Catholic, Orthodox Churches agree to share services

(December 19, 2009) Catholic and Orthodox Churches have agreed to share priestly services and infrastructure in a major development in their often troubled 356-year-old history. As a first step, the Churches have agreed to share worship places for Sunday Mass outside Kerala. Recent meetings between the two also explored the possibility of sharing cemeteries and the services of priests at funerals. The Church leaders have asked their theologians to prepare guidelines to implement this agreement. The Inter-religious Dialogue Commission of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council met with the Syrian Jacobite and Syrian Orthodox Churches in mid-December to seek ways to foster greater unity and cooperation. The bishops' council represents all three Catholic Church rites in Kerala -- the Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara rites. Father Philip Nelpuraparambil, a Catholic theologian who attended the meetings, described the outcome as "very positive. Now we have to put it in practice." Bishop Brian Farrel, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, led the Catholic delegation. Bishop Joseph Mar Gregorios led the Syrian Jacobite Church while Baselios Mar Thomas I led the Syrian Orthodox Church team. Father Paul Thelakat, spokesperson of the Syro-Malabar Church, says unity among the Churches is the need of the hour and local Churches should have more autonomy. Catholics and Orthodox groups in Kerala were "miles apart" after 1653, when Portuguese Catholic missioners tried to Latinize local Christians.