User:Punchakonam

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[Indian Christianity] [1]

St.Thomas, said to his fellow disciples:-

                      " Let us also go to die with him " 

  Dearly Beloveds in Christ

           Greetings and Prayers in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 Welcome to the Traditions established by our Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostle St. Thomas in India. Live, the law set down by Scripture, and follow the Tradition of the earliest of Christ's Apostles and of the Master Himself. Our Creed, Liturgies, Traditions and Teaching are the oldest extant interpretation of the Holy Teaching of Jesus Christ. The Church of our Lord Jesus Christ is a communion of Churches. Unity and diversity are two essential dimensions of the Church. Unity needed in faith, Sacraments and leadership. There is diversity in the form of Worship, Spirituality, Theology, Discipline, Traditions, etc. 

      Christianity in India is as old as world Christianity. There are 25 million Christians in India which is just below 3% of the total population of the Country. Diversity of Christians is noticeable: Syrian Christians, Knanaya Christians, Goan Christians, Tamil Christians, Anglo-Indians, Naga Christians, etc are the main. They differ in language, social customs and economic prosperity. Christians play a decisive role in the fields of education, social work and even in politics. 

      Kerala is the cradle of Christianity in India. In the educational field, the work of the Christians of Kerala has been noteworthy and it is due to their efforts together with that of the government and of other religious and cultural groups that Kerala became the leading state in India for literacy.

      St. Thomas was one of the disciples of Jesus. He is also known as Didymus, which means the Twin. Thomas means Twin in Aramaic and Didymus means Twin in Greek. He is generally known as the Doubting Thomas since he refused to believe the resurrection unless he has verified it himself. His acts are not found in the Acts of the Apostles. 

    But an apocryphal book written around 200 AD called "Acts of Thomas", describes it with embellishments and exaggerations. But archeology and Indian traditions substantiate the basic historic events in this book. 

 A merchant Ambassador Habbanes (This is probably a Greek pronouncement of the name Appana) bought him. If so he was probably from the Kingdom of Pandhya Empire) being sold to him by Jesus the carpenter. He was the ambassador for King Gondaphores the Indo-Parthian Kingdom of Indus Valley Area (Sind, Pakistan, Baluchistan and Afghanisthan). He attended the banquet at the marriage ceremony of the daughter of Cheraman Perumal (the King of the Chera Kingdom) where he came across a Jewish girl in the King's court. During the period of seven days of his stay there, several Jewish people were converted to Christianity. 

     It is said that Thomas ordained one Prince Peter to be the head of the church of the Jews and left for Takshasila, (The English version of the name is Taxila which was a University City in the Indus Valley) the capital of Hondaphorus Kingdom. He established a church in that region before he traveled to other areas of India. These churches were annihilated during the invasion of Kushan and Moghal dynasty. 

   He returned to Kerala where he established seven and half churches with 75 Brahmin families as teachers and over 3000 converts from Kshatriyas, Nairs and Chettiars. These new converts were called St: Thomas Christians. This church is one of the most ancient churches in Christendom. The seven churches are at Malankara, Palayur, Paravoor, Kokkamangalam, Niranam, Chayal and Kollam. 

    Apostle Thomas was martyred in 72 A.D. by a fanatic at Little Mount at Mylapore near Madras. (Tradition calls this place Kalloor - the place of rock) in Tamilnadu State, India. The traditional date of martyrdom is 19th of December, 72 AD. His followers took his body and buried him in the tombs of the Chiefs. A merchant from Edessa in Syria who visited that region exhumed his body and took it to Syria where it was entombed in about AD 200. We could see these tombs in Mylapore and in Edessa   His tomb is venerated until this day. So Kerala  Christians have a longer history and a higher ancestry than that of Christians of many of the European countries. Even the European missionaries, when they first came, landed in Kerala. Many Keralites became Christians even before St. Peter reached Rome in 68 A.D. There are around 9 million Christians in Kerala at present.   

   We believe that this portal would be timely and very much in keeping with the spirit of His words " All May be one " That would be a step toward Christians recoganising fellow Christians across denominations. We hope this work would whisper to Indian Christians of various denominations that " they are birds of the same feather flying different ways to one destination where they would flock together " : Our Lord Jesus Christ, inspired us, emboldened us when problems loomed, and guided us past all abstract and solid impediments to a gratifying finish. We invite you all, to share the richness on the journey of enlightenment toward Salvation and the reconciliation of all people.

"To err is human and to forgive is divine" "Please forgive...!!!

                                                      May Almighty God Bless You all

                                                               Fr. Johnson Punchakonam