Kottayam: In a fresh round of peace initiatives between the warring Orthodox Church factions, the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, which gathered momentum with the first ecclesiastical visit of Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Aphrem II to the state recently, the Orthodox Church has put the ball on former’s court.
A resolution passed by the Episcopal Synod of the Orthodox Church, which concluded here on Friday, called up on the Jacobite faction to accept the 1995 Supreme Court verdict and the 1934 Constitution approved by the Apex Court as the basic parameters for unity, to move ahead with the peace process.
The resolution titled ‘Malankara Church wants peace’, which welcomed the stance of the Patriarch that the discord prevailing in the Malankara Church was a catastrophe and the only solution was unity, also raises the demand that the Patriarch of Antioch officially accept these legal clauses, reported The New Indian Express.
“To bring about and maintain unity we need compatible legal guidelines. For this, both the factions should accept the basic parameters of unity. The unity of the Church has to be materialized within this framework. Only then, the much desired unity shall obtain legal sanctity and the peace shall have permanent prevalence,” the Synod observed. The resolution added that, His Holiness Patriarch too has to officially accept the 1934 Constitution of the Malankara Church and the 1995 SC Verdict.
“If the Patriarch agrees to re-establish the unity of the Church on the basis of the aforesaid condition, the Malankara Orthodox Church shall initiate appropriate steps to bring about peace in the Church,” it said.
“It is the primary aim of the Church to do away with the prevailing tension in the Malankara Church and establish peace. The word ‘peace’ here signifies the unity of the community of believers in different factions,” it said.