CSI Holy Cross Church

The CSI Holy Cross Church is located near the Air Force Technical College on Subroto Mukherji Road about 1 km from the Peenya / Jalahalli Cross on the national highway NH4. The church stands out as being the only Church in the Jalahalli area running its worship service in English, catering to the spiritual needs of a congregation of diverse languages and cultures.

The Holy Cross Church has been the mother church for many congregations in the area. Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu congregations used its premises for many years before they built their own churches.

A thousand mile journey begins with the first step. Holy Cross has journeyed a long way in its evolution. Over a span of more than six decades she has grown from a simple hutment-style church into a magnificent modern structure.

On 19th November 1944 the first recorded Christian worship began in the Jalahalli area when, due to the needs of World War II, almost the whole of the Jalahalli area was acquired by the British Defence Forces and was designated as a Hospital Town for defence personnel wounded in the fighting in Burma and the Middle East. Many of the wounded were flown in and landed on an airstrip in Jalahalli West. They were cared for in newly built hutments constructed by Italian Prisoners of War in pre-independent India. The spiritual needs of the staff and wounded were ministered to by Army Chaplains of various denominations. The Holy Cross functioned as a simple chapel for nearly quarter of a century.