Police steps up vigil as tussle over bishop’s house worsens

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With the dispute between the Jacobite and Orthodox factions of the Malankara Church over the bishop’s house in Moovattupuza worsening, the police has decided to step up security in the area to make sure the situation doesn't get out of hand.

While the Jacobites have decided to organise a rally in the town on Sunday to establish its claim to the house, the rival faction is planning a seminar and a commemoration meet the same day.

The bishop’s house is currently occupied by Thomas Mar Athanasios of the Orthodox faction much to the anger of the Jacobites who feel it should belong to them.

Chairman of the organising committee of the rally, Metropolitan Mathews Mar Anthimos, argues that Mar Athanasios has no right to occupy the bishop's house after switching loyalties to the rival faction. “The title deed clearly shows the land belongs to the faithful and not the bishop,” he said.

But Orthodox Church spokesman, Fr Abraham Karamel, accused the Jacobite faction of trying to create a controversy over a non-issue only to divert attention from its own internal troubles, clearly referring to the recent allegations by Mar Kuriakose Clemis, a Jacobite bishop, that he had paid a `3 crore bribe to become bishop.

Complicating matters further, a joint meeting of the Kandanad Diocesan Council and priests of the diocese of the Orthodox Church, decided to hold a seminar as part of the centenary celebrations of the Catholicate and a commemorative session of the first Caholicose of Church Baselios Paulose I, in the auditorium on the grounds of the bishop’s house.