Jacobite Syrian Christian Church

The Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, or the Syriac Orthodox Church in India(Malayalam: യാക്കോബായ സുറിയാനി ക്രിസ്ത്യാനി സഭ or Yakobaya Suryani Christhiani Sabha) is an autonomous maphrianate of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch based in Kerala, India and a part of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. It is headed by the Catholicos of India, Mor Baselios Joseph, within the hierarchy of Syriac Orthodox Church.
According to tradition, it was founded by Saint Thomas the Apostle. It is currently the only church in Malankara that maintains the hierarchy of the Syriac Orthodox Church under the Holy See of Antioch. The church employs the West Syriac Rite's Liturgy of Saint James.
In the aftermath of the Council of Chalcedon, Emperor Justinian I who supported the Chalcedonians, exiled Patriarch Severus of Antioch to Egypt, for refusing to accept the council, and professing Miaphysitism. The Syriac Orthodox Church is the church of Antioch that continued to accept Severus as patriarch until his death in 538 AD. During this turbulent time for the church, Jacob Baradaeus was consecrated as bishop with the support of Empress Theodora and he led and revived the church. The term "Jacobite" was originally used as a derogatory word for Miaphysites from the church of Antioch, but was later embraced by the church.
According to Indian Christian tradition, the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala were evangelized by Thomas the Apostle, who reached Malankara in 52 CE. The dominant view is that the entirety of the Saint Thomas Christian community gradually gravitated towards the Persian Church of the East headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and became part of its archdiocese of Rev Ardashir, by 420 CE, which lasted till the arrival of Portuguese colonists in the 16th century. The Jacobite Syrian Christian Church however maintains that Saint Thomas Christians always acknowledged the ecclesiastical pre-eminence of the Patriarch of Antioch over the "East", which covers Persia and India, based on the canons of the ecumenical councils of Nicaea and Constantinople. The Jacobite church further argues that the Persian bishops who governed Saint Thomas Christians, recognized the supremacy of the Patriarch of Antioch before 500 CE. However, it acknowledges the perpetual connections with the Church of the East from the 14th to 16th centuries.
In the 16th century, the overtures of the Portuguese Padroado to bring the Saint Thomas Christians into the Latin Church of the Catholic Church led to the first of several rifts in the community due to Portuguese colonialists, and the establishment of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. Since then, further splits have occurred, and the Saint Thomas Christians are now divided into several factions.
Saint Thomas Christians were administratively under the single native dynastic leadership of an archdeacon (a native ecclesiastical head with spiritual and temporal powers, deriving from the Greek term arkhidiākonos) and were in communion with the church in the Middle East from at least 496 AD. The indigenous Church of Malabar/Malankara followed the faith and traditions handed over by the apostle St. Thomas. In the 16th century, the Portuguese Jesuits deliberately attempted to annex the native Christians to the Catholic Church, and in 1599 they succeeded through the Synod of Diamper. Resentment against these forceful measures caused the majority of the community under Archdeacon Thomas to swear an oath never to submit to the Portuguese, known as the Coonan Cross Oath, in 1653.
Meanwhile, the Dutch East India Company defeated the Portuguese and gained supremacy over the spice trade in Malabar in 1663. The Malankara church used this opportunity to escape from Catholic persecution with the company's help. At the church's request, the Dutch brought Gregorius Abdul Jaleel of Jerusalem, a bishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church, aboard their trading vessel in 1665. The Malankara Church consolidated under Archdeacon Thoma welcomed Gregorios Abdal Jaleel, who regularized the canonical ordination of Thoma as a bishop. The Malankara Church gradually adopted West Syriac liturgy and practices.
As part of the Syriac Orthodox Church, the church uses the West Syriac liturgy and is part of the Oriental Orthodox Communion. It has dioceses in most parts of India as well as in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Western Europe, the Persian Gulf, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2003 it was estimated that the church had 1,000,000 (including Knanaya) members globally.
The liturgical service is called Holy Qurbono in the Syriac language. The Liturgy of Saint James is celebrated on Sundays and special occasions. The Holy Eucharist consists of Gospel reading, Bible readings, prayers, and songs. Apart from certain readings, prayers are sung in the form of chants and melodies. Hundreds of melodies remain preserved in the book known as Beth Gazo. Liturgy is done every Sunday and on feast days, traditionally done every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday (which only some churches follow nowadays).
The official Bible of the church is the Peshitta or its Malayalam translation, Vishudhagrandham(വിശുദ്ധ ഗ്രന്ഥം).
There are 7 hours of prayers in the Syriac Orthodox Church, in accordance with Psalms 119:164. The Hours are: Vespers (Ramsho - 6pm), Compline (Sootoro - 9pm), Midnight (Lilyo - 12am), Matins (Saphro-6am), Third Hour (Tloth sho' - 9am), Sixth Hour (Sheth sho - 12pm), and Ninth Hour (tsha' sho - 3pm).
The Jacobite Syrian Christians pray from the Shehimo during canonical hours in accordance with Psalm 119. In 1910, Reverend Konattu Mathen Malpan translated the prayer book of the Syrian orthodox church into Malayalam, known as Pampakuda Namaskaram, with permission from Ignatius Abded Aloho II. It is the common prayer book of Syrian Orthodox Christians in India.
Prayers are done facing the East, and churches are normally built facing the East, in accordance with Matthew 24:27.
The Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, as a part of the Syriac Orthodox Church, rejects the Council of Chalcedon along with the rest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The church believes in the faith as proclaimed by the three Ecumenical Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, and Ephesus. The church confesses Trinitarianism, that God, who is one in essence, subsists in three hypostasis, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is Unbegotten, the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father. The Trinity is one Godhead, having one will, one word, and one lordship.
The church believes in the incarnation of God the Son, who is Jesus Christ, of the Virgin Mary, who they teach was cleansed by the Holy Spirit of all natural impurity, filling her with the Father's grace. The church confesses that Christ has one incarnate nature, that is fully human and fully God (miaphysitism). This union is natural, free of all separateness, intermixture, confusion mingling, change, and transformation. The church maintains that at the time of Christs death, his body separated from his soul, and his divinity did not depart from either.
The Malankara Church has accepted miaphysitism since early on, per pictorial evidence in St. Mary's Knanaya Church of Kottayam, Piravom Church, and Mulanthuruthy Church dating to the first millennium.
The Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church of India established by Saint Thomas the Apostle believes in apostolic succession within the hierarchy of the Syriac Orthodox Church, within the Oriental Orthodox Communion.
It is under the Holy See of Antioch, established by Saint Peter, which was confirmed as a patriarchate in the Council of Nicaea, along with the Holy See of Alexandria, and the Holy See of Rome. All bishops of the East must be in communion with the patriarch of Antioch. A bishop in the East who is not in communion with the Holy See of Antioch is considered invalid by the church.
The highest rank in the ecclesiastical hierarchy is the patriarch of Antioch, head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, who became the first among equals of the Diocese of the East as stated by the Council of Nicaea (Canon 6). The second among equals is the maphrian, known nowadays as the Catholicos of India, and is the head of the Jacobite Syrian Church in India, and first among the Syriac Orthodox bishops in India. There are also archbishops, and bishops.
Three ranks of hierarchy
There are three ranks of priesthood in the Syriac Orthodox Church:
The church believes in the intercessions of the St. Mary and all the Saints. The church holds the place of the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God as affirmed by the Council of Ephesus, with the title of Theotokos(Θεοτόκος) in Greek, Yoldath Aloho(ܝܠܕܬ ܐܠܗܐ) in Syriac, or Daiva Mathavu (ദൈവമാതാവ്) in Malayalam. The church also considers St. Thomas the Apostle as its patron saint, the Apostle of India (ܫܠܝܚܐ ܕܗܢܕܘܐ Shleehe d'Hendo). Its most venerated relics include the Holy Girdle of the Theotokos and the relics of Saint Thomas the Apostle. The church of India also venerates other saints, local saints, church fathers, martyrs, aligned with the practices of the entire Syriac Orthodox Church.
The Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (JSC) and Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) regularly engage in disputes over the position of the Patriarch of Antioch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, and his authority over the Malankara Church. The conflict with MOSC started in 1912, when the Malankara Metropolitan Dionysius Vattesseril was suspended by the Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Abded Aloho II. This caused the Malankara Metropolitan to go to the senior Patriarch Ignatius Abded Mshiho II, to get an autocephalous Catholicate established in Malankara. After years of conflict the church reunited in 1955, under the Patriarchate of Antioch, with an autonomous Maphrianate, leading to the subsequent enthronement of Baselios Augen I as Catholicos of the East. However, in 1974, the Catholicate sought to remove the Patriarch from his authority over Malankara, leading to Augen I being suspended by the Syriac Orthodox Synod of 1975 from his position, and the enthronement of Baselios Paulose II as Catholicos of the East, causing a second split into the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Church (who supported the Synod) and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (who rejected the Synod).
The MOSC proclaims the general agreement of territorial jurisdictions integral to the Orthodox churches around the world and alleges that the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate illegally interferes in the temporal matters of the Malankara Church. The JSC lost many of its prominent churches to the Malankara Orthodox after the Supreme Court of India's verdict, despite having absolute majority in many of those churches. After the long struggle for talks on churches that were dismissed by Malankara Orthodox, the Jacobite Syrian Church decided to end their sacramental relationship with them in 2022.
Aside from the ecumenical agreements by the Syriac Orthodox Church, and the larger communion being the Oriental Orthodox Communion, the JSC also has these relations:
According to the agreement of Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I and Pope John Paul II, the Syriac Orthodox Church and Catholic Church have a relationship between sacraments of penance, Eucharist and anointing of the sick for a grave spiritual need. There are also set rules and guidelines, within this agreement specifically for interfaith marriages between the Malankara Syriac Orthodox and the Syro-Malankara Catholic churches.
By the fourth century, the bishops of Antioch, Alexandria and Rome became the heads of the regional churches, and were known as patriarchs. In the seventh century, the Syriac Orthodox Christians who lived outside the Roman Empire began using the title of "maphrian", for their head. This office ranked right below the Patriarch of Antioch in Syriac Orthodox church hierarchy, until it was abolished in 1860 and reinstated in 1964 in India.
The Maphrian of India(Catholicos) is an ecclesiastical office of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the local head of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church. He is the head of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, which is a part of the Syriac Orthodox Church. The jurisdiction of Catholicos is limited to India so to avoid disambiguation and avoid legal issues. The Syriac Orthodox Church uses the title Catholicos of India, distinct from Catholicos of the East.