Catholicos Baselius Mar Thoma Paulos II, head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, has termed his recent interaction with Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II, supreme head of the Syrian Orthodox Church, as an “ice-breaking moment in the relations between the two churches”.
Both the pontiffs were at the Armenian capital of Yerevan to participate in the centenary ceremony of the mass killings of Armenians during World War I by the then Turkish authorities.
The two churches have been engaged in a fierce strife in Kerala and the recent visit of the Patriarch to the State had raised hope among peace-lovers on both the sides.
Speaking to The Hindu , the Catholicos, who returned to his headquarters at Devalokam near here on Monday, said: “We have not gone into any specifics of how we can reconcile the conflicts between our churches. But both of us wanted to start the fellowship.”
According to him, the nearly a dozen heads of sister who had assembled there were delighted and expressed joy at the bonhomie between the Catholicos and the Patriarch and extended their assistance to find a lasting solution.
