By Matters India Reporter
Dallas, May 8, 2024: Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan (formerly known as K P Yohannan), head of the Bishop of Believers Eastern Church, died May 8 at Dallas in the US. He was 74.
The Church leader was hospitalized the previous day after he sustained serious wounds in a car accident.
A press statement from the Church headquarters said the death occurred due to a sudden cardiac arrest.
The accident happened around 5:25 pm Indian time.
An unidentified vehicle hit him while he was out for a morning walk. He was admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital where he underwent emergency surgery, a Church spokesperson said.
He used to go for morning walks at the campus where the Texas headquarters of the Believers Eastern Church is located. But on May 7, he went outside the campus. He had come to the United States only four days ago.
He was born on March 8, 1950, in a Mar Thoma Syrian Church family in Kerala, India.
He was the founder and president of the Gospel for World, earlier known as Gospel for Asia, a large non-profit missions organization with a focus on India and Asia. He was also the founding Metropolitan Bishop of Believers Eastern Church (Earlier Believers Church) with the religious title and name of Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan I.
He married Gisela, a German who served with him in Operation Mobilization, in 1974. They have two children, Daniel and Sarah.
He had authored more than 200 books on Christian living and missions.
The Church leader’s radio broadcast “Road to Reality” was heard on more than 900 radio stations in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia.
He broadcast daily the Athmeeya Yathra (Spiritual Journey) for the past 25 years that reached 14 nations in 113 Asian languages.