About Us

St. Mary’s Indian Orthodox Congregation, Nothwest London had its humble beginning as a prayer fellowship which was conducted by the motivation and need for spiritual upliftment by 5 families living in the Ealing, Harrow and Hounslow regions. The prayer fellowship was started in 2019 under the leadership of Joby Rajan and Jobin George. They had the intention of bringing all the Malankara Orthodox faithful who lived in the region but were not able to reach to the nearest churches in Brockley, Central London or Hemel Hempstead.

The prayer fellowship faced a period of non functionality on account of the Covid 19 pandemic restrictions through 2020-21.. Once these restrictions were relaxed and it was possible for families to come and meet, we realised that over the 2 years from 2020 to 2022, there had been an influx of nurse families and students from various Orthodox churches in India to this region. We also realised that though having home fellowships are good, we would not be able to cater to such a large crowd in each home. It became apparent that it would be beneficial for the Indian Orthodox Community to have a prayer fellowship or congregation in this region at the very earliest.

To this effect, by the grace of God, we called together a meeting of the believers residing in these areas on 11th June 2022 at St. Anselm’s Church, Hayes under the guidance of Very Rev. Fr. George Abraham Cor-episcopa and Rev Fr. P J Binu. 12 families residing in various areas mentioned above came together for an evening of prayer and discussion on understanding the need for the fellowship/congregation. 

A request with our desire for the formation of a congregation was placed to the then Diocesan Metropolitan, His Grace Mathews Mar Thimothios. After much discussion with His Grace, we were given permission to form a congregation under the name of the “Theotokos – Mother of God” as our Patron saint, and thus started the beginning of St. Mary’s Indian Orthodox Congregation.

We were blessed to hold our first Holy Qurbana as our Diocesan Metropolitan as the Chief Celebrant in the month of September 2022. The first Holy Qurbana was conducted at St. Hugh’s Church, Northolt.

We initially started with one Holy Qurbana on a Saturday and come December 2022, we decided to increase the frequency to 2 services in a month. We also started the Sunday School for the children of the congregation.

The Sunday School forms the backbone of our Congregation and we have 35 students in total across all the classes and 12 teachers. The teachers take time out of their busy schedules to commit and teach the students in the way of our Christian faith and the Holy Bible and traditions of the Malankara Church.

We currently have 30 registered families, and we find more and more new families whom we can cater to for their spiritual growth and upliftment. We currently have families coming from Edgware, Hounslow, Hayes, Ealing, Harrow, Slough and Reading regions.

For more details, Please contact

Fr. Shyju P. Mathai (Vicar) – 07467 099140,

Jobin George (Treasurer) – 07862 635671 

Nishin George (Secretary) – 07438 804074.