REV. Olav Fyske Tveit, general secretary of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches, has called for reformation and renewal in church by going ‘back to the basics’ and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Describing the reformation in the Mar Thoma Church as a return to the “purity of the life and practice of the early church”, he pointed to the preaching of the word of God which led to the reformation of thought and revival.
“Reformation requires a unity in which we challenge one another,” Rev. Tveit said.
He was speaking at a valedictory meeting to celebrate the 175th anniversary of reformation in the Mar Thoma Church.
The Mar Thoma church traces its faith to St. Thomas the Apostle who is said to have reached Kerala in A.D. 52 with spice merchants from the Middle East and died a martyr in 72 A.D. at Mylapore.
The church treats August 16, 1836 as its ‘reformation’ day and later assumed the name Mar Thoma (church of St. Thomas) after breaking away from the Orthodox fold under the influence of Anglican theology.
He said, “It has been recorded that the reformation in the Malankara Church brought powerful currents of change in church and society, and it helped the church disown practices that needed to be corrected and break off the fetters of spiritual and moral bankruptcy.”
“The gift of the cross binds us together. Our open arms can be a sign of the ecumenical movement of the cross, showing that we need one another,” said the general secretary.
Tveit hailed the Mar Thoma church’s “blending of two characteristic traits of the eastern ecclesial tradition and ethos as well as your reformation ideals corresponding to … reformation movements in the Western Church.”
“The ancient roots of your church are always reminding you how the church must go back to the basic, to the Gospel of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, for which St. Thomas went to India,” he said.
The church has nearly one million members across the world, with the majority based in Kerala.
