ABSTRACT
In The Next Christendom, Philip Jenkins makes the case that the “center of gravity” of global Christianity has swung to the South. This chapter examines how short- and long-term emigration of Indian Christians to the Middle East and the West has had a major impact on traditional Christian churches within home communities in Kerala, India. It focuses on one particular Syrian Christian denomination based in Kerala that now has branches around the world: the Malankara Mar Thoma church. In 1936, the Mar Thoma church sent its first achen overseas to serve a diasporic Mar Thoma church in Malaysia. Subsequently, achens were sent to Singapore and the Middle East. The Mar Thoma church modified some of its practices to respond to the needs of its foreign-born generations; many of these changes were also implemented in Indian metropolitan areas outside Kerala. The churches in Kerala oriented toward the English-dominant speakers were similar to evangelical churches in the United States.
