History of the Growth of Parishes in USA, Canada, Europe of Mar Thoma Church

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The History and Growth of the parishes and Congregations in the Diocese of North America of the

Mar Thoma Syrian Church (The Mar Thoma Church) Introduction The growth of the Diocese is related to the mass immigration of laity in the sixties and seventies to Canada, Europe and United States. Those laity, who were forced to leave their kith and kin and their parishes in their native places in Kerala congregated themselves as prayer groups in apartments and homes to worship together. Later they formed congregations and received approval from the church authorities. The church was reluctant to approve congregations and directed the laity to join the local Episcopal churches in United States. But that attitude of the authorities was changed when the first Mar Thoma congregation was approved in 1976 in New York. Later, congregations were upgraded to parishes and full time Vicars were appointed. Prior to 1990, the services of student Achens were utilized to provide pastoral care to the laity. But since 1990, when the priests were allowed to obtain R-1 visas, the services of full time priests were given to parishes. Diocesan Head Quarters: The following is a short history of the formation of 2320 Merrick Avenue, Merrick, New York, 11566 the congregation and parishes in different cities of United States, Canada and Europe, which is not complete and accurate to 100%, since documents and data were not available easily. But we have tried to collect the available data and provided below. The readers are welcomed to provide any corrections or additions to the information with reliable evidence for updating the information and to keep the same for generations to come. The main information is collected from the book "In the Beginning" edited by Dr. T. M. Thomas, New York and Mr. Abraham Mattackal, Los Angeles and also from the old issues of Mar Thoma Messenger since 1983 and souvenirs published by different parishes. 01


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