Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church in liturgical vestments The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church has its origins in a reformation movement within the
Malankara Church in
South India, in the latter half of the 19th century. India was part of the British Empire at the time, while the Malankara Church is an
Oriental Orthodox church, in communion with the
Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. Concurrently,
Anglican missionaries from England arrived in South India. They became teachers at the church's seminary and made the Bible available in the
Malayalam language. Inspired by the teachings of the missionaries and imbibing the ideas of the
Protestant Reformation from them, a few priests under the leadership of
Abraham Malpan initiated a reformation. Abraham Malpan also managed to get his nephew Deacon Mathew, ordained as bishop Mathews Mar Athanasius, by the Patriarch of Antioch. But many opposed the reforms. The groups for and against reforms engaged in court litigations for the church and its properties. These ended in 1889, through a verdict favoring the Patriarchal faction. Subsequently, the reformed faction became an independent church, known as the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church. To date, there are 11 bishops, 1149 priests and over a million laity. While retaining many of the Syriac
high church practices, the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church is
Reformed in its theology and doctrines. The church employs a reformed variant of the
Liturgy of Saint James, with many parts in the local vernacular. The
Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church is in full communion with the
Anglican Communion and maintains friendly relations with many other churches. It is unique in that it is based on the Eastern Christian rite used by the
Eastern Orthodox Church, while incorporating theology from the
Divine Service contained in the
Formula Missae, the base texts for Lutheran liturgies in the West.
Laestadianism In the far north of the Scandinavian peninsula are the
Sámi people, some of whom practice a form of Lutheranism called Apostolic Lutheranism, or
Laestadianism due to the efforts of
Lars Levi Laestadius. However, others are
Orthodox in religion. Some Apostolic Lutherans consider their movement as part of an
unbroken line down from the Apostles. In Russia, Laestadians of Lutheran background cooperate with the
Ingrian church, but since Laestadianism is an interdenominational movement, some are Eastern Orthodox. Eastern Orthodox Laestadians are known as
Ushkovayzet.
Ukrainian Lutheran Church The Ukrainian Lutheran Church, formerly called the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, is a
Byzantine Rite Lutheran Church based in
Ukraine. The Eastern Christian denomination consists of 25 congregations within Ukraine, serving over 2,500 members and runs Saint Sophia Ukrainian Lutheran Theological Seminary in
Ternopil in Western Ukraine. The ULC is a member of the
Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC), a worldwide organization of confessional Lutheran church bodies of the same beliefs.
Reformed and Presbyterian Assyrian Evangelical Church The Assyrian Evangelical Church is a
Middle Eastern Church which attained ecclesiastical independence from the Presbyterian mission in
Iran, in 1870. Its membership is composed mostly of
Eastern Aramaic speaking ethnic
Assyrians who were originally part of the
Assyrian Church of the East and its offshoots, or the
Syriac Orthodox Church. They, like other Assyrian Christians, are sometimes targets of persecution by hostile governments and neighbors.
Armenian Evangelical Church The Armenian Evangelical Church is the product of a reform campaign from within the
Armenian Apostolic Church. The reformers were influenced by the missionaries of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, who arrived in
Turkey in the early 19th century and published translated bibles for
Turkish-speaking Armenians. The reformers were led by Krikor Peshdimaljian, one of the leading intellectuals of the time. The leadership of the Armenian Apostolic Church under Patriarch Matteos Chouhajian was against any reform, and
excommunicated the reformists from the church. By 1850, the new church received the official recognition of the
Ottoman government. It was founded in 1924, and the first united convention of these congregations was held in Ranni, Kerala, in April 1925. IPC was officially registered as a religious society on 9 December 1935 at Eluru, Andhra Pradesh. Its administrative headquarters is located at Hebron, Kumbanad, Kerala.
St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India The St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India (STECI) is an
Evangelical,
Episcopal denomination based in
Kerala,
India. It derives from a
schism in the
Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church in 1961. STECI holds that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant and infallible Word of God. Adherents believe that all that is necessary for salvation and living in righteousness is given in the Bible. The church is engaged in active evangelism. The headquarters of this church is at
Tiruvalla, a town in the state of
Kerala.
Assyrian Pentecostal Church The Assyrian Pentecostal Church is a Pentecostal Christian denomination which originated in the 1940s among the
Assyrian people of
Iran and spread among ethnic Assyrians in
Iraq,
Turkey and
Syria. They are native speakers of the
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic language, and also use it as their
liturgical language. They use the Syriac Aramaic Bible. Most of the members of this denomination were originally part of the
Assyrian Church of the East and its offshoots, or the
Syriac Orthodox Church. There have been reported instances of persecution against them as well.
Believers Eastern Church The Believers Eastern Church (formerly
Believers Church) is a Christian denomination with roots in
Pentecostalism, based in
Kerala,
India. It exists as a part of the
Gospel for Asia. In 2003, this church acquired
episcopacy, by getting Indian Anglican bishops to ordain its founder
K. P. Yohannan as a bishop. Henceforth this denomination adopted several elements of
Eastern Christian worship and practices like the use of holy oils for anointing, while keeping the principle of
sola scriptura. Its name was officially changed to
Believers Eastern Church in 2017, so as to "better express its roots in the ancient and orthodox faith".
Evangelical Church of Romania The
Evangelical Church of Romania (Romanian: Biserica Evanghelică Română) is one of
Romania's eighteen officially recognised religious denominations. The church originated between 1920 and 1924, through the work of the young
Romanian Orthodox theologians
Dumitru Cornilescu and Tudor Popescu. Deacon Cornilescu was motivated to translate the Bible into modern Romanian, by Princess Calimachi of
Moldavia. While translating the
Epistle to the Romans, Cornilescu became interested in the concept of personal salvation. By the time he completed the translation, he had become staunchly
evangelical. Due to deviations from
Eastern Orthodox doctrines, the Romanian Orthodox Church defrocked Fr. Tudor Popescu. Dumitru Cornilescu was forced to leave the country. But Popescu and his followers (originally called Tudorists), established their own Church; the Evangelical Church of Romania.
Evangelical Orthodox Church The Evangelical Orthodox Church is a Christian denomination which blends
Evangelical Protestantism with features of
Eastern Orthodoxy. It started off in 1973 as a network of
house churches established by
Campus Crusade for Christ missionaries in the
United States. The founders
Peter E. Gillquist, Jack Sparks, Jon Braun, and J.R. Ballew wanted to restore Christianity to its primitive form based on the writings of the early
Church Fathers. So they stood in a circle and self-ordained each other, creating an entity called the New Covenant Apostolic Order (NCAO). Their own interpretations of Church history led to the adoption of a somewhat liturgical form of worship and induced a need for
apostolic succession. In 1977 the first contact with the Eastern Orthodox Church was initiated through Orthodox seminarian Fr. John Bartke. In 1979 the Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC) was organized. The EOC pursued various avenues to obtain
episcopacy, including a visit to the
Patriarch of Constantinople, but to no avail. At last they met Patriarch
Ignatius IV of Antioch, during his historic visit to
Los Angeles, which proved successful. This meeting was arranged by Fr. John Bartke, who later served as the primary intermediary between the EOC and the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, and also hosted the initial set of chrismations and ordinations for the EOC at St. Michael's Church in
Van Nuys, California. Unable to completely reconcile Evangelicalism and Orthodoxy, many EOC members formally joined the
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America in 1987. Some others joined the
Orthodox Church in America. The rest remained independent and continue as the Evangelical Orthodox Church.
P'ent'ay P'ent'ay is an
Amharic and
Tigrinya language term for evangelical Christians in
Ethiopia and
Eritrea. This movement has been influenced by the mainstream
Oriental Orthodox Christianity of these countries as well as
Pentecostalism. As Protestantism is relatively new in Ethiopia, most
P'ent'ay are ex-Orthodox Christians. Many of these groups describe their religious practices as culturally Orthodox, but Protestant by doctrine. They boast approximately 16,500,000 members. The P'ent'ay denominations may constitute as much as 19% of the population of
Ethiopia, while being a small minority in
Eritrea. ==List of churches==