Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar

Mar Thoma Syrian Church
Mar Thoma Church Emblem
Primate	Joseph Mar Thoma, Mar Thoma XXI
Polity	Episcopal and apostolic
Headquarters	Tiruvalla, Kerala, India
Territory	Universal
Possessions	Australia, Canada, Germany, Middle East (Gulf Region), Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland.
Language	Malayalam, English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Syriac (Western).
Members	1. 6 million(2015 CE)
Website	www.marthoma.in

The Mar Thoma Syrian Church is a Syrian Christian church based in the Indian State of Kerala. Its members are part of the Saint Thomas Christian community, which originated from the missionary activity of St Thomas in Malankara. The Church in Malabar (Malankara) flourished under various ecclesiastical faith streams from time to time.

The Mar Thoma Church is an autonomous Oriental church with Syriac High Church traditions and eclectic characteristics from the era of the Reformation. The church defines itself as "Apostolic in origin, Universal in nature, Biblical in faith, Evangelical in principle, Ecumenical in outlook, Oriental in worship, Democratic in function, and Episcopal in character".

The church emerged from a Reformation movement within the Malankara Syrian Church inspired by contact with Anglican missionaries. The reformation was an attempt to eliminate certain practices prevalent in the Malankara Church which the reformers believed were brought about after the Synod of Diamper. Beginning in 1840, reform-minded Malankara Church clergyman Abraham Malpan instituted changes independently in his parish at Maramon, including holding services in the local Malayalam language rather than the traditional Syriac and making other revisions to the Holy Qurbana like removing intersessional prayers to Saint Mary etc. This led to a rift in the church hierarchy between Abraham's supporters and the metropolitan bishop, Mar Dionysius IV. Abraham Malpan sent his nephew Deacon Mathew to Antioch to be consecrated as Bishop Mathews Mar Athanasius. The leadership dispute was settled in 1852 with Mathews Mar Athanasius being recognized as Metropolitan, serving until his death in 1877. However, the rift never healed, and ultimately the Malankara Syrian Church split into the reformist faction headed by the reigning Metropolitan and the Jacobite faction headed by the Patriarch of Antioch in 1889. The reformist faction renamed to form the Mar Thoma Syrian Church in 1898. In 1940 a schism formed in the Mar Thoma Syrian Church over the extent of Reformation Theology; the modern reformists founded the St. Thomas Evangelical Church in 1961.