On November 29 Bishop Sabu K. Cherian of Madhya Kerala Diocese (MKD) concluded a month-long visit to the US. He graced confirmation services, weddings and other functions held in parishes across the US having strong ties to MKD. He also inaugurated a new congregation in Seattle administering the first Holy Communion himself (see main pic).
A little over a month earlier CSI Moderator Reuben Mark had undertaken a two-week US trip visiting many smaller congregations there under the banner of the Diaspora Diocese (see pics). He celebrated CSI Day (September 27) with a Holy Communion service at CSI Christ church in Chicago. General Secretary Fernandas Rathinaraja too was scheduled to visit the CSI Tamil Fellowship in New Jersey on November 22 (see pic) for “A Time of Prayer, Sharing and Fellowship with a simple lunch.” But for reasons unknown his visit to the US did not happen.
Ever since the CSI General Synod formally ratified the creation of the Diaspora Diocese at its Hubli meeting in 2023, the Synod has been trying to gain traction for the new diocese among CSI members in the US. The CSI has some 29 congregations in North America with two of these being in Canada and the rest in the US.
The majority of CSI churches in the US have congregations that trace their roots to MKD giving the diocese a dominant influence there. MKD pastors officiate in around 10-11 churches across the US with 4-5 other congregations being ministered in rotation by pastors from other Kerala dioceses. Some other congregations are so small, with just 10-15 families, that they make do with part-time local pastors and services held in premises of other local denominations.
Over 90% of CSI members in the US are Malayalees. Their first wave comprised mainly nurses who migrated under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and later brought in their family members. The second wave during the 1990s saw more educated professionals coming in under the newly-introduced H-IB visa. Unlike CSI congregations in the Middle East, an overwhelming majority of CSI members in the US are local citizens with a few holding Green Cards (Permanent Residency) and non-immigrant visas.
MKD’s pre-eminent position among the CSI diaspora worldwide has always been a source of envy and heartburn among other diocesan bishops. On an average an MKD bishop visits the US three-four times a year. Add to that a similar number of annual trips to some of the other international cities where MKD priests officiate. This long list includes Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jebel Ali, Sharjah, Bahrain, Doha, Kuwait, Muscat, Salalah, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, London, Belfast, Dublin, Singapore, Brisbane thus making MKD the most international of CSI dioceses.
Each visit generates generous gifts for MKD and the bishop personally in both cash and kind. MKD incidentally also has the largest number of priests among CSI dioceses serving outside CSI boundaries within India. Multiple Malayalam services are held every week in several churches in Delhi and Mumbai as also in Kolkata, Dehradun, Durg, Bhopal, Bolangir, Parkal and by MKD priests serving under local CSI dioceses in Chennai, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Vellore, and even in Thiruvanathapuram which houses the head quarters of the South Kerala Diocese.
Unlike in India, each CSI Church in the US is registered as an independent entity and enjoys a degree of autonomy not available to parishes back home. For instance it is the church committee in the US church that does the final vetting, arranging visa, fixing of salary, etc of the pastor they source from a diocese of their choice.
In 1994 the CSI churches in the US federated into a Council of CSI Congregations in North America with Moderator of the CSI as its head and office bearers elected by members of various member churches. Once a year the Council holds a CSI Family & Youth Conference at which Synod top brass and some bishops are invited with their travel and accommodation taken care of.
Though there has been talk for decades of forming a Diaspora Diocese to bring overseas CSI members under one umbrella little progress was made. Until former South Kerala bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam took office as CSI Moderator in 2020. No doubt partly with an eye to cutting the overwhelming international influence of MKD down to size, he got the Diaspora Diocese formally approved at the 2023 Hubli Synod.
An Administrative Committee headed by the Moderator as Bishop of Diaspora Diocese and comprising some members of the North American Council was set up to inter alia draft a diocesan constitution. Incidentally that constitution was reportedly (minutes have yet to come out) approved by the Synod Executive at its meeting on Oct 31, 2025. This apparently without its members even seeing a copy of what they were approving!
Minutes of meetings show that General Secretary Fernandas Rathinaraj has been pressing for winding up of the North American Council and a full transition being made to Disapora Diocese including transfer of assets of the Council. This has caused sharp differences among administrative committee members. The Synod’s push has been supported by a breakaway Malayali group, comprising largely members from churches with very small congregations. Some minority linguistic groups have also thrown in their lot with them.
Matters came to a head when triennial elections were held to the North American Council in July 2025. It is alleged that Moderator Mark and Rathinaraja, both of whom were present in Houston for the meeting, turned a blind eye and deaf ear to electoral irregularities that were brought to their notice. This including allowing some avid supporters of the Diaspora Diocese who had completed two consecutive terms as members of the Council to illegally attend, vote and contest. The matter has since gone legal in the US. See my Aug 29 post “Fallout of CSI North American Council Election Exposes Synod’s Undermining of Church Democracy.” https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17RuvwKit5/
Bishop Sabu has in public maintained silence over the Synod’s attempts to promote the Diaspora Diocese at the cost of the North American Council which is largely backed by MKD supporters in the US. But he has not been afraid of striking out on a course that puts him in potential conflict with the Synod.
During his US visit Bishop Sabu was the main speaker at the Ordination Service of the Anglican Diocese of the South in Atlanta (see pics). He also attended the clergy and laity conference of the diocese which is part of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), a breakaway faction of the Episcopal Church in the US. Earlier this year the bishop of the ACNA diocese that Bishop Sabu addressed was a primary speaker at the annual MKD diocesan convention attended by over 10,000 participants.
The problem for the CSI with Bishop Sabu’s ties with ACNA is this: While the Episcopal Church and the CSI are both member provinces of the Church of England-led Anglican Communion, ACNA is a leading member of the rival Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) which now openly calls itself the real Anglican Communion. See my post of Oct 25 “Anglican Split Becomes Formal Raising Questions for CSI” https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1WjzVtMJAq/
To have one of its own bishops striking a relationship with a church that is the leading light of a rival grouping to the Anglican Communion has much embarrassment value for the Synod. Only last week Rathinaraja on a visit to the UK was seen meeting and exchanging pleasantries with Sarah Mulally the new Archbishop-designate of Canterbury, the titular head of the Anglican Communion.
That said the larger problem of CSI Congregations in the US has not been addressed by either the Synod or the MKD. With second and third generation members forming the bulk of church membership, ties with the CSI as a whole are weakening. Most of these members do not have affinity of language or culture that bound their parents and grandparents to the church. In such a situation rivalries of the kind created between the North American Council and the Diaspora Diocese will likely only disillusion the young and make them drift to other churches. Also with immigration having drastically slowed to a trickle the challenge of replacing those leaving is harder than ever.
As a uniting church of several denominations, CSI has an unique natural appeal it can leverage to attract even non-Indian origin Americans to its ranks. But for that the in-fighting needs to stop and purposeful action that can help create a sustainable future for the church in the US needs to start.