A leadership crisis has engulfed the Malankara Syrian Knanaya Archdiocese after the Patriarch of Antioch has placed the Metropolitan of the Chingavanam -headquartered Church under suspension.
An official statement by Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II said that the actions of Mar Severios Kuriakose Metropolitan “amounted to challenging the authority of the Holy Throne of Antioch.” It had earlier stripped Mar Severios of his title of ‘Archbishop and Chief Metropolitan of the Knanaya Archdiocese in India’ after he acted contrary to the orders of the Patriarch of Antioch. He continued anti-Church activities resulting in his suspension, the statement noted.
