Parishioners oppose CSI move to make church a cathedral

115-year-old Mateer Memorial Church will lose autonomy, they say

The Mateer Memorial Church in the capital city is in the centre of a controversy after the parishioners and the church committee have opposed a move by the South Kerala diocese of the Church of South India (CSI) to convert it into a cathedral, attached to the CSI Thiruvananthapuram Bishop’s headquarters. The 115-year-old church, one of the iconic buildings in the city, is located in the LMS compound, spread over 17.5 acres. It now has around 2,400 families as part of its congregation.

The CSI has 24 dioceses under it, with the South Kerala diocese having 610 churches under its control. The London Missionary Society, which had begun its activities in the region in the early 1800s, had constructed the church in 1906, and named it after its first missionary Samuel Mateer. After 1947, the Society and eight others merged to form the CSI. Though it is under the CSI, the Mateer Memorial Church has maintained some level of autonomy with any decision on its running being taken by a committee constituted by the congregation.