St. Dionysius Indian Orthodox Church Northampton

The mission of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, also known as the Indian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous church which has its origins rooted from the evangelical activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. Since the 17th Century, the Malankara Church uses the Malankara Rite, which belongs to the Anticohene liturgical tradition.

Mar Gregorios of Jerusalem came to Malankara in 1665 and introduced Syriac Orthodox liturgical rites. Anticohene liturgy has the largest number of celebration of the Eucharist. The Divine liturgy is called the Holy Qurbana, which originates from the Aramaic word korban, meaning sacrifice. (Hebrew: קרבן ).

The Holy Qurbana is mostly composed of prayers recited in Malayalam with some parts of the Holy Qurbana sung in Syriac.