Saint Thomas Anglicans
Saint Thomas Anglicans (often called Anglican Syrian Christians or CSI Syrian Christians) are the Saint Thomas Christian members of the Church of South India (CSI); the self-governing South Indian province of the Anglican Communion. They are among the several different ecclesiastical communities that splintered out of the once undivided Saint Thomas Christians; an ancient Christian community whose origins goes back to the first century missionary activities of Saint Thomas the Apostle, in the present-day South Indian state of Kerala. The Apostle, as legend has it, arrived in Malankara (derived from Maliankara near Muziris) in AD 52.[4][5][6]
The community began as a faction of Malankara Syrian Christians, who opted to join the Anglican Church, mostly between 1836 and 1840.[7] This happened due to the influence of the Church Mission Society missionaries, who laboured amongst the Oriental Orthodox Christians of Travancore.[8][9] In 1879, these St. Thomas Anglican congregations were organized as the Diocese of Travancore and Cochin of the Church of England.[10][11][12] Other Saint Thomas Christians influenced by Anglican practice and belief would go on to found the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, a church in full communion with the Anglican Communion.
In 1930, a separate Anglican ecclesiastical province was founded from the Church of England dioceses in the British Indian Empire, establishing the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon.[13] In 1947, soon after Indian independence, the Anglican dioceses of South India, merged with other Protestant Churches in the region, on the basis of the Lambeth Quadrilateral, forming the Church of South India. Anglican Syrian Christians have been members of the CSI, ever since.[14][15][16]
Demographics[edit]
The roots of the majority of CSI Syrian Christians lie in the Madhya Kerala Diocese.[5] However, after Indian independence, many of them moved out of Kerala to other Indian states and the rest of the world, starting new congregations.[123][124] Many of these congregations are outside the South Indian Anglican province and hence fall under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the respective provincial bishops, at least technically.[125] Hence, the task of determining the cumulative number of Syrian Christians in the South Indian and other global Anglican provinces, is quite challenging. However, sources generally tend to approximate it at 200,000.[1][2] This is about 5 percent of the 4 million members of the Church of South India.[126][127][128]
