Malankara Orthodox Church has an apostolic foundation from St Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. It is an autonomous and autocephalous church with its headquarters at Catholicate Aramana, Kottayam, Kerala, India with its Supreme Head being His Holiness Moran Mar Baselios Marthoma Mathews III.
Church membership is around 2.5 million and has a global presence. The church has 30 dioceses.
is a part of the Malankara Orthodox Church and is under the UK-Europe and Africa Diocese shepherded by His Grace Dr Abraham Mar Stephanos. The church is administered as per the constitution adopted in 1934 by the Malankara Syrian Christian Association meeting in December of the same year.
The Malankara Association is a fully representative body of the Malankara Orthodox church with elected members from all the parish churches. The association comprises one priest along with 1-10 members (depending on size) from each parish. The association elects the Catholicos (also the Malankara Metropolitan) and the bishops of the church. The Malankara Metropolitan is the President and the bishops having administrative charge of the diocese are vice-presidents of the association.
St Marys Indian Orthodox church, Bristol is governed and within the framework of the Malankara constitution. The parish has a general body whose membership encompasses all members above the age of 21 who have fulfilled the requirements of the constitution. All matters related to the parish are discussed and decided by the church general body.
The parish general body elects the church managing committee, the secretary and the lay trustee for a period of one year. The parish managing committee has a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 15 members excluding the priest decided by the general body. The priest is the president of the church managing committee. In the event of any vacancy in the church managing committee, the post may be filled by co-option from members of the general body. In special circumstances and with permission from the Diocesan Metropolitan the general body can extend the term of the church managing committee to a period of three years.