Brief History of the Parish

HISTORY OF ST. THOMAS CATHOLIC CHURCH, VASHI


The establishment of Navi Mumbai, consisting the southern part of Thane district and the northern side of Panvel Taluka, part of Raigad and at the eastern part of Thane Creek from Airoli to Panvel, during the year 1970, has been mainly to decongest the old city of Mumbai. The creation of this new place under the administrative control of the City Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has enabled the Thane-Belapur Industrial belt, where new factories started coming up and mostly the Malayalees, including Kerala Catholics, thronged to find jobs in the new factories and the construction of a bridge connecting the Navi Mumbai and old Mumbai has made Vashi an important than any other part of the new city and also allotment of flats constructed by the CIDCO to the employees of the industrial units. This has also attracted many of the Keralites living and working in old Mumbai made to shift their stay to Vashi. Among the Catholics started living in Vashi, there was no place to go for spiritual obligation of
atleast attending a Sunday Holy Mass and the Catholics, mostly the believers and the followers of Malayalee Catholic Church of Kerala started conducting holy mass on the terracess of few buildings in Vashi.

On knowing that a Syro-Malabar church will be established in Maharashtra, consisting the areas of Mumbai, Pune and Nasik, few members of the followers of St. Thomas church and Malayalee Catholics assembled together on 26th May 1988 and they started making a list of our followers under the leadership of Shri K.V. John, Late C.M. Chakkunny, (Sector 10), Shri P. Mathew Sebastian (James), and Shri V.J. John (Sector 1). They could make a list of 205 our families at the beginning and some of these families started attending occasional Malayalam Holy Mass on Sundays conducted on the terraces of Sector 1 CIDCO buildings.

It was heartening to know that the inaugural function of the establishment of Syro-Malabar Church as well as the formal coronation of the first Bishop Mar Paul Chittilapilly of the new Syro-Malabar Church at the grounds of Don Bosco Church, Matunga and to attend the function, 2 State Transport buses were hired and these buses were over-crowded by the faithful and attended the function. Soon thereafter, Rev. Fr. Thomas Thalachira, later on coronated as the Monsignor, was appointed as the Vicar of Navi Mumbai Syro-Malabar Church, consisting from Airoli-Koperkairne-Vashi-Nerul-Belapur and Kalamboli-Panvel. The new vicar staying at Nerul, established the church up to Alibaug-Raighad. Later on, he was assisted by Rev. Fr. John Mudakoli to look after the faithful of this vast area of Navi Mumbai.

Soon after taking over as the Vicar of Vashi and Koperkhairne, Mgr. Thomas Thalachira convened a meeting of the parishners and a parish council, consisting of 23 members was set up and the new parish was named as St. Thomas Church in memory of the Apostle of our saviour Jesus Christ in India. In memory of the Apostle St. Thomas, we are celebrating Dhukrana on July 3 of every year in a grand way. The parish council meeting is regularly held on 2nd Sunday after the holy mass, chaired by the Vicar of the Parish. Keeping in mind more than 205 families in our parish, spreading from Sector 1 to Sector 30, Koperkhairne, including Vashi Gaon and Turbhe. Intially, 14 family units were set up and family unit meetings are conducted every month regularly. These family units of the parish make all our members as one family and co-operate each other at our times of happiness and sorrow. Later on for the convience of the family units have been brought down to 11.

During the Vicar ship of Rev. Fr. Varghese Nadakkal, then Mother Superior (Kusum), Sisters of Destitute Convent, Chonangaveli, Kerala started functioning from 5-Mehul, Sector 14, Vashi under our Parish throughout New Bombay which include AIDs Centres at Kalamboli and Taloja. These Sisters have been a guiding factor in our religious activities including visiting the poor and downtrodden families’ irrespective religion and cast even in slum areas their activities are very much inspiring to others.

Since there was no church in Navi Mumbai, the faithful families of Vashi, started attending the holy Syro-Malabar rite mass on every Sunday morning at the Sacred Heart High School hall in Sector 4 with the permission and shifted to the church constructed in Sector 9-A, Vashi later on. Other than Sundays, Mgr. Thomas Thalachira conducted evening holy mass on 3 days of the week in various houses of our families where many of the eager faithful could cherish their religious needs and even after 21 years, we continue to have our religious rites conducted there as our efforts to get allotment of a place for our church could not materialize. For the purpose of stay of the vicar for Vashi and Khoperkhairne, a CIDCO flat was purchased at E-1, Sector 5, Vashi, during the vicar-ship of Rev. Fr. Thomas Narikkulam, where holy mass is conducted almost every day other than Sundays which has made some of the neighboring parishners to attend the holy mass.

With the intension of raising enough funds in the event of allotment of a plot of land from CIDCO, we had conducted a magic show by the well-known magician Shri Gopinath Muthukad at the Sacred Heart School grounds and we could raise an amount of Rs.2.52 lakhs. We have been conducting annual day celebrations every year at the Sacred Heart School hall. All the parishners, mainly Mathru Jyothis, Members of Youth and the Catechism children, take part whole-heartedly and memorable. The members of the Mathru Jyotis are very active throughout the year and they have won many laurels at the zonal as well as diocesan levels. Similarly, our Catechism children too have won many prizes at the zonal and diocesan levels.

In continuation of our efforts to get a plot of land for the church, our parishioners are trying with the CIDCO as well as private plots in Vashi. At present, under the leadership of Rev. Fr. Siju Kizhakkepallivathukkal, we are in the process of negotiation to purchase the adjoining flat E-1-1-2, admeasuring 680 sq. ft. so that, after renovation of these flats, will be able to make a bigger hall where about 150 parishioners could be accommodated for traditional holy rituals.