THIRUVANANTHAPURAM CSI CHURCH

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
CSI CHURCH

One of the oldest churches in Thiruvananthapuram city. The sesquicentennial(150 year)celebrations of the CSI Christ church, palayam,will be held on the church premised on Sunday 15th November, 2009.
The church,which completed 150 years on Sunday, was consecrated by Bishop Dealtry of Madras in 1859. Bishop Middleton, the first Bishop of Kolkata, initiated service for the members of the church of England by deputing Rev Hutchinson in 1817. There were also a small number of Tamil Christians who were employed in the government. A Tamil congregation was formed in 1837. The Malayalam congregation was started in 1876 by M. Chandy.
In order to build a permanent place of worship for the members of church of England both Europeans and English, they collected about Rs 2,600 and received an equal amount from the government of Fort St. George. The Travancore government granted the site and timber free and lent of services of an able surveyor, shedden, to supervise the construction work.
It was General Cullen who in the presence of the prince of Travancore and many Christians and non-Christians laid the foundations of the church in December 1858. The then Maharajah of Travancore gave a'Neetu' to the church in which the land and taxes were given free to the worshiping community,
Now the church has around 1000 families and 5000 members belonging to the madhya kerala diocese of the church of south India. The church is one of the oldest in the city and has a unique colonial and Anglican architecture.

Prof John Kurakar
Kottarakara
9447559495