The Hindu : Kerala News : Church to elect seven more bishops

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Friday, May 28, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Church to elect seven more bishops

By Our Staff Reporter

KOTTAYAM, MAY 27. The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church has set in motion the process for election of new bishops. In an unprecedented step, the church is expected to add seven new names to the existing 22 bishops to lead the flock.

There are 37 candidates for the seven posts. The election would be held on June 10 at the conference of the Malankara Syrian Christian Association scheduled at Parumala. The strength of the Malankara Association, one of the largest elected bodies in the country, has been tentatively put at 4,051. The elected seven candidates would then have to undergo a screening by the Synod, the Bishops Council, which has the final authority to decide whether the candidate is qualified enough to be ordained a bishop.

There had been instances when the candidature of such eminent persons like Fr. Paul Varghese (who later became Bishop Paulose Mar Gregorios) and Fr. C.V. George (who later became Geevarghese Mar Osthathios), were kept in abeyance for over two years by the Synod, before they were given the green signal to be ordained bishops.

The developments at the managing committee meeting of the church held here on Thursday have given enough indications that the election process would not be a smooth affair. The committee, in spite of opposition from several quarters, published an `official panel' consisting of seven candidates, selected from the 37 names. They are K.J. Gabriel, P.S. Yohannan, M.C. Cheriyan, M.S. Skaria, Titus George (all priests) and Juhanon Ramban and Ougen Ramban. Their names were selected from a shortlist of 14 candidates, selected by the 15-member Episcopal Nomination Committee.

It is learnt that a section of the committee members were opposed to shortlisting of candidates and wanted all the 37 candidates to be considered for giving a final shape to the official panel. The final list of candidates would be much shorter as many are expected to withdraw from the election before June 2, the last date for withdrawal of candidature.

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