Govt wants amicable settlement to church row

KOCHI: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said the government has an impartial stand on the Kolenchery Church row. The government wants to solve the issue amicably as early as possible, he said after  holding discussions with top administrative and police officials and ministers from Ernakulam district here on Sunday. Though Union and state ministers and senior police officials were present at the meeting, the representatives of the two factions were not invited for the meeting.However, Chandy refused to divulge the suggestions put forward at the meeting to settle the issue. Showing signs of intensifying their agitation, the Jacobite and the Orthodox factions took out protest marches across the state on Sunday. Baselios Thomas I of the Jacobite Church, in a circular that was read out in churches during the holy mass, urged the faithful to be vigilant.  He also alleged in the circular that the Orthodox faction was trying to overpower churches belonging to Jacobites and that the move would be resisted at any cost. “It is unfair to get the ownership of churches   through litigation and the Jacobite Church cannot accept this,” the Catholicos said. Orthodox faction had announced that it was backing out from further discussions with the court-appointed mediation committee. The Orthodox Church is sticking to the stand that it would not accept any  solution other than a compliance of the earlier court order in favour of them.  “We would continue with our strike and will not cooperate with the court-appointed committee,” said Fr Johns Konath of the Orthodox Church. Tension prevailed when a group of Jacobites, who were taking part in a protest rally, blocked the car of a bishop of the Orthodox Church at Kolenchery.  The mediation committee appointed by the Kerala High Court will submit its recommendations on Monday.