, and social landscape of the United States.

*Geomon K. George, PhD (University of Edinburgh, Scotland) is Dean at the City Seminary of New York. He has pastored a church in Connecticut and is currently planting a new multiethnic diaspora church in New York City. He researches Indian diaspora Christianity in the United States and Pentecostalism in India. He has contributed to many academic articles and is the author of Religious Pluralism: Challenges for Pentecostalism in India