Southern States - Kerala   

Police keep Kolencherry church closed

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI DEC. 22. Putting the December 17 ceasefire agreement between the Orthodox and Jacobite factions in peril, the disputed St. Peter's and St. Paul's Church at Kolencherry was not opened for prayer today as the police kept it locked and did not allow anyone to enter it.

When the faithful and the Orthodox priests reached the church for the Sunday worship, they were confronted by a posse of policemen keeping guard. The policemen told them that they had received orders to keep the church locked and that no prayer service was possible.

Orthodox leaders said the December 17 agreement had provided that the church would be used by the Orthodox faction for two Sundays and the third week by the Jacobite faction.

The church had remained closed for nearly five years due to the feud, and had only opened last Wednesday following the truce brokered by the Cabinet sub-committee.

The Holy Khurbana celebrated by the Orthodox Catholicos, after which the three fasting Metropolitans called off their 10-day-long agitation, was the first religious ceremony at the church in four years and eight months.

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