St. Peter's Rockland Church, History

God bless the Pope, His Holiness, Benedict XVI, for erecting a new Exarchate for the Syro-Malankara Catholics in the USA. On this memorable occasion, we congratulate our bishop, Most Rev. Dr. Thomas Mar Eusebius, the first bishop of the newly formed Exarchate. We are very proud of and grateful to our forefathers and our late bishops especially to Mar Ivanios, the Servant of God (Daivadasan), for the Reunion Movement. We heartily thank His Beatitude, Baselios Mar Cleemis, our Catholicos, for his excellent leadership and his love for the Malankara Church. Our heartfelt thanks to all our bishops, priests and sisters for spending their time and life for us to help us to live our earthly life and enjoy our spiritual journey to the Kingdom of God. We believe that we, the Malankarites, are “the Chosen ones”.

St. Peter’s Malankara church of Rochland was established by the then Apostolic Visitator, Bishop Isaac Mar Cleemis, our present Catholicos, on June 22, 2002, at the Knanaya Catholic Center, New York. This was a dream that became true as an answer to the prayers and hard work of the zealous malankarites of Rockland. Although we were a small group at first, we are now twenty-six strong, high-spirited, faithful Malankara families who work hard to inculcate the Christian faith and the Malankara liturgical tradition in our community and do evangelization in Rockland, New York. Rev. Fr. Joy Mankulam has been our pastor ever since the installation. Now we have our liturgical celebrations every Sunday at St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Spring Valley, New York. We are very grateful to Rev. Joy for his spiritual leadership and powerful liturgical presence as we celebrate our life especially in the Holy Qurbono every Sunday at 3.00 P.M. Our Youth, “the seeds sown in rich soil”, who assist at the Holy Qurbono and in other activities for the past nine years, are the hub and nucleus of our community and are the pride and future of our Church. We encourage learning religion through catechism and liturgical singing, and conducting activities for MCA and MCYM after the Holy Mass. We are grateful to Rev. Dr. Sunny Mathew, the present priest-in-charge of this community for his efficient pastoral leadership.

We, the vicar and parishioners of St. Peter’s Malankara Catholic church of Rockland, are proud of offering our wholehearted support to the remarkable venture of producing the Exarchate Souvenir and we appreciate and congratulate our Thirumeni, Doctor Thomas Mar Eusebius and everyone working for this noble cause. Hopefully, our exarchate will soon be made an Eparchy.