CHURCH HISTORY

The Mar Thoma Congregation of Chattanooga started its humble journey of faithful traditional worship as a result of the prayerful desire and aspirations of the Marthoma families who met on October 28 , 2007 Sunday afternoon at the residence of one of the members. This meeting decided to start Marthoma worship services every Sunday and elected an ad-hoc committee for the administration of this Marthoma group.

Around this time, Orthodox and Jacobite groups of Chattanooga also were looking for a worship place and they showed interest to join with Marthoma group to conduct the worship services alternatively. Thus we started the first Marthoma Lay Leader service at Silverdale Cumberland Presbyterian church gym on Sunday,  November 4, 2007 . First Holy Communion service was held at the same place on November 11, 2007 by Rev. Abraham P. Varkey , Vicar of Atlanta Mar Thoma Church.

As of December 2007, we received a Kalpana from Rt. Rev. Dr. Euyakim Mar Coorilos, Diocese of North America and Europe, stating that our Mar Thoma group is approved as a Congregation starting on January 1st, 2008.Thus the Mar Thoma Congregation got initiated in the scenic city of Chattanooga as the first Marthoma congregation in the state of Tennessee. This became a blessed extension of the ecumenical prayer group started in the year 1996 by Marthoma and Orthodox families of Chattanooga.

Since 2008 our congregation have organized all activities of the church (Sunday School, Youth Fellowship, Edavaka Mission, Sevika Sangham, weekly prayer meetings, Choir, Vacation Bible School (VBS), Christmas Carol Service, and Annual Conventions) on a regular basis. These organizations have been contributing to the biblical instructions and providing opportunity for social interaction and fellowship among our members and our community. Our congregation has been the smallest of the entire congregations of North America and Europe Diocese and we are so proud to mention that we received the ‘Best Congregation Award’ from the Diocese for many years. The Vicar of Atlanta Mar Thoma Church used to conduct Holy Communion Service every fourth Sunday evening as well as attend many activities arranged by the congregation.

In 2009-2012 Rev. Jai Varghese served as the Vicar of our congregation. During this time , the members strongly desired to have their own place of worship and decided to start fundraising. Multiple events were organized during 2012-2013 that helped with the kick-start of fundraising. Followed by this, during the time of Vicar Rev.P.S.Thomas 2012-2015, we extended the fundraising requests to the various churches in North America and to the friends and Families of our Congregation.

During the time of 2008-2015, before we started worship services at our own building, Resurrection Lutheran Church, Hickory Valley Christian Church, Silverdale Presbyterian Church, Brainerd United Methodist Church and First Alliance Church opened their facilities for our worship services and activities. Also our member Mr. Sajive John opened his house for two months for the services to be conducted.

During the term of Rev. P.S Thomas in 2014, we bought property for the congregation @ 6911 Conner Lane, Chattanooga, TN 37421, and the church building was consecrated by Diocesan Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Geevarghese Mar Theodosius in Apr 2015. During the time of Rev.M.P. Samuel in October 2016 , the second phase of the church building construction started and the building was expanded for worship services. The renewed church building was consecrated on 11th Mar 2017 by Rt.Rev.Dr.Isaac Mar Philoxenos.

Presently we have 16 families as members and the Congregation is served by Rev.Abraham Sudeep Oommen as the full-time vicar. We praise God for his amazing Grace and Guidance throughout these years and we pray for more blessings and growth in the upcoming years.

(Updated on: October 2023)