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Kansas Citians find comfort in church of their homeland
Area Episcopal chuches open their doors to the Mar Thoma community

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

	Mar Thoma women often wear traditional Indian saris when they worship. Photos by Melodie Woerman

Two Episcopal churches in suburban Kansas City have opened their doors to a community that provides natives of Kerala, India, with the faith of their native land and a touch of home. The Mar Thoma Church community meets once a month at St. Aidan’s, Olathe, and they conduct larger services, like Easter, at St. Luke’s, Shawnee.

Because the Mar Thoma Church is in full communion with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, local rectors say they are delighted to provide a home-away-from-home to these members.

The Rev. Juli Sifers, rector of St. Aidan’s, Olathe, said her parish is happy to host a Mar Thoma service once a month. “They are wonderful people,” she said, “and they have been very gracious to invite us to come to their services.”

The Rev. Jim Cook, rector of St. Luke’s, Shawnee, shares Sifers’ sentiments. He, too, has been warmly welcomed when he has attended a service and looks forward to offering his church facility as needed. The Mar Thoma community used to conduct their services at the Shawnee parish but moved them to Olathe to be closer to the area where most members live.

Women and men, including this youngster, sit on opposite sides of the church during services.

Natives of India
There are about 50 families in the Kansas City Mar Thoma community, according to Alex Mathew, who also is a member of St. Luke’s, Shawnee. He and his wife, Elizabeth, along with all the other adults, are natives of India, although their two children were born in the United States, as are most younger generation church members.

Like most other Mar Thoma members, the Mathews are active in another local church each week. Alex served a term on the St. Luke’s vestry and with his wife has been an usher. Elizabeth is the new parish treasurer and has been part of the Altar Guild. He said other Mar Thoma members are affiliated with Methodist, Presbyterian and Nazarene churches.

Sunday church attendance in India was an all-day affair, he noted, with worship, Sunday school, youth group and regional prayer meetings the norm. Christians who came to the U.S. sought out churches where they could worship on a regular basis.

In some large cities there are enough Mar Thoma adherents to have their own parish with resident clergy and weekly services. In others, like Kansas City, they gather periodically to worship together, usually in their native language of Malayalam. The Kansas City community is served by the Rev. V.T. John, a Mar Thoma priest who lives in Chicago and flies to Kansas City, as well as to St. Louis and Minneapolis, to celebrate the Holy Qubana (Communion) for the congregations there.

There are 51 parishes and 20 congregations in the Mar Thoma Diocese of North America and Europe. It is one of 12 dioceses; most are in India, although there also is a diocese to serve Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.

Flavor of two worlds
Services for Kansas City Mar Thoma members include elements that hearken back to India. People leave their shoes in the church narthex, going barefoot or in stocking feet into worship as a sign of respect for holy ground. Many women wear colorful saris and will drape a section of fabric over their heads during prayers.

Men and women sit on opposite sides of the church, although Alex Mathew said in some American congregations families are beginning to sit together, a move he personally supports. Only men can be ordained as clergy, a general rule in the Eastern Orthodox tradition from which the Mar Thoma Church comes.

Services normally are conducted in Malayalam, the language of Kerala, India, although a service akin to Evening Prayer in late March was in English. That service drew about 35 people, with youth members serving as officiants and Deacon Shawn Streepy of St. Luke’s preaching. Some members noted that attendance usually is higher when the service is in Malayalam, since some older members don’t speak English and are only comfortable worshipping in their native tongue.

Orthodox and reformed
Indian Christians trace their faith to the apostle Thomas, “Doubting Thomas,” who reportedly came in 52 to preach the Gospel. The church flourished, even sending a bishop to the Council of Nicea in 325. The church’s connections to Christians in the Middle East brought it into the tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy, although there was a failed attempt in the 17th century to bring adherents under the control of the Roman Catholic Church.

British missionaries in the 19th century introduced Reformation ideas to the Indian church. Conflict over how those reforms should be enacted created what came to be known as the Mar Thoma Church. Adherents consider themselves both catholic and reformed, with a democratic church structure that includes laity and clergy.

The first Mar Thoma services in the U.S. took place in 1972 in Queens, N.Y. The Mar Thoma Church entered into an agreement of full communion with the Anglican Communion in 1961, with the Episcopal Church in 1979 and with the Anglican Church of Canada in 1983.

Their bishops are invited to attend the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, and agreements between presiding bishops of the Episcopal Church and Mar Thoma officials call for mutual pastoral care for members of both traditions.

Both Cook and Sifers say their congregations have been enriched by their association with the Mar Thoma community. Sifers said this year some Mar Thoma members attended St. Aidan’s for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services.

Both Episcopal priests say they and their parishioners have been warmly welcomed whenever they have worshipped there.

“There is a sense one gets that although in many ways they are different from us, in many ways they also are very much like us,” Cook said. “It’s refreshing to see two such different groups coexisting so well.”

Sifers agrees. “I think we are building good relationships with them, and I am really pleased,” she said.