Athanasius Yohan (formerly known as K.P. Yohannan), Metropolitan Bishop of Believers Eastern Church, passed away at a U.S. hospital after being injured in a car accident.
In an official statement, the Church announced that the prelate passed away due to a sudden cardiac arrest at a hospital in Dallas, Texas, where he had been receiving treatment since his accident.
“With profound grief and sorrow, we would like to inform that His Holiness Athanasius Yohan I, our honorable Metropolitan, reposed in the Lord this evening, the 8th of May 2024,’’ it read. Further details will be announced by the synod, it added.
Multiple injuries
Following the accident which took place around 6.45 a.m. U.S. Time on May 7 when the bishop had gone for a morning walk on a county road, the prelate had sustained multiple injuries, including head injury. According to a Church spokesperson, several of his ribs were broken, causing injury to his lungs and internal bleeding. Following this, the prelate had undergone an emergency surgery at the hospital.
Though there is not much clarity about the accident, the Church officials say that it was not a hit-and-run case and prima facie there is nothing suspicious. The police have also recovered the vehicle that hit the Metropolitan and registered a case. Soon after the accident, the police rushed to the spot and he was airlifted to a Dallas hospital.
As soon as the reports of the accident came out, the Church secretary, Fr. Daniel Johnson, left for the U.S. while a team of bishops of the Church too was scheduled to leave for the country soon.
Founder of Gospel for Asia
The 74-year-old prelate is the founder and president of the GFA World, earlier known as Gospel for Asia, a non-profit mission organisation with a focus on India and Asia.
Born in 1950 in a Mar Thoma Syrian Church family in the Upper Kuttanad village of Niranom, he joined Operation Mobilisation (OM), an evangelical mission movement, at the age of 16 and served there for eight years. He later moved to the United States in 1974 for theological studies at Criswell College in Dallas, Texas, and graduated with a BA in Biblical Studies.
In 1979, Yohannan and his wife Gisela, a German citizen, started an organisation known today as Gospel for Asia, based in Texas. In 1981, he started a chapter of the Gospel for Asia (GFA) in Kerala, and in 1983 established its Indian headquarters at Tiruvalla. In 1993, he founded the Believers Eastern Church as part of the GFA World Apostolate and was consecrated its bishop in 2003.
According to Believers Eastern Church, its membership includes over 3.5 million people in 10 countries speaking a hundred languages. The Church currently has 30 bishops with Athanasius Yohan as its Metropolitan Bishop.
He has two children, Daniel and Sarah.
