HISTORY OF CSI TAMIL CHURCH
The Church of South India Tamil Parish - Dubai was founded in 1979 by a group of young Tamilians who grew up in the CSI faith back home in India. Each one of the founding members had relocated to Dubai in the 1970’s in search of prospering their careers but had never lost sight of their greater purpose to serve God at all times. As such, they had established the CSI Tamil Parish - Dubai and the first service was held at Holy Trinity Church on 4th May 1979.
As the Church was still small in members and contributions, the Pastor from the CSI - Malayalam Parish led the worship and served communion 2 Fridays a month. Although the Pastor was not well versed in Tamil, he would conduct the service in Tamil by phonetically writing the words in Malayalam and would give the sermons in English. On the other Fridays of the month, the Lay-preachers of our Parish took turns to conduct the service and give the sermon. Through this method the Church grew in members and finances which justified obtaining a dedicated Tamil Pastor from India. In 1990, we requested the Chaplaincy of Dubai & Sharjah to sponsor a Tamil Pastor for the CSI - Tamil Parish and the then Cannon Reverend Gurney complied with our request. Ever since, the Chaplaincy has sponsored a Tamil Pastor who is sent to us by the CSI Synod on a 3-year rotation from each of the Diocese of the Church of South India back home.
OUR PASTORS
| |
Pastors |
Diocese |
Year |
| 1. |
Rev. A.J.M. Kesary |
KanyaKumari |
1991 - 1994 |
| 2. |
Rev. J.Stephen |
Tirunelveli |
1994 - 1997 |
| 3. |
Rev. William Samuel |
Coimbatore |
1997 - 2000 |
| 4. |
Rev. A.Kamalaseharan |
Madurai - Ramnad |
2000 - 2003 |
| 5. |
Rev. M. Thomas Gurupatham |
Trichy - Tanjore |
2003 - 2006 |
| 6. |
Rev. M.Chandrasekar |
Chennai |
2006 - 2009 |
| 7. |
Rev. S. Simon |
Vellore |
2009 - 2012 |
| 7a. |
Rev. Bright Solomon |
KanyaKumari |
2010 - till date |
| 8. |
Rev. J. Jeyakumar |
KanyaKumari |
2012 - till date |
Our Lay-Preacher is Mr.I.Simon.
OUR VISION
What started in 1979 with few members, has grown to a large congregation. Due to the growth of our membership base, our current premises are no longer sufficient to foster the growth needs of our Church. Hence, we have now applied to our host nation for a land allotment in order to build a dedicated Church of South India premises to better serve our growing congregation. |
