MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BEFORE THE HOLY SYNOD OF THE MALANKARA ORTHODOX SYRIAN CHURCH

MAY 2005

Court	Parties	Prayer	Order	Special  Remarks
Munisff  court  Perumbavoor 31-03-98	Fr. Zachariah Vs Mar Severios & Mar Athanasios	Injunction  against  Transfering from church	Petetion Dismissed
District court Ernakulam 21 -12-1998 IA  Application in OS 31/98	N.U.John vs Fr. Zachariah	Injunction  against  Fr. Zachariah  to  enter  church	Temporary injunction  against  Fr.  Zachariah
High  Court 23-03-2000	Fr. Zachariah Vs N.U.John	Appeal against District court order	Appeal dismissed
Supreme court 12-07-2000	Fr. Zachariah Vs N.U.John	SLP  against  High court  order	Withdrawn by Fr. Zachariah  to  file  review  petition
High Court Single Bench 08-06-2000	N.U.John Vs Fr. Zachariah	Police Protection  for  priests  appointed  by  Mar Severios	Petition Dismissed	‘’This is a fractional dispute of some community; injunction against   Fr. Zachariah  only  prevails .’’
District Court Ernakulam 22-08-01	N.U.John Vs Fr. Zachariah	Police protection to enforce injunction against Fr. Zachariah.	Direction to police to enforce injunction against Fr. Zachariah.
High Court Division Bench 17-10-01	N.U.John Vs. Fr. Zachariah	Police protection for priests appointed by Mar Severios	Petetion dismissed
District Court 14-12-2001	N.U.John Vs. Fr. Zachariah	Police protection for priests appointed by Mar Severios	Petetion dismissed	‘’All  previous orders are for personal relief against Fr. Zachariah; any mandatory orders are outside the scope of the order.’’
District Court 31-05-2005	M.V.Peter(Orth) Vs. Mar Severios& Fr. M.V. Abraham	Fr. M.V. Abraham, vicar to convene Parish assembly	Petetion dismissed	There are two factions in the church; not yet decided which amoung the two is the legitimate  incumbent; so Fr. M.V.Abraham (of Orthodox faction) cannot  be  said as the only vicar of the church.

A new  order  has  been  got  from  the  District Court, Ernakulam,  regarding Kolenchery church.

Regarding  the  new  order:

# There  came  an  order  from  the  same  District  Court,  Ernakulam  on 31^st  May 2005

# Suit  filed  by  one  Mr. Peter  of  Orthodox  faction.

# Filed  against Mar Severios, Fr. M.V. Abraham Poovathumveettil  etc.

# Prayer:  To  direct  Fr. M.V. Abraham to convene Parish assembly.

# Hidden agenda: If  such  an  order  is  passed,  it  can  be  said  that Fr. M.V. Abraham of Orthodox faction  is  the  lawful  vicar  and  the  Supremacy  of Mar  Severios  can  be  established  as  Fr. M.V. Abraham  was  appointed  as Vicar  just  in  January  2000  by  Mar  Severios  after  the  death  of  Fr. Paulose Odolil  who  was  the  Vicar  since  1965.

# Mar Severios, Fr. M.V. Abraham, etc represented  by  Adv. Biju Abraham.

Order  Says:

# Court  dismisses  the  suit  mentioning a few  remarks:

# The  suit  is  not  a  representative  suit  and  it  is  not  maintainable.

# There  are  two  factions  in  the  church  and  it  cannot  be  decided  who  is  the  actual  authority  as  far  as  Kolenchery  church  is  concerned.

# So  it  cannot  be  said  that  Fr. M.V. Abraham  is  the  only  lawful  vicar  of  the  church.  So  no  direction  can  be  given  to  him  to  convene  the  parish  assembly.

# There  is  a  representative  suit  pending  before the  same  court (OS31/2000)  to  establish  such  matters  above  and  the  petitioner  shall  implead  in  that  suit.

Some  relevant  doubts:

If  the  powers  of  Mar  Severios  was   established  by  an order  in  1998  itself,  what  for  a  new suit  with  such a  hidden  agenda?

It was  Adv. Biju Abraham  himself  who  is  representing  the  Orthodox  faction  in  almost  all  cases.  The  so  claimed  favorable  order  for  Mar  Severios  in  1998  was  represented  by  Adv. Biju himself.  If  there  was  such  an  order  in 1998,  why  did’nt  he  mention  that  order  and  the  so claimed  authority  of  Mar  Severios  over  Kolenchery  church,  in  this  suit?  If  that  had  been  done  and  the  court  had  approved  that,  will  the  court  say  that  the  authority  of  Kolenchery  church  is  still  under  litigation  and  Fr. M.V. Abraham  cannot  be  said  as  the  vicar?

The  one  and  only  case  given  by  the  orthodox faction  represented  by  due  authority  is  the  suit No. 05/2005 filed  in  January  2005. It  is  just  admitted. The  above  suit  in  which  the  first  ever  order  was  given on 31 May  2005  was filed  on  15^th February 2000  as  15/ 2000.  It  took  5  years  to  get  the  first  verdict.  Normally  this  has  to  pass  through   at  least  two  more  appellate courts  as  appeals   to  get  a  clean  final  verdict.  This  may  take  another  10  years. 

If  this  is  the  situation,  can  any one  from  our  Church  administration  guarantee  a  final  disposal  of  the  Suit  5/2005  filed  in  January  2005,  before  at least 2020 AD? 

By  then,  it  will  be  22  years  since  the  church  is  closed  and  can  any  one  guarantee  that  the  St. Peter’s & Paul’s Orthodox  Syrian  church,  Kolenchery  will  remain  in  the  face  of  the  earth?

Can  any one say  that  the  Orthodox  population in this  parish  should wait  for  this  long  time  to  get  the  final  verdict?

In  what  ground  is the  Malankara  Orthodox Church  denying  access  to  the  Kolenchery  church  parishioners  for  prayers  in  their  own  church?  

The fact:

It  is  proved  beyond  doubt  that  there  has  been  no  orders  from  any  court  to  establish  the  right  of   Mar  Severios Mathews  over  Kolenchery  church.

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Kolenchery  Church  is  closed  down  just  because  of  the  unreasonable  adamant  stand  taken  by  the  Diocesian  Metropolitan.

After all,  now   it  is  only  an  Ego  problem.

But  then,  2500  families  are  suffering.

Do  Christianity  still  remain  in Malankara  church?

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes;  but the Lord pondereth the hearts.

To do justice and judgment is more  acceptable  to  the  Lord  than  sacrifice.

(Prov. 21:2,3)