In a significant move, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church has expressed its willingness to recognise the Patriarch of Antioch subject to the 1934 Constitution of the Malankara Church, various orders of the Supreme Court of India, and a set of other conditions.
Responding to a query by a Bench of the Kerala High Court, Baselios Marthoma Mathews III, Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan, informed the court through his lawyer that the Patriarch should, in turn, recognise him as the only Catholicos in Malankara.
The Patriarch should also accept the 1934 Constitution of the Malankara Church, both literally and internally, and the Supreme Court order of 2017, and the other verdicts issued by the apex court in this connection.
If the Patriarchate was willing to recognise the Catholicos in this capacity, the Patriarch would be given recognition as accorded by the church’s constitution.
According to the Catholicos, the spiritual powers of the Patriarch had already reached a vanishing point as per an order by the Supreme Court. In the event of the two coming together in a liturgy, the Patriarch will be regarded as first among equals and this has been the position of the Orthodox Church till date.
