Taking a serious note of the recent controversies that have rocked the church, an Episcopal synod of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church has endorsed a directive proscribing its clergy from serving as members of political parties and propagating political ideologies.
The synod, presided over by Catholicos Marthoma Mathews III, head of the church, also asked the metropolitans of various dioceses to pay more attention in this regard. The move comes in view of a series of distressing events that unfolded after one of its priests, Fr. Shaiju Kurien took membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Fr. Kurien, then secretary of the Nilackal Diocese, took membership in the party at a function attended by Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan on December 30, 2023. The move, however, did not go down well with a section of the diocese members, who went on to stage a public protest in front of the Nilackal diocese at Ranni.
