The Eparchy of Great Britain is the sole Syro-Malabar Catholic Church ecclesiastical territory or eparchy of the Catholic Church in Great Britain. Its

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominat ...

is Syro-Malabar Cathedral of St Alphonsa in the episcopal see of

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston local government district. Preston and its surrounding district ...

. This eparchy is not part of any

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of sever ...

and is exempt immediately to the Major Archbishop of Syro-Malabar Church and the

Congregation for the Oriental Churches The Dicastery for the Eastern Churches (also called Dicastery for the Oriental Churches), previously named Congregation for the Oriental Churches or Congregation for the Eastern Churches ( la, Congregatio pro Ecclesiis Orientalibus), is a dicaste ...

. It has jurisdiction over Syro-Malabar Catholics in the entirety of Great Britain: England, Scotland and Wales (the United Kingdom minus Northern Ireland). Most of the members of the church are

British Indians British Indians are citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) whose ancestral roots are from India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian origin as well as Indians who have migrated to the UK. Today, Indians comprise about 1.4 mil ...

with heritage in Kerala, where the Syro-Malabar Church is based. The British eparchy, established in 2016, is the church's fourth diocesan jurisdiction outside India, after the eparchies of Mississauga (Canada), Chicago (US) and Melbourne (Australia). The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church also has an

Apostolic Visitor In the Catholic Church, an apostolic visitor (or ''Apostolic Visitator''; Italian: Visitatore apostolico) is a papal representative with a transient mission to perform a canonical visitation of relatively short duration. The visitor is deputed ...

for Europe based in Rome, Bishop Mar Stephen Chirapanath who oversee and liaison the pastoral missions and mass centres in other parts of Europe including Northern Ireland.

Location and structure

It has chaplains (mostly Indian) in territory overlapping 22 British

Latin Catholic , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

dioceses, a national coordination council and eight diocesan departments: Liturgy, Finance, Catechism, Faith Formation, Lay Association, Resolution Committee and Youth Association. Its first and present

eparch Eparchy ( gr, ἐπαρχία, la, eparchía / ''overlordship'') is an ecclesiastical unit in Eastern Christianity, that is equivalent to a diocese in Western Christianity. Eparchy is governed by an ''eparch'', who is a bishop. Depending on the ...

Joseph Srampickal Joseph Srampickal is an Indian Syro-Malabar Catholic bishop. In 2016, he was appointed the first bishop of the Eparchy of Great Britain, which had been erected by Pope Francis the same year. Early life Joseph Srampickal was born on 30 May ...

."Great Britain’s first Indian Syrian Catholic Bishop ordained in front of 12,000-strong crowd at Preston"
British South Indians, October 9, 2016.

References

Sources and external links

GCatholic.org

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Britain, Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy Syro-Malabar Catholic dioceses

Eastern Catholicism in the United Kingdom Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 * Eastern Air ...

Dioceses in the United Kingdom

Religious organizations established in 2016 Religion is usually defined as a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, trans ...

Dioceses established in the 21st century Indian diaspora in the United Kingdom

Location and structure

See also

References

Sources and external links