THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA -- The Malankara Jacobite Syrian Christian Church is poised to flap its spiritual wings outside Kerala. In the pipeline are new dioceses in three metros and a first-time translation of its liturgical texts into a number of Indian languages.

Initially, the texts will be translated into Kannada, Bengali and Tamil, Church officials said. New dioceses are to be opened at Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. This is for the first time that the Jacobite Church, a 'descendant' of the ancient Malankara Church of Kerala, is opening dioceses in other states.

"We have churches in other states, but no dioceses. The growing influence in these places has prompted us to open dioceses,'' Fr Varghese Kallappara, managing committee member and spokesperson of the Church, said. At present, the Outside Kerala Diocese headquartered in Kottayam caters to the spiritual needs of faithful in other parts of the country.

Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, had given his blessing to both plans of the Church during his India visit two years ago. But the opening of new dioceses had been delayed owing to a shortage of metropolitans.

The Church has now decided to ordain four new metropolitans, who are expected to be installed by September this year.

As for the translations, this is the first time that liturgy is being translated to any other Indian language other than Malayalam and Hindi, Church officials said. "The Episcopal Synod will prepare the translations.

Sunday School texts also will be translated. There were demands to bring out Marathi and Gujarati versions. But that's been put on the backburner,'' Kallappara said.

Currently, the Church liturgy is available in Syriac, Malayalam, English and Hindi. Though prayers were recited in Malayalam for centuries, liturgy translations became popular only after 1912. The Hindi version was introduced five years ago.

The faith and order of the Church will be followed in the new dioceses but it will incorporate the customs of the respective regions, as is done in Kerala, Church officials said.

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