Bishop Jacob Mar Barnabas to be installed as the First Bishop of the Eparchy of Gurgaon today

The latest diocese of the Syro-Malankara Church will be officially opened today in Delhi in a day-long program that includes a public meeting attended by officials of the federal and state governments.

Federal defense Minister Monohar Parrikar and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal are scheduled to address the afternoon public meeting along with Deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha P. J. Kurian.

During the function, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, the head of the Church will hand over a check of 500,000 rupees to Parrikar to the Prime Minister’s relief fund to help the quake-affected people in Nepal.

A three-hour long liturgy prior to the public meeting will also see the installation of Bishop Jacob Mar Bernabas as the head Delhi-Gurgaon diocese that was announced March 26. The new diocese covers 22 states of the northeast region of India.

With the announcement of the diocese in Delhi and a new exarchate in Pune, the Malankara Church has “achieved an all India jurisdiction for ecclesial administration,” said Cardinal Cleemis.

Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, the apostolic nuncio in India, will address the gathering, along with Latin rite Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi and Syro-Malabar Bishop Kuriakose Bharanikulngara of Faridabad.
The diocesan area has some 2,000 families of this Kerala-based oriental rite that traces is roots to St. Thomas the apostle, who according to a tradition landed in Kerala in the first century.

Although originally based in Kerala, the members of the Church are now spread across the world. The migrant community in Delhi and surrounding areas are engaged in social welfare activities of the poor such as feeding the hungry, educating the poor and nursing the infirm, officials said at a press conference Thursday.

The new diocese will help expand the community’s social service activities for the development of the nation, said Cardinal Baselios Mar Cleemis, the head of the Church at the press conference.

“The focus will be more on slum dwellers, construction workers, homeless people and those who have no facilities for education and health care,” said Father Varghese Mattamana, the coordinator of the diocesan activities.

Credits: UCAN News