A movable curtain, a veil is provided at the entrance of the Holy Sanctuary (Madhaha). It has an embroidered Cross (signifies Risen Christ) at the centre and sometimes decorated with doves, wheat and wine stalks. The veil signifies the sky, that separates the heaven and the earth (Ex. 36: 16; Read more
The Holy Altar The Altar is the most important symbol and structure in the Holy Sanctuary of the Church Building. It is generally about 3.5 to 4 ft. high, 6 ft. long and 3.5 to 4 ft. wide (sizes vary in Churches). It is built of wood or concrete and Read more
On Mid Lent Wednesday, our Holy Church commemorates, an Assyrian King named Abgar V, who ruled Edessa (Oraha – presently called Urfa/Urahay, is a city in the border of Turkey and Iraq. During the public ministry of our Lord, King Abgar of Edessa, was suffering from an incurable disease, sent Read more
The Great Lent commenced with the Sign at the Wedding Feast at Cana, where Jesus has asked us to fill six stone jars water, so that He can transform the ordinary, tasteless, colourless, bland water to extraordinary, tasty, blessed, best, sweet lives. The six stone jars represent the six weeks Read more
The liturgical calendar of the Indian Orthodox Church commemorates the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste on March 09. Emperor Constantine, in AD 313, had issued a decree of religious tolerance, that Christianity was an official religion and gave them freedom of worship, through the Edict of Milan. However, seven years later, Read more
Significance of Church Edifice. The Church building is an edifice or structural building, specially consecrated and set apart for worship. God is omnipresent and He dwells everywhere, but Church building is a symbol of heavenly abode and presence of the Triune God’s. Christ refers to it as a Temple of Read more
Matthew, an Apostle and evangelist, of whom we know very little personally but in another sense we know a great deal as he was a tax-gatherer. The man designated as Matthew, sitting in the customs house (Matt. 9: 9) is the same as Levi, sitting in the receipt of custom Read more
Vattasseril Geevarghese Mar Dionysius is popularly known as ‘Malankara Sabha Bhasuran’ (The Great Luminary of Malankara Orthodox Church) which our Church has bestowed on him in recognition of his rich contribution to Malankara Orthodox Church. Vattasseril Thirumeni was a man of prayer, determination and dynamism. He was a saint who Read more
St. Polycarp, a Martyr Saint and Church Father was born in Smyrna (Modern Izmir, Turkey) around A.D. 69. His name Polykarpos, means ‘fruitful, rich in fruit, and ‘much fruit’ in Greek and he was fruitful in every good work (Col. 1: 10). He was born in a non-Christian family and he Read more
St. Ephrem (Mar Aprem) – the Syrian, both a Father and a Doctor of the Church was born in the ancient city of Nisibis, in Mesopotamia, (said to be, not far from the place where Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden) at the beginning of the fourth Read more