Church of South India (CSI) Madhya Kerala diocese lay secretary Simon John said on Friday the diocese executive committee decided to withdraw from a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the Muziris Spice Route Heritage company to turn Norton Bungalow (Mission Bungalow) here into a missionary museum.
Mr. John said that the local CSI church had nothing to do with it.
He said the executive committee could not agree to a clause in the MoU that the contract could be renewed or discontinued after 20 years with mutual consensus. The diocese executive committee had earlier constituted a committee with A.J. Rajan as convener to look into the matter.
The committee submitted its report and a meeting of the executive held on November 8, 2019 decided to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement, he added.
The two-storey Norton Bungalow, the residence of Thomas Norton — the first Church Mission Society (CMS) missionary in Travancore — is in a dilapidated state. The project to conserve the bungalow, under the Alappuzha Heritage project, was proposed as a joint initiative.
