The Malankara Orthodox Diocese of Southwest America, sometimes referred to as the Southwest Diocese or DS-WA is a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

of the

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) also known as the Indian Orthodox Church (IOC) or simply as the Malankara Church, is an Autocephaly, autocephalous Oriental Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox church headquartered in #Catholicate ...

. The diocesan headquarters are located in unincorporated

Fort Bend County, Texas Fort Bend County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The county was founded on December 29, 1837, and organized the next year. It is named for Fort Bend, a blockhouse at a bend of the Brazos River. The community developed around th ...

, with a postal address of Beasley,
Compare to the Beasley city limits
(rotate the map until it points north, and compare with the location of the headquarters)
Also see map from the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

Note that the city of Houston stated in 1996 that
"The U.S. Postal Service establishes ZIP codes and mailing addresses in order to maximize the efficiency of their system, not to recognize jurisdictional boundaries." a suburban city in Texas 40 miles from downtown

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. The southwest diocese covers several churches in the

U.S. states In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

, and Canada.

History

American diocese

The American diocese was established in 1979 by Thomas Makarios. In 1991, after the death of Makarios, Mathews Barnabas was enthroned as metropolitan in 1993. In 2002, Zachariah Nicholovos was appointed as the assistant metropolitan.

Formation of the Southwest Diocese

The Diocese was formed by order number 145/2009 signed by the Catholicos of the Apostolic Throne of St. Thomas and

Malankara Metropolitan The Malankara Metropolitan, or the Metropolitan of Malabar, is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of the Malankara Syrian Church. It evolved from the sixteenth-century East Syriac metropolitans of India who were also styled as the Metro ...

, Didymus I on 1 April 2009. Barnabas and Nicholovos were appointed to the Northeast American Diocese and Alexios Eusebius was appointed the Southwest Diocese. According to order number 01/2017, Eusebius was transferred to the Diocese of Mavelikkara. Subsequently the Malankara Metropolitan assumed control over the diocese and Zacharias Aprem was appointed as the assistant metropolitan to the diocese. In October 2022,

Thomas Ivanios Thomas Ivanios is a Metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. Early life Ivanios was born on 13 December 1969. Metropolitan He was elected as the Metropolitan candidate on 25 February 2022 at the Malankara Association held at Ko ...

was appointed as the permanent Diocesan Metropolitan bringing an end to the temporary administrative set up that lasted for over five years.

Today

As of April 2020, there are 63 churches in the southwest diocese.

Diocesan metropolitan

Assistant metropolitan

Parishes

1 St. Thomas Orthodox Church, Phoenix AZ 2 St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, San Francisco CA 3 St Mary’s Orthodox Church, Los Angeles CA 4 St. George Orthodox Church, Sacramento CA 5 St. Thomas Malankara Orthodox Valiyapally, Los Angeles CA 6 St Thomas Malankara Orthodox Church, Denver CO 7 St. Gregorios Orthodox Church of India, South Florida FL 8 St. Mary’s Orthodox Church, Orlando FL 9 St. Paul's Orthodox Church, Orlando FL 10 St Gregorios Orthodox Church, Jacksonville FL 11 St. Gregorios Malankara Orthodox Church, Tampa FL 12 St. Thomas Indian Orthodox, Hollywood, Florida FL 13 St. Mary’s Indian Orthodox Congregation, South West Florida FL 14 St. Mary's Malankara Orthodox Church, Tampa, Florida FL 15 St Thomas Malankara Orthodox Church, Pompano Beach, FL 16 St. Thomas Orthodox Church, Atlanta GA 17 St. Mary's Orthodox Church, Atlanta GA 18 St Gregorios Orthodox Congregation, Augusta GA 19 St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Elmhurst IL 20 St Gregorios Cathedral, Bellwood IL 21 St. Thomas Orthodox Church, Chicago IL 22 St Mary’s Orthodox Church Oak Lawn. IL 23 St Gregorios Orthodox Church, Kansas City, Missouri KS 24 St. George Orthodox Congregation, Louville, KY 25 St Thomas Malankara Orthodox Church Charlotte MD 26 St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Detroit MI 27 St. Thomas Orthodox Church, Detroit MI 28 St. Mary’s Orthodox Church, Detroit MI 29 St Gregorios Orthodox Congregation, Minnesota MN 30 St Mary’s Orthodox Church, St.Louis MO 31 St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Cleveland OH 32 St Ephrem Orthodox Congregation, Columbus OH 33 St. Thomas Orthodox Church, Oklahoma OK 34 St. Anthony’s Congregation -Pittsburg PA 35 St Paul’s Orthodox Congregation, Chattanooga TN 36 St. Barnabas Indian Orthodox Congregation, Nashville TN 37 St. Mary's Orthodox Congregation, Memphis TN 38 St. Thomas Orthodox Cathedral, Houston TX 39 St Paul’s Orthodox Church, Dallas TX 40 St. George Orthodox Church, Dallas TX 41 St Gregorios Orthodox Congregation McAllen, TX 42 A&M College Station Orthodox Congregation, TX 43 St. Thomas Orthodox Church Lufkin TX 44 St Mary’s Malankara Orthodox Church, Carrollton, Dallas TX 45 St. Stephen's Orthodox Church, Houston TX 46 St Gregorios Orthodox Church, Dallas TX 47 St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin TX 48 St James Orthodox Church, Dallas TX 49 St. George Orthodox Church, San Antonio TX 50 St. Peter's & St. Paul's Orthodox Church, Houston TX 51 St. Mary’s Orthodox Church, Houston TX 52 St Mary’s, Valiyapally Orthodox Church, Dallas TX 53 St Gregorios Orthodox Church, Houston TX 54 St Thomas Orthodox Church, Dallas TX 55 St. Mary's Indian Orthodox Church, San Antonio, TX 56 St Gregorios Orthodox Congregation, New Orleans TX 57 St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Atlanta TX 58 St. Gregorios Malankara Orthodox Church, Spokane, WA 59 St Thomas Orthodox Church, Seattle, WA 60 St Gregorios Malankara Orthodox Congregation Chapel San Diego 61 St Gregorios Malankara Orthodox Church Atlanta 62 St Mary Malankara Orthodox Congregation Las Vegas 63 St Joseph The Just Malankara Orthodox Congregation Dayton-Cincinnati 64 St Ephrem Malankara Orthodox Congregation North Dallas 65 St John The Baptist Malankara Orthodox Congregation Houston 66 St George Malankara Orthodox Church San Antonio

References

External links

Diocese of South-West AmericaMalankara Orthodox Syrian Church
{{Coord, 29.5141, -95.9688, display=title Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church dioceses Oriental Orthodox dioceses in the United States Oriental Orthodoxy in Canada 2009 establishments in North America