Madhya Kerala Diocese of the Church of South India
| Diocese of Madhya Kerala | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | |
| Country | India |
| Ecclesiastical province | Church of South India |
| Statistics | |
| Congregations | 404 |
| Members | 0.3 million |
| Information | |
| Cathedral | Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kottayam |
| Secular priests | 165 |
| Current leadership | |
| Bishop | Thomas K Oommen |
| Website | |
| www.csimkd.net | |
The Madhya Kerala Diocese is one of the twenty-four dioceses of the Church of South India (commonly referred as CSI) (successor of the Church of England) covering the central part of Kerala. When the Church of South India was formed on 27 September 1947 the diocese was called the Diocese of Central Travancore. It was a part of the erstwhile Anglican Diocese of Travancore and Cochin founded in 1879. The Diocese was later renamed as Diocese of Madhya Kerala.
The history of the Madhya Kerala Diocese dates back to the work of the Church Missionary Society in the state of Travancore. R. H. Kerr and Claudius Buchanan, visited the Malabar Syrians in 1806, during the episcopate of Mar Dionysius I. It was Lord William Bentinck who sent Kerr to Travancore for the purpose of investigating the state of the native church.
Early in 1876, the Society began negotiations with the Secretary of State for India so that a new diocese can be formed under the Jerusalem Bishopric Act for the Church of England in the Native States of Travancore and Cochin. J. M. Speechly, then Principal of the C.N.I., was announced as the first Bishop of the New Diocese. In 1888, J. M. Speechly left for England and was unable to return, and E. N. Hodges (1890-1904), a C.M.S. Missionary from Ceylon followed him as the Bishop of the diocese. He was installed in the Pro-Cathedral, Kottayam in November 1890. During the episcopate of Hodges, the first missionary enterprise of the diocese was organised as its Home Mission, was started at Adoor in 1903. Hodges retired in 1905 and was succeeded by Charles Hope Gill (1905-1925), who was consecrated in Westminister Abbey and arrived in Kottayam in 1906. The Diocesanisation which began in 1879 was fulfilled in 1920, when Gill constituted, "Travancore and Cochin Diocesan Council" to assist in the management of the temporal affairs and financial business of the church. The diocese was earlier known as the Anglican Diocese of Travancore & Cochin, and later the Diocese of Central Travancore on the formation of the Church of South India on 27 September 1947. Subsequently, it was renamed the Diocese of Madhya Kerala.
The Diocesan Headquarters is at Kottayam, Kerala. The Bishop's House and a Retreat Centre is in the campus of the Headquarters.
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Wikipedia