Mar Thoma Congregation Chattanooga

The Mar Thoma Congregation Chattanooga consists of 13 family members now and we proudly state that we are the only Mar Thoma church in the state of Tennessee located in a scenic city of Chattanooga, surrounded with big nearby cities of Nashville, Atlanta, Knoxville, and Huntsville. It’s a dream of every Marthomite to attend the worship service as per Marthoma sleeha and Syrian church, Kerala –India. Its members are part of the Saint Thomas Christian community which originated by St Thomas, a disciple of Jesus in Malankara AD-52.

In the year 1996 Marthoma families and Orthodox families of Chattanooga started as an Ecumenical prayer group and every week they used to meet at respective members houses. In the year 1996, Late Rt Rev Dr. Zacharias Mar Theophilus bishop visited us and conducted first Marthoma Holy communion service. Rev P G Mathew from Florida made multiple visits during this period. In the year 1997-98 Rev Samuel Mathai from New Jersey also visited us many time and conducted Holy Communion service. Rt Rev Dr. Yuyakim Mar Coorilos bishop also visited us in the year 2005 and conducted Holy Communion service. Until September 2007 we were considered as an Ecumenical Prayer group.

In October 2007 both Mar Thoma and Orthodox members decided to conduct their own respective services every other week. During these times from 2003-2004 Rev. Simon Behanan and from 2006-2009 Rev. Abraham Varkey visited and conducted Holy Communion Services.

As of December 2007, we received a Kalpana from Rt. Rev. Dr. Euyakim Mar Coorilos stating that our Mar Thoma group is approved as a Congregation of the Diocese of North America and Europe starting January 1st, 2008.

Since 2008 our congregation is proud to say we have organized most activities of the church like Sunday School, Youth Fellowship, Edavaka Mission, Sevika Sangham, weekly prayer meetings, choir, VBS, Christmas Carol Service, and conventions. Our congregation is the smallest of the entire congregations of North America Europe Diocese. The Vicar of Atlanta Mar Thoma Church has come every fourth Sunday to conduct Holy Communion Service as well as attend the activities as mentioned before.

In 2009-2012 we had Rev. Jai Varghese and from 2012-2015 Rev. P.S. Thomas as our Vicars. During the term of Rev. P.S Thomas in 2014, we bought property for the congregation to have worship services, after renovating the building it was made more suitable for a place of worship, and in April 2015, it was consecrated by Rt. Rev. Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius. Before I forget I want to thank Rev. Skaria Varghese during the year of 2014 for conducting our services.

We thank all the Bishops and Vicars who have given us guidance throughout these years for our congregation and its development. We are very thankful for the committee members who have brought us this far as a congregation and as a community.

During the construction of the church, we had a lot of help from Tariq Forjani and Robert Cravet the building contractors, so thank you both. Thank you, Mr. Chacko, for donating the carpets, and thanks to Phallets Asphalt Company for making our parking lot, as well as the City officials, engineers for granting us permission to build this church. We appreciate every one of them and may God bless them abundantly.

We thank our neighboring churches, friends, and families who have supported us for completing this church building.