Indian Orthodox

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (Indian Orthodox Church)
Catholicate Emblem
Classification	Oriental Orthodox
Theology	Miaphysitism
Polity	Episcopal
Primate	Catholicos of the East and the Malankara Metropolitan present Baselios Mar Thoma Paulose II
Region	India, Canada, Africa, Ireland,United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom, Australia and the United States
Language	Malayalam, Syriac, English, Hindi, Konkani, Kannada, Tamil
Headquarters	Kottayam, Kerala, India
Founder	Saint Thomas the Apostle in 52
Members	2.5 million
Official website	http://www.mosc.in

The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church also known as the Indian Orthodox Church is an Oriental Orthodox church centered in the Indian state of Kerala. It is one of the churches of India's Saint Thomas Christian community, which has its origin in the evangelical activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The church is headed by the autocephalousCatholicos of the East and the Malankara Metropolitan, presently Baselios Mar Thoma Paulose II.

It is believed that Saint Thomas Christians of Malabar were in communion with the Church of the East from 496 to 1599. They got episcopal support from Persian bishops, who traveled to Kerala in merchant ships through the spice route, while the local leader of the Saint Thomas Christians held the rank of Archdeacon and was a hereditary office held by the Pakalomattam family. In the 16th century, the overtures of the Portuguese padroado to bring the Saint Thomas Christians into Latin Rite Catholicism led to the first of several rifts in the community by Portuguese colonialists and the establishment of the Catholic and the Malankara Church factions. Since then, further splits have occurred, and the Saint Thomas Christians are now divided into several fragments, due to western interferences. The Malankara Church is still remains as a part of Oriental Orthodoxy.

Saint Thomas Christians were administratively under the single native dynastic leadership of an Archdeacon (അർക്കദിയൊക്കൊൻ) (a native ecclesiastical head with spiritual and temporal powers, deriving from Greek term arkhidiākonos) and were in communion with the Church of the East, centered in Persia, from at least 496. The indigenous Church of Malabar/Malankara followed the faith and traditions handed over by the Apostle St. Thomas. During the 16th century, the Portuguese Jesuits began deliberate attempts to annex the native Christians to the Catholic Church, and in 1599 they succeeded through the Synod of Diamper. Resentment against these forceful measures led the majority of the community under the Archdeacon Thomas to swear an oath never to submit to the Portuguese, known as the Coonan Cross Oath, in 1653. The Malankara Church consolidated under Mar Thoma I welcomed Gregorios Abdal Jaleel, who regularized the canonical ordination of Mar Thoma as a Bishop.

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