Two Churches and a Volatile Chasm on the Malabar Coast

Morning has just broken over the gleaming white spire of the St Thomas Jacobite Syrian Cathedral in Mazhuvannoor, a canopy of trees obscuring the view of the horizon.

- Vishnu Varma

MAZHUVANNOOR: Eliyamma K and Ammini PS, both in their 50s, are sitting on a wooden bench inside the imposing 150-year-old structure. Seemingly unaware of the early hour, the two middle-aged women are excitedly exchanging news about upcoming weddings or troubles in their village of Mazhuvannoor, settled on the eastern fringes of Ernakulam district in Kerala.

This is a common routine. This morning, they've assembled for the burial rituals of a 73-year-old acquaintance. "The funeral ritual is expected to begin at noon and will last around 15 minutes within the church. Then, the remains will be taken to the cemetery behind the church for burial," Eliyamma said.

For the two women, the two-acre church compound serves as a spiritual and social sanctuary from baptisms and weddings to funeral rituals; the church has hosted every important event in their lives. The most important days of the year for them are July 2-3, when they turn up with the rest of the parishioners to celebrate the annual "perunnal", or festival, of the church. It has been this way since they can remember.

But now, Eliyamma fears her way of life might be under siege. On December 3, the Supreme Court ruled that the church, among six such shrines in Kerala administered by the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, should be handed over to the rival Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The verdict was a reiteration of the top court's ruling in 2017 in which it granted the Orthodox faction control over more than 1,100 parishes in the state by upholding the validity of the 1934 Constitution of the Malankara Church.

The December 3 verdict sparked tensions along the Malabar coast—three churches are in Ernakulam and three in Palakkad—and prompted the top court to order status quo on December 17 and explicitly state that it didn't want any "untoward incidents".