South Wales Holy Innocents Indian Orthodox Pilgrimage Church

The Holy Innocents Indian Orthodox Church, Wales consists of members of the Indian orthodox community mainly from the South, West and Mid Wales region encompassing a large geographical catchment area. From early 2000, few members were attending St. Mary’s Indian Orthodox Church in Bristol for participating in the Holy Qurbana and all related spiritual activities travelling approximately 80 to 180 miles by Car. Later on more families were identified as coming from Wales. In 2007, the Managing Committee of the St Marys Church Bristol under the leadership of Vicar Rev. Fr. Varghese Mathew accepted the request from people in Wales to initiate a prayer group in the area.

From 2009, Holy Qurbana was conducted once a month with all liturgical support including altar boys from the Bristol St. Marys Parish. The Parish is also grateful to the various Catholic and Anglican churches in Swansea for all facilities rendered. The Parish also gratefully remembers Fr James Siemens from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for providing facilities for arranging services in Cardiff. Services were then conducted in alternate months between Swansea and Cardiff with main events shared between sites based on availability of premises.

With the participation of St Davids College, under the leadership of Fr Siemens, the College Ministry was commenced. Although services were conducted occasionally with even a Satellite Sunday School programme attached to the prayer group, the believers could feel a gap of not having a parish at a reachable distance and of not been able to actively participate in every day activities of the church and its related spiritual associations. Owing to the ongoing construction of the Church in Bristol at the time, it was only in October 2013 that Diocesan Metropolitan HG Dr. Mathews Mar Thimothios approved the formation of a separate Parish dedicating it to the Holy Innocents as per the request of members. Fr.Varghese John Mannacheril was appointed as Vicar and the first Holy Qurbana was celebrated on 13th October 2013. Fr. Varghese John Mannacheril was succeeded by Fr. Anoop M Abraham on November 2014. He was succeeded by Fr Mathew Abraham Paalthinkal who has been serving as Vicar since 2019.

By the grace of God, and with constant motivation and persistence of the congregants, a Church was purchased in Briton ferry, Neath, Wales and dedicated to Almighty God on the 31st May to 1st of June 2019 by His Grace Dr. Mathews Mar Thimothios.

The church holds services every Sunday throughout the month, with an additional service on the second Saturday of each month in Cardiff. The Parish today has all spiritual organizations in its enthusiastic involvement intended for the spiritual and religious needs of the specific group. These include Prayer Groups (St. Thomas and St. Davids) , Sunday School, Youth Movement, MMVS, AMOS etc. The Congregants are also actively involved in charitable activities.

The Parish was conferred the status of a Pilgrim Church, the first in the Diocese, Malankara Metropolitan and Catholicos HH Baselios Marthoma Mathews III on May 31st, 2024.