Did you ever knew that there are ëAmerican Americaní Achans and Kochammas in Malankara Orthodox Church: what I mean is who are not ëAsian Americansí. Yes. There are true successionists of American Priests in the Orthodox Apostolic succession of the Malankara Orthodox Church, which is originated in the most southern part of India and established in AD 52 by the St.Thomas, disciple of Jesus Christ. These are the priests of the Mission Society of St. Gregorios in North America, which is now a part and parcel of the American Diocese of Malankara Orthodox Church. One Mission Society parish is in Madison, Wisconsin - the ëHoly Transfiguration Malankara Orthodox Church of the East.í

Madison is a beautiful city in the State of Wisconsin in United States of America. This is a City of Churches with a population of around few hundred thousands people. Madison is attributed with its Lakes, Parks, Bicycle Paths, Art Fairs, Street Festivals, Carnivals, etc. During the winter, when the lakes freeze, it becomes a land of iceboats and cross-country skiers. Wednesday nights Madison people assemble at the Square of the Wisconsin State Capitol, which is one of the most beautiful buildings in North America, to listen to the free concerts. On the weekends we see the same crowd at the Americaís finest farmerís market of Madison.

If we look discretely we see many similarities between Madison and Malankara. Both are the Places of religious tolerance. Indian Culture and religious tinge is not new for the residents of Madison. We see many Churches in Madison as we see the Tombs and raised Crosses of Churches at every corner of the villages and cities of Malankara.

Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church is a unique Church of Madison area. This church follows the Orthodox practice of worshipping as the earliest Christians did, being firmly rooted in original Christian thoughts. They celebrate all the seven sacraments of Baptism, Mooron, Confession, Communion, Marriage, and Unction. Holy Qurbana is as per the Syriac Liturgy of James Apostle and the first Bishop of Jerusalem, through whom the line of succession start with and which is accepted by most of the Orthodox Churches in the world. Holy Transfiguration Malankara Orthodox Mission is developing a church community in Madison, Wisconsin with the faith, practices and rituals of the Malankara Orthodox Church, which is one of the trunk branch of the Orthodox Churches of the East. It acknowledges the confession of faith, canons, and rules of the Malankara Orthodox Church duly consecrated according to the prescribed ritual of the ëOrthodoxí lines of Apostolic Succession descend from Eastern Patriarchates. The mission aims to serve the word of God through the lives of the people of God. In addition to the worshipping and prayers, the mission serves the people as per the Sermon on the Mount, to house the homeless, heal the sick, feed the hungry, cloth the naked, give drinks to the thirsty, visit prisoners, bury the dead etc. etc. It respect and encourage each membersí journey towards the Christian ideals of spiritual transformation, as where there is less of self, there is indeed more of Christ, who is the divine life and essence of and within every man and women.

The Madison Orthodox Church celebrates all the services in the ancient Christian orthodox manner in English. All of the ancient and Orthodox rites of Christian celebration, initiation, instruction, prayer and meditation had their beginnings in the unbroken apostolic Church of Christ and were developed in the first centuries after the Pentecost visitation of the Holy Spirit.

The Malankara Orthodox Church is one of the ancient Orthodox Church of the East which was founded in Malankara (Kerala) a name coined with its Language Malayalam ( Malayalam Kara) in India, by Apostle St. Thomas around AD 52 and the head of the Church is the Catholicos of the east and headquarters at Devalokam, Kottayam, Kerala, India. Malankara Orthodox Church is a member of National Council of Churches ( NCC). Present Catholicos is the Basalios Marthoma Mathews II. With its members migrated to the various countries in the world, Church has spread out to the full Globe.

V. REV. JOHN-BRIAN PAPROCK COR EPISCOPOS

V. Rev. John-Brian Paprock Cor Episcopos is the Chief Priest of the Madison Holy Transfiguration Mission. Fr. John-Brian is the third American priest of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, accepted into the Mission Society of St. Gregorios in North America by H. G. Metropolitan Thomas Mar Makarios. He is currently in service to Holy Transfiguration Mission Parish in Madison, Wisconsin. Fr. John-Brian was ordained to the Orthodox Priesthood in 1987 after seven years of study under His Grace Bishop John in NYC, where he also attended Columbia University.

Fr. John-Brian is an author, artist and photographer. Fr. John-Brian and his wife, Teresa, have just published the guidebook, "Sacred Sites of Wisconsin" (Trails Media, Inc.), and are working on other volumes for the Great Lakes region of North America.

Fr. John-Brian is a board certified pastoral counselor with over 15 years of experience. He received the professional certification from the International Association of Pastoral Counselors, which binds him to a code of ethics for pastoral counseling. He has also been a professional member of many counseling and therapeutic associations, including the Counselors Alliance on Alcoholism, Drug Abuse and Associated Problems and the Alliance for the Mentally Ill. He is currently a member of the World Counseling Network. Fr. John-Brian is qualified to work with a variety of issues including recovery from a variety of addictions, intervention, grief work, short-term therapy, pre-marriage counseling, family problems, spiritual problems and direction, adult children of dysfunctional parents, adult survivors, and more.

Fr. John-Brian also draws from diverse experiences with people of different cultures and religious beliefs. He has been a member of the Association of Interfaith Ministers for several years. He has done cult awareness workshops for teens and adults. He serves local hospitals as a part-time and on call chaplain.

Fr. John-Brian Paprock is a team member of the authors of ëLight of Lifeí and his Guest message is there in the repository ñ ëLiving As Children of Lightí

Fr. John-Brian explains below the Brief History, Current Activities and Future Plans and Developments of the Holy Transfiguration Malankara Orthodox Church of the East:

BRIEF HISTORY:

On Holy Transfiguration Eve, August 5th 1999, after an intense period of prayerful discernment and after being reinstated after an almost seven-year leave and inactivity as a priest, I celebrated a ìReturn to Ministryî vespers at St. Andrewís Episcopal Church in Madison. Over 50 family, friends, and well-wishers, and a few from my prior service as priest, were present at the invitation-only event.

His Eminence Metropolitan Paulos Mar Gregorios of blessed memory had come to me in a dream, beckoning me to come towards him. Although he didnít speak, I felt a reassurance that everything would be OK, if I followed his beckoning. During my leave, both the Russian-American Orthodox mission jurisdiction I was under (the only church of which I had ever been a member) and I had changed. I was no longer the man of my youth. They no longer seemed like the church I served in my youth. I still felt the call to ministry; to Holy Priesthood. Indeed, that jurisdiction fully reinstated me to service in the Orthodox Priesthood in 1999. So I prayed for guidance and clarity. I wrote some letters of inquiry. Eventually, a Coptic Bishop, a native North American, who found himself isolated and was seeking reunion with the rest of Orthodoxy, came to my attention. His goal of an American jurisdiction in full communion with the church of Paulos Mar Gregorios enjoined me to petition for incardination.

The transition from fully Byzantine Orthodox services to the Coptic services of the Apostolic Christian Church of the East was not easy for many of the initial supporters of the local mission. It was clear that the mission would not be like it was in the late 1980s. Some left. Nevertheless, on August 6th, 2000, His Grace Hadrian Mar Elijah, during his visit to Madison for our Holy Transfiguration feast, elevated my status to chorepiscopos and placed me in charge of ecumenical relations.

I met with His Eminence Thomas Mar Makarios at the consecration of St. Gregorios Church in Bellwood, Illinois. Shortly after the long and encouraging audience with Thirumeni, we adopted the fullness of the Malankara and Syriac Orthodox services and calendar, entirely in English. There had already been significant dialogue with the Mission Society of St. Gregorios and Chorepispopos Michael Hatcher in Spokane, Washington. However, it was another transition for the now fewer stalwart members of our parish. I feel blessed that these share the sense of mission and ministry in the direction God has been leading us.

In July 2001, at the Family Youth Conference in Toronto, His Eminence Thomas Mar Makarios, His Grace Hadrian Mar Elijah and I met about the integration of the Apostolic Christian Church of the East (which was under His Grace Hadrian Mar Elijah) into the Mission Society of St. Gregorios, which is under Makarios Thirumeni. It was decided that Holy Transfiguration Mission in Madison and myself as a priest would be the first (as it turned out the only) to be received. His Grace Hadrian Mar Elijah fully agreed, at that time, with the plan of taking each priest and parish separately. The bishops shook hands at the end of that meting in Toronto. The next morning after Holy Qurbana at the conference, His Eminence Thomas Mar Makarios announced the full reception of Holy Transfiguration and my priesthood into the Mission Society of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in North America.

In confirmation of this, Makarios Thirumeni asked His Grace Yuhannon Mar Militios to come to Madison shortly thereafter and bless grapes and others fruits at our church picnic for the feast of the Holy Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor. He also gave a wonderful sermon at Holy Qurbana on our mission and our work and how it relates to the scripture account of Holy Transfiguration.

Three American inquirers that had been attending Qurbana during the transitions, became Orthodox in our mission in the months that followed. In January 2002, we formed a managing committee of Malayalee and American members.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES:

Holy Church should be a place of sacred community, a light in the greater society, a force for good, for peace and for the love of God to be known ñ both in obvious ways and in less obvious ways.

Christís mission for Holy Church includes tending to the poor, the sick, the suffering. Within our modest abilities, we contribute to food and clothing distribution and housing for the poor. In addition to serving at the hospitals as a chaplain, I am also serving the local boy scouting organization and had the honor of walking a 'peace walk' with Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Jewish participants.

We believe that in order to serve God and Christ, the community needs to know where and when we meet for worship and that inquirers are welcome. We meet regularly for Holy Qurbana. Other parish activities include open monthly healing prayer services, meditation practice and retreats.

We participate in interfaith and ecumenical dialogue. We participate in the annual India Day celebration, where the most frequent question is, 'Thereís has been Christianity in India since the first century?'

Our members are encouraged to have a sense of ministry in their work and most of the active members have served the community in various ways: sometimes as part of their jobs; sometimes as part of their avocation; sometimes overtly; sometimes in secret.

There is an understanding that all things done for the glory of God and the welfare of humankind shall be blessed.

FUTURE PLANS AND DEVELOPMENTS:

Certainly, I do not doubt that Christ has guided us to serve at this time, this Holy Church in a sacred mission to the lost of America ñ most of whom have not even known the depth and the light from the East, that is the Malankara Orthodox Church. I believe there is a lot that the Malankara Orthodox and the other ancient holy and Orthodox churches can offer to modern Americans. I hope that our efforts can be coordinated in the three centers that have started: Mission Society Retreat Center in Suffern New York, Holy Transfiguration in Madison Wisconsin and St. Gregorios in Spokane Washington.

We ask God to bless and increase all good things for our bishops and those that have encouraged us and prayed for our efforts, most especially for wisdom and kindness of Makarios Thirumeni, Chorepiscopos Michael Hatcher and everyone involved with the Mission Society of St. Gregorios in North America.

Pray for us.