Metropolitan Chrysostom's Message

Metropolitan Chrysostom's Message: "Metropolitan Philipose Mar Chrysostom has the rare quality to look back self-critically at the heritage and history of his own church. He accepts and cherishes the fruits of Reformation but affirms that it is not by romanticising the past nor by eulogizing the pioneers but by learning from the lessons as well as the mistakes of the past that we go forward. Speaking specifically of the period of Reformation in the Eastern church, Thirumeny recalls that, according to the historians, Abraham Malpan had two options before him: one was to join the missionaries with his reformed group; the other was to remain as a reformed eastern church. It is our accepted history now that the Malpan chose the latter course. Thirumeny, however, recalls that some scholars felt that one reason why the pioneers of the Mar Thoma Church did not want to join the missionaries was that the missionaries were set to work among the Dalits. He added: 'Our aversion was not so much to the missionaries as to the outcasts! We wanted to be independent of the missionaries not because we valued independence but so that we would not have to associate with the lower caste people. Though we do not accept this criticism, we should seriously examine whether there is any truth in such an understanding' (Mission in the Market Place, p. 33)." Full Text by Jesudas Athyal