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| Church Team |
Bishop
Rt.Rev.Dr.K.G. Daniel |
Rev.EJ Daniel
Clergy Secretary |
Dr. Abraham Daniel
Lay Secretary |
Rev.Simon George
Treasurer |
Mr. V .G .George
Registrar |
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| Retired Bishops |
Bishop(Rtd.)
Rt.Rev.Michael John |
Bishop(Rtd.)
Rt.Rev.Dr.KJSamue |
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| Our Land |
| The Diocese consists of mountains, peaks, valleys,
rivers, deciduous and evergreen forests and is home for many tribes.
We are blessed with scenic beauty that attracts tourists from all
over the world, including: |
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Thekkady Wild life sanctuary and
Thattekkadu bird sanctuaries |
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Hill Stations like Munnar, Devikulam and Peerumedu |
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Mountain slopes like Illikkakalu, Chellar Coil
and Elaveezha Poonchira |
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Idukki forest area with 51 mission fields. |
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Tea gardens with challenges of agriculture
and livelihood. |
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| Although abundant with gifts of nature, the Diocese
is also prone to natural disasters such as drought, heavy storms and
land slides. The temperature in our lowlands rarely falls below 32°C
but can commonly reach freezing at night in the high ranges |
| The Apostle of the Hills |
| The Church Missionary Society began work in this area
in 1848 and Rev. Henry Baker Junior came as the first missionary.
He is now remembered as “The Apostle of the Hills”. History
tells that people from Melukavu met Rev. Henry Baker at Kottayam and
said, “You must know we know nothing right. Will you teach us
or not? We die like beasts and are buried like dogs! Ought you to
neglect us? Cholera and fever carried off members of our family”.
Henry Baker decided to move eastward and mission work started immediately.
The believers were persecuted by the local King’s servants -
W.S. Hunt writes,” They were made to stand in water up to their
necks, kept in stocks for days, chillies rubbed in their eyes, heads
tied in bags filled with large black ants and red wood ants”.
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Rev. Henry Baker |
| And yet when let loose they learned the
Gospel from the missionaries again. Unlike any other society we are
“a people who grabbed the Gospel from Missionaries”. |
| Our People |
Liberation became part of Baker’s mission and
is still a major part of our work today. When he began his work, untouchability,
‘pollution by sight’ and caste distinctions prevailed
and human beings were bought and sold as slaves. Inspired by God’s
love, Baker spent his whole life among these people, establishing
places of worship, schools and shelters for the sick and dying. These
were pioneering efforts to free lower castes from a state of servitude
and shame.
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| Freedom to learn, to enter the premises of law courts,
to own property in one’s own name and freedom to worship all
became realities. The new members of the Diocese are mostly from Tribal
(Adivasi) and Dalit backgrounds, Tamil plantation labourers and other
smaller communities. We are blessed with great cultural diversity
and the richness of both Malayalam and Tamil languages. For many of
these people the support and love of God’s Church is their only
hope for a better and more fulfilling life. |
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| Our Congregations |
As a growing Church we have
about 65,000 members in the Diocese.
Number of Churches - 237 , Mission Fields -53 , of which 3 are in
the Slums of Delhi.
Our growth in 25 years is more than 3 times in terms of number of
Churches and efforts for Human Resource Development in rural areas.
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First Church.
St.Peter’s CSI Church, Erumapra.
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Christ Cathedral Church,
Melukavu |
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