Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan I | |
---|---|
Metropolitan of the Believers Eastern Church | |
Native name | Yohannan Kadippiaril Punnose |
Church | Believers Eastern Church |
Predecessor | position established |
Successor | Samuel Theophilus [1] |
Orders | |
Rank | Metropolitan |
Personal details | |
Born | Kerala, India | 8 March 1950
Died | 8 May 2024 74) Wills Point, Dallas, Texas, U.S. | (aged
Nationality | Indian |
Denomination | Believers Eastern Church |
Spouse | Gisela Punnose |
Children | Daniel Sarah |
Occupation | Metropolitan Bishop of Believers Eastern Church |
Alma mater | Criswell College |
Athanasius Yohan I (born K.P. Yohannan, 8 March 1950; died 8 May 2024) was a Mar Thoma turned, Baptist turned, Pentecostal Christian in India and later embraced a spirituality similar to the Eastern Orthodox tradition. He was the founder and president of GFA World formerly known as Gospel for Asia, [2] a large non-profit missions organisation with a focus on India and Asia. He was also the founding Metropolitan Bishop of Believers Eastern Church [3] [4] (formerly Believers Church) with the religious title and name of Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan I. [5] Yohannan had been airing Athmeeya Yathra radio program since the 1980s, which also was transcribed into over 200 books on Christian living. [6] [7]
K.P. Yohannan was born on 8 March 1950, [8] and raised in a St. Thomas Syrian Christian (Mar Thoma Syrian Church) family in Kerala, India. At age eight he became a follower of Jesus. He was 16 when he joined the Operation Mobilization (OM), an evangelical missions movement, and served them for eight years in the Indian subcontinent. [9] He continued to have close working relationship and friendship with the late George Verwer, OM's founder. Through an invitation from W.A. Criswell, Yohannan moved to the United States in 1974 for theological studies at Criswell College (at the time Criswell Bible Institute) in Dallas, Texas. [10] [11] [12] He graduated with a B.A. in Biblical Studies, becoming the school’s first international student to graduate. Eventually he also was conferred an honorary degree of divinity by Hindustan Bible Institute and College in Madras, India. [9] Though his degree was honorary, he often used the title of "doctor" when in the United States.
Six months into his undergraduate degree, Yohannan [13] became an ordained clergyman and served in the clergy of a Native American Southern Baptist church for four years near Dallas, Texas. In 1979, Yohannan and his wife Gisela started an organisation known today as Gospel for Asia, based in Carrollton, Texas until 2014, when it moved to Wills Point, Texas. In the first year, they helped provide financial support and training to 24 missionaries. [14] [12] In 1979, Yohannan resigned from his church to devote attention to full-time mission work. In 1981, he started a chapter of Gospel for Asia (GFA) in Kerala, India, and in 1983 created an Indian headquarters in Tiruvalla. [10] GFA supports over 50 Bible colleges in various countries. [10] [15]
He founded Gospel for Asia in 1979. It adheres to Yohannan's belief in the efficiency and efficacy of “national missionaries”, or missionaries that are native to the nation or culture they serve. The organisation’s primary mission fields include those that live in the “10/40 Window”, referring to the longitudinal coordinates of areas in west Africa, India and east Asia. [10] Yohannan credited his early work in his native India as inspiration for his focus on the poor and underserved in this region. He states:
“In my head I knew all the answers, and Bible became the tool of the trade for me that I would use to teach and preach and I was doing very well. People liked my sermons, but finally I said to myself, ‘I’m not the same person I was when the Lord called me to serve Him. I’m not the same person that I was that walked on the streets of North India weeping over the lost and perishing millions and stayed up all night praying and weeping over a world map. The Lord was gracious enough to talk to us very lovingly, and I realized that he wanted me to go back to America and speak to the ‘Body of Christ’ about the possibility of seeing countries like India, Burma and Bhutan, turn to Christ if only they would become unselfish in praying and helping these brothers by becoming senders.” [12]
He was founder in 1993 of Believers Church later Believers Eastern Church, a self-described "evangelical in nature and outlook, oriental in worship, democratic in function, and orthodox in governance and character" church. [16] [17] Believers Eastern Church is administratively based in the state of Kerala in southwestern India. He was the Metropolitan Bishop at the time of his death. [18]
Yohannan was married to Gisela, [19] who served with him in Operation Mobilization. They met in 1973. [10] In 1974, they were married in Germany, Gisela’s birth country. They have two children, Daniel and Sarah and seven grandchildren.
In August 2018, Believers Eastern Church announced that bishops and leaders in the church would take up "ecclesiastical" names in church duties, and Yohannan henceforth would be known as Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan Metropolitan with respect to church duties. [18] [20] Across the Western world, he continued to go by K. P. Yohannan as an author, speaker and missionary statesman.
On 7 May 2024, Yohannan was hit by a vehicle while on a morning walk in Wills Point, Texas. He died the following day from cardiac arrest. Yohannan was 74 years of age. [21] [22] [23] [24]
Yohannan was the author of 39 books published in the US and over 200 books published in India. [9] [25] His books include Revolution In World Missions. [26]
Yohannan's radio broadcast "Road to Reality" was heard on over 900 radio stations in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. [9] He has also been heard on the Athmeeya Yathra (Spiritual Journey) daily broadcast for the past 25 years. This is broadcast in 14 nations in 113 Asian languages. Athmeeya Yathra now includes a television station and print media. [11] [27]
Yohannan served as a board member with the National Religious Broadcasters Association (NRB) from 2013–2015. In 2003, NRB presented Yohannan with its Individual Achievement in International Broadcasting award. [28]
In November 2020, the India Income Tax Department raided the residence and offices of KP Yohannan, seizing Rs 57 Lakh (5,700,000 Indian Rupees, about $78,147 US) from a car boot. [29] [30] The Ministry of Home Affairs had barred the Believers Church and three other associated N.G.O.s from accepting foreign funds. It was claimed in 2008 that the church received over Rs 1,000 crore (10,000,000,000 Indian Rupees, about $137,100,000 US) in foreign funds over an 18-year span. [31]
The operations of Gospel for Asia and Believers Church were scrutinised after Believers Church purchased a 2,268-acre (9.18 km2) rubber estate in Kerala, India. [32] [33] Opponents claimed the church had diverted foreign funds to amass land for itself and for uses other than declared purposes. [34] It was further alleged that the rubber estate, which Believers Church purchased from Harrison's Malayalam, Ltd., was on government leasehold and therefore not saleable. [35] Hence, Believers Church was accused of illegally holding government land. At a later time, Harrison's Malayalam was accused of forging their land title, leading to continued debate about the legality of the sale. [36]
Former Ernakulam District Collector M.G. Rajamanickam, who was appointed as Government Special Officer to confiscate illegal and excess estate lands under the custody of various companies, had issued an order in May 2015, confiscating the 2,268 acre of land from Believers’ Church." However, the ruling has been appealed and now is further complicated by the local government's desire to build an airport on this estate, as reported by local news outfits. [37] However, it also was reported that "The government does not need permission from K P Yohannan to set up airport in the Cheruvally estate, BJP national executive member V Muraleedharan said." [38]
Yohannan says that the claims were politically motivated and that the workings of Gospel for Asia and Believers Church are transparent. [39] Further, the rubber estate is an investment to help fund social services among underdeveloped communities [33] [40] and not a personal land grab as opponents have claimed.
The controversies about the estate purchase have been cleared by the Kerala, India, High Court. The findings by Rajamanickam in his report were completely rejected by the court. The court came down heavily on the government and the officer for playing "robin hood" [41] with the owners of the estate. A long standing controversy for Believers Church comes to an end with a clean verdict from the high court of Kerala. [42] [43]
In 2017, there were two RICO anti-fraud lawsuits active against Gospel for Asia, [44] naming Yohannan and other Gospel for Asia leaders as defendants. [45] One of these lawsuits went to arbitration and the other was settled after three years in which both parties agreed that “all donations designated for use in the field were ultimately sent to the field.” [46] Gospel for Asia denies any wrongdoing. [47]
The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) also known as the Indian Orthodox Church (IOC) or simply as the Malankara Church, is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church headquartered in Devalokam, near Kottayam, India. It serves India's Saint Thomas Christian population. According to tradition, these communities originated in the missions of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. It employs the Malankara Rite, an Indian form of the West Syriac liturgical rite.
The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, often shortened to Mar Thoma Church, and known also as the Reformed Syrian Church and the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, is an autonomous Oriental Protestant Christian church based in Kerala, India. While continuing many of the Syriac high church practices, the church is Protestant in its theology and doctrines. It employs a reformed variant of the West Syriac Rite Divine Liturgy of Saint James, translated to Malayalam.
Thiruvalla, also spelled Tiruvalla, is a municipality in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, India. It is also the headquarters of the Thiruvalla taluk. The town is spread over an area of 27.15 km2 (10.48 sq mi) and has a population of 52,883, down from 56,837 in 2001. It lies on the northern banks of the Manimala River, in a land-locked region surrounded by irrigating canals and rivers. It is the largest town in the district, and is one of the financial, educational, healthcare, cultural, and commercial centres of central Travancore.
Gospel for Asia is an independent Christian missionary and humanitarian organization, founded by K. P. Yohannan in 1979, focusing on residents of Asian countries and small parts of Africa. The organization is located about five miles southwest of Wills Point, Texas, a small community east of Dallas,Texas. It is affiliated with the Believers Eastern Church.
Criswell College is a private Baptist Christian college and divinity school in Dallas, Texas. The college's stated mission is to provide ministerial and professional higher education for men and women preparing to serve as Christian leaders throughout society, while maintaining an institutional commitment to biblical inerrancy.
Believers Eastern Church is a church of Indian origin with congregations and parishes worldwide. It follows an episcopal governance and structure. It holds Christ as its head and further requires that bishops and ordained ministers submit to its metropolitan and his successors. It is governed by a committee of bishops, the synod, with one central bishop holding the honorary title of "first among equals" and follows Evangelical Christian doctrine. BEC is administratively based in the state of Kerala in southwestern India. The church has 57 dioceses in 14 nations. Its membership consists of more than 3.5 million in 10 countries speaking a hundred languages. It has 30 bishops, and the Metropolitan Bishop is Moran Mor Samuel Theophilus who replaced Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan I Metropolitan.
Thadathuvila Chandapillai Yohannan, is a former Indian long jumper who held the national record in long jump for nearly 3 decades and represented India in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He hails from the state of Kerala. Yohannan will be known for the new dimension he gave to long jump in India in 1974, the occasion was the Tehran Asian Games of 1974. Yohannan cleared a distance of 8.07 metres at the Tehran Asian Games for a new Asian record.
The term Eastern Protestant Christianity encompasses a range of heterogeneous Protestant Christian denominations that developed outside of the Western world, from the latter half of the nineteenth century, and retain certain elements of Eastern Christianity. Some of these denominations came into existence when active Protestant churches adopted reformational variants of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox liturgy and worship, while others originated from Orthodox groups who were inspired by the teachings of Western Protestant missionaries and adopted Protestant beliefs and practices.
Erumely, also spelt Erumeli, is a town and panchayat located in the south-eastern part of Kottayam district in Kerala state, India. Erumely is situated 49 km (30 mi) east of Kottayam town and 133 km (83 mi) north of capital city Thiruvananthapuram. The village is on the Manimala River.
The Konkani Orthodox Church is a split faction from the Catholic Church in India, founded by Bishop Antonio Francisco Xavier Alvares in 1889. The cathedral is situated at Brahmavar, in Udipi, Carnataca, India.
Baselios Marthoma Paulose II was the primate of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. He was ordained in 1973, consecrated in 1985 and enthroned as the 8th Catholicos of the Malankara Church and the 21st Malankara Metropolitan on 1 November 2010, succeeding Didymos I.
Sir Dr. Mor Athanasious Eliyas is a Syriac Orthodox bishop. As of 2012 he was the Patriarchal vicar of Singapore, President of Antiochean Faith Movement in India and Vicar General of the St. Athanasius Cathedral at the Puthencuriz.
K. P. Ramanunni (Malayalam:കെ.പി.രാമനുണ്ണി) is a novelist and short-story writer from Kerala, India. His first novel Sufi Paranja Katha won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1995 and the novel Daivathinte Pusthakam won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 2017. Jeevithathinte Pusthakam won the 2011 Vayalar Award.
The Saint Thomas Christian denominations are Christian denominations from Kerala, India, which traditionally trace their ultimate origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. They are also known as "Nasranis" as well. The Syriac term "Nasrani" is still used by St. Thomas Christians in Kerala. It is part of the Eastern Christianity institution.
Yohannan is a Syriac name, from the Hebrew name Yohanan, equivalent to English John.
Athmeeya Yathra is a Christian satellite channel and radio broadcast. The radio broadcast began in India in 1985. It is based in Thiruvalla, Kerala, India.
Believers Church Medical College Hospital (BCMCH) is a healthcare institution of Believers eastern Church based in Thiruvalla, Kerala, India. The Medical College is attached to a 750-bed, multi-speciality hospital. The Medical College, established in 2016, is situated in a campus of about 25 acres (10 ha) connected by rail and road.
Sabarimala International Greenfield Airport, is a proposed greenfield international airport, that will cater to the cities of Kottayam and Pathanamthitta, as well as the pilgrimage site of Sabarimala in Pathanamthitta district. The airport will be built in between the towns of Erumeli South and Manimala. Pathanamthitta is the nearest major urban center to the proposed site. The proposed site is 53.9 km away from Sabarimala temple, 9.2 km away from Kanjirappally town and 9 km away from Ranni town. The site is located at about 40 km from the city of Kottayam. The site is spread over 2,570 acres (10.4 km2) of area. It is 136 km from the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram, and 113 km from Kochi. Upon commissioning, this will be the fifth international airport in Kerala, giving the state the distinction of having the most international airports in India.
Pentecostal Saint Thomas Christians, also called Pentecostal Syrian Christians, are the ethnic Saint Thomas Christians (Nasranis) affiliated to various Pentecostal and independent Neo-Charismatic churches. Sometimes, the Kerala Brethren are also erroneously lumped together with Pentecostals. The community is native to the Indian state of Kerala, and shares in the legacy of early Christianity in the region, traditionally traced to the missionary activities of Saint Thomas the Apostle in the first century. Prior to their conversion to Pentecostalism, they belonged to traditional Saint Thomas Christian denominations.
Some of the more prominent Pentecostal groups are the Sharon Fellowship Church (est. 1975), the New India Church of God (est. 1976), New India Bible Church (est. 1975), and the Believers' Church, run by the Gospel for Asia ministry (est. 1978) under the leadership of K. P. Yohannan, from a St. Thomas Syrian Christian background.