Two years after the then administrative committee of the South Kerala diocese of the Church of South India (CSI) took over control of the Mateer Memorial Church in the capital city and converted it into a cathedral, the change was effectively reversed on Friday with a section of believers removing the display boards marking it as a cathedral.
The change was effected on the day the new CSI Thiruvananthapuram bishop Royce Manoj Victor took charge.
In April 2022, the church had witnessed tension for weeks after the administrative committee under the then bishop Dharmaraj Rassalam unilaterally disbanded the elected church committee representing the 2,400 families which are part of the church congregation, and formed a new committee, which the protesters termed a ‘puppet committee’. The parishioners had then accused the henchmen of the diocese of stealing their official documents, which proved their rightful control over the church, and of breaking open the gate to ‘invade’ the church. They argued that conversion of the church into a cathedral under the CSI will destroy its democratic and autonomous nature.
