The Catholic bishops of Kerala - home of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (an East Syrian or Assyrian-rite Church led by Major-Archbishop HB Cardinal Mar George Alencherry) and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (a West Syrian or Antiochene rite Church, led by Catholicose HB Cardinal Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis) - have reached an agreement with two Oriental Orthodox Churches - Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church (led by Catholicose HB Aboon Mor Basileos Thomas I, as part of the Syriac Orthodox Church led by the Patriarch of Antioch, HB Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas) and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (under Catholicos HB Basileus Mar Thoma Paulose II) - share churches outside Kerala for Sunday Liturgy, and to consider sharing cemeteries and the use of priests at funerals.
All four churches trace their origin to the evangelization of St Thomas the apostle.
No similar arrangements have been made with the Mar Thoma Church, an Anglican Uniate Church formed by British Anglicans proselytising Orthodox and Catholic Indian Christians to add to existing divisions by creating a reformed Church.
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