January 2010

Dearly beloved in Christ,

WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Thank God for the blessed Christmas that we have celebrated. God has allowed us to enter into another new year. It is “not of our might but by His grace”.

Once a student in a college who received only five marks out of hundred in the examination asked the teacher – “sir, five marks out of?” In fact he deserved to get only zero, but the teacher gave him five marks. The teacher was surprised that the student had the audacity to ask – “Sir out of…?” The teacher answered: “out of mercy.” If we ask God why God is still preserving us, God would answer – “out of mercy.”

After a heart transplant surgery, when the recipient came to his senses, the surgeon asked him: “how do you you feel?”. The patient answered:” I feel I have been given a new lease on life.” Only if we see the gift of a New Year like being given a new heart,

will we see the magnitude of God’s gift and the greatness of God’s mercy.

God has given us a new year to grab this generous offer, as if we have been given a new lease of life, and that we are living on borrowed time. Our life span is limited.. As per the Psalmist it will be around 80 years (Psm.90:10) It is compared to a bubble that

comes up and bursts. Yet each life is precious in the sight of God. We are created in the divine likeness and called to have communion with the Creator. Little span is so precious before God. “Only one life and what is done for Christ will last” is what has

been told about the life of the believer.

Let this New Year be a year of great blessing to each one of us as we re-dedicate ourselves to live what is well pleasing in the sight of our Lord.

AGAIN WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Yours in His Service

Babu Achen

Rev. P. E. Mathew

Rev. P. E. Mathew (Vicar)

We are blessed to be under the pastoral guidance and leadership of Rev. P. E. Mathew as Vicar of St. Thomas Mar Thoma Church NY. Achen's native place is Kallooppara and Laly Kochmma is from Varikkadu, Tiruvalla. They have one son, Eby, who is finishing his BSc in Mangalore.

Achen and family had been in the Karnataka Missions Field (Hoskote, Mundugod, Sirsi Sankeshwar, Kunta) for several years and then served in Kerala. The last parish they ministered at was in the Sultan Bathery and Nilambur area.

email Rev. P. E. Mathew at
babuachen@yahoo.com 

Vicars of the Past Quarter Century
(including Vicars of the Mar Thoma Congregation of Greater New York)

Mar Thoma Congregation of Greater New York

Rev. Oommen Koruthu

(Student Achen later elevated as 
Bishop Zacharias Mar Theophilus)

May 1975 — Aug. 1975

Rev. K. S. Mathew 

(Student Achen)

Sept. 1975 – Sept. 1977

Rev. Thomas P. George  

(Student Achen)

Sept. 1977 – Aug. 1979

(Late) Rev. M. V. Benjamin  

Sept. 1979 – May 1981

St. Thomas Mar Thoma Church, New York

(Late) Rev. M. V. Benjamin

Co-Chairman Ad-hoc Committee Church in formation   

Oct. 1980 - Jan. 1981

Vicar                                     

 Jan. 1981 - May 1981

(Late) Rev. K. J. Philip

Co-Chairman  Ad-hoc Committee Church in formation

 Oct. 1980 - Jan. 1981

Associate Vicar                    

Jan. 1981 - Aug. 1981

Rev. N. M. Cherian

Vicar of all Mar  Thoma Congregations in New York

May 1981 - June 1983

Rev. Dr. T. Jacob Thomas    

(Student Achen)

Assistant Vicar

July 1981 - May 1983

Vicar   

June 1983 - Mar. 1985

Rev. George Varghese

Mar. 1985 - April 1989

Rev. Johnson Varghese      

June 1989 - May 1992

Rev. Dr. T. P. Abraham  

June 1992 - May 1995

Rev. P. M.  Thomas

May 1995 - April 1999

Rev. K. Y. Jacob         

May 1999 - June 1999

Rev. Thomas P. Chandy   

June 1999 – May 2002

Rev. Dr. K. A. Abraham     

May 2002 - August 2004

Rev. Jojan Mathews John

May 2004 - April 2007