St. Gregorios Orthodox Syrian Church , Lonavala

Lonavla is a hill station between mumbai and pune. The orthodox church activities for lonavla was started in the year 1958 by late mr t.V koruthu. He was elected as a member of the managing committee of kirkee/pune orthodox syrian church in 1960. Holy qurbana was celebrated at lonavla on holidays, 26th january & 15th august and also on the 5th sunday of the month . The vicar of kirkee/pune used to come to lonavla for conducting the service. Sunday prayer meetings started on a regular basis from the year 1971. Since 1958 till today we conduct the holy qurbana at “all saints church” (csi) barabunglow lonavala on rent. Under the guidance of rev fr p.V kuriakose we formed mgm prayer group at lonavla in the year 1977. A plot of land about 4500 sq ft was purchased for building a church on 06/12/1987 in the joint names of four members, t.V kunjumen,alexander koruthu,k.J.George and koshy varghese . Foundation stone for building a small church was laid by late lamented his grace phillipose mar theophilus on 26.04.1990. There were only fifteen members at that time and due to insufficient funds the project could not be completed. The land was transferred in the name of metropolitan of bombay, his grace geevarghese mar coorilos on 07.04.2000. Since 1988 holy qurbana is offered once in a month at lonavala. Presently rev fr john mathai is our vicar. The lonavala parshiners attend the services like christmas,holy week, easter, pentecost and other feast days in dehuroad/ chinchwad/kirkee/pune church. Even though lonavla being such a small congregation of only nine family members, his grace geevarghese mar coorilos has celebrated the holy qurbana several times at lonavala, we are very thankful to our beloved thirumeni.