Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Coonan Cross Oath. A Letter from Fr. Adappoor.

Coonan Cross Oath. A Letter from Fr. Adappoor.

5 comments:

sampariyarathu said...

The Roman Catholics claim supremecy of St.Peter and Pope is supreme Spiritual leader of Christians In This world which is totally unacceptalble to orthodox faith.Jesus Christ is The only One Good Shephard! In Jesus we all Christians become one! Jesus Christ had 12 apostles and he told them no body among them will be their leader .Christ is their leader!St.Peter himself called an elder among other elders of early Church and never claimed any supremacy among the 12 apostles!
Then others areas of faith are Immaculate Concept of Virgin Mary,Buspurkana/Purgatory, Infallibality of Pope,About Holy Spirit in Nicene creed ete etc.
Another Thing st.Peter never preached gospel In Rome.He had been taken their for Execution by Roman authorities!St.Peter's epistles are clear evidence to show where he preached gospel.

In Malankara they Roman catholic Church with British/Portugese power they used to convert Malabar/st.Thomas Christians under Roman Church. we can treat them as Christians and brothers. But there is no need to Cover their misdeeds in MalankaraChurch!! Coonan Cross Oath will remain as History among Malankara Orthodox christians for ever!

George Joseph said...

History is taught differently in different churches. Obviously, what we learn and what Catholics learn are different. However, it is a fact that the harmony among christians in Malankara was spoilt by Portugese, Jesuits and Carmalites all encouraged by Romans.The atmosphere for a reconciliantion simply doesnot exist so long Catholics cherish keeping an upper hand. Even now, brother priests of Fr Adappoor claim openly that they are the only true church. They brand Orthodox and Jacobites as new generation churches.Even they preach that they are the only church who intercede with St Mary and other saints.Then, how can we have a re examination of the present status of St Thomas Christians including Orthodox and Catholics? It is history that Cathiolics grew to 120 crores through political and financial power.The editor's reply has covered all aspects systematicaly. However there is point worth remembering that there were very few churches who boldly withstood the Roman authority during those 54years prior to the oath o Coonan Cross. St Mary's Jacobite Syrian Church, Pallikkara is one.Also, we must remember that Catholics do have a Coonan Cross Church at Bazar Road, Mattancherry which is a sort of pilgimage centre.But the fact is that this church has nothing to do with the oath. The Oath took place at a premise adjacent to the lake side on the same road. However, we donot know exactly which is the correct location. Possibly, this is under Catholic control and they are not disclosing the same. May be there is a scope for a resaearch from our people. What I have staed is based on local talks.

Anonymous said...

A couple of months back, Pope permitted conservative Anglicans to be under the Roman Catholic Church. This attitude of the Roman church to breal chruches and welcome them to be a part of Roman church lacks any values and principles. Roman Church has certain faith which they have declared as important for achieving salvation. Why are they not applicable when they allow such breakaway groups? The only criteria seems to be that anyone under Pope will be saved.

Why should all the Churches be under Rome? The primacy of the Roman Patriarch was not due to St Peter, but in accordance with the prominence of the city of Rome during the period. May be this needs a revision now. (The primacy caqn be shifted to Patriarch based in Washington, DC.)

Rome, a gentile city was served by Apostle Paul. Rome's claim to the throne of Apostle of Peter are being challenged by historians and biblical scholars alike. Apostle Peter worked in Antioch and east. St Peter's writing has been anlaysed and found to have an eastern style.

Roman church should leave the control of other national churches and should focus on matters concerning Europe. Hardly 10 per cent of Europeans go to church. This will be worsened in the near future.

Malankara Syrians are basically a class of religious people. Joining with Roman Church have made so much changes in their lifestyle. For example: It was unheard of serving liquor at Syrian homes in the past. Now this has spread to conservative Christian families in central Travancore. We never had idols at home. But we find idols of Jesus, St Mary..

If Malankara Syrians want to keep their St Thomas traditions, Roman Church should not not be allowed to have an upperhand in Malankara. Our forefather shad taken this vow and we are bound by it.

RENI said...

The attitude of the Roman Church that we are above all has corrupted only the Roman Church.

Unfortunately, Jacobite Church is now emphasising the supremacy of st Peter to attack the Orthodox Chuch. They should know that the churches whcih puts this theory forward has only LOST

Raju Rajan said...

We cannot rule out the possibility of St. Thomas's visit to India. St. Thomas's presence in the palace of Gondopharnes is confirmed by the discovery of coins. Apart from numismatic evidence, the presence of Christian population in and arond Taxila is another strong evidence for the missionary activities of St.Thomas. Pope Benedict, historian and research scholar, would have probably doubted St. Thomas' visit to Kerala. But Thomas' missionary activities in the Persian region was never doubted by scholars. He probably would have extended his missionary activities beyond Taxila and come to Mylapore where he was killed. His followers would have come to Kerala to spread the gospel. Mylapore Christians were probably known at that time as St. Thomas Christians. Their missionary activities in Kerala in converting people and building churches would have been probably attributed to St. Thomas.

There is, of course. no eviidence for the conversion of Jews in Kerala. The very fact that Christian population was greater than White and Black Jews is an unassailable evidence that Jews were not converted. Portuguese and Dutch writers do not make any reference to Christian Jews in Kerala. The Dutch and English were Protestants and they supported missionary activities of Protestant missiionaries. Protestant missionaries did not find any Christian Jewish family in any part of Kerala to pursue their activites. According to Portuguese and Syrian writers about 200,000 Christians assembled at Matancherry at the time of the Coonen Cross revolt. They were not Jews or Nambudiri Brahmins or Nairs. There would not have been 200 Jews in Kochi at that time. At the most there would have been 300 Nambudiris in and around Mattancherry. Nairs would never join because they were forcing Christians to work as labourers in their paddy fields (oozhiyam service). It is quite obvious the large crowd near the Coonen Cross were local Christians. Only from the coastal area such a large number of people could be collected by the Archdeacon Thomas. . Even the Archdeacon probably would have belonged to fishermen community. When St. Xavier visited Kochi he was greeted by two mukkuva (fishermen) Christians. The only Church in Kerala before the arrival of European powers was the Syrian church, and the mukkuas belonged to Syrian church.It becomes clear from these historical facts that there were no Christian Jews in Kerala in the pre-Portuguese period.