Immanuel Mar Thoma Church LINKs Up with Sterling Food Pantry

The Immanuel Mar Thoma Church (IMTC) has joined LINK as an associate member. The parish as a whole is excited to be more connected to the community and increase fellowship with the member and affiliated churches supporting LINK.

IMTC has been associated with LINK, a food pantry ministry in Sterling, over the past few years in donating food, clothing and other essentials for the benefit of the needy within the Herndon, Sterling and Ashburn communities. The congregation, though limited, desires to serve the needy of the local community and found a wonderful opportunity through the tremendous ministry of LINK.

IMTC was first introduced to LINK by Community Lutheran Church (CLC). IMTC Pastor Rev. Jaisen Thomas said, “It was a blessing that CLC offered its premises for his church to hold their Sunday worship services in Sterling allowing the parish to gradually begin participating in LINK activities.”

LINK President Lisa Lombardozzi was excited about receiving IMTC. She commented, “LINK is thrilled to have Immanual Mar Thoma join us in our ministry to provide food to families in our community. We are always seeking strength in numbers and we welcome our brothers and sisters in Christ to our ministry.” Mr. Aji Jacob, IMTC Outreach Coordinator serves as representative to LINK.

The Immanuel Mar Thoma Church is a parish of the Mar Thoma Church. The word “Mar Thoma” means St. Thomas in Aramaic/Hebrew. Mar Thoma Church is one of the oldest groups of practicing Christians in the world. The name attributes itself to the long heritage of the church dating back to St. Thomas, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, who established the church in Kerala, Southern India in AD 52 and laid the foundations of Christianity in this part of the world.

Within the past 200 years, the church developed a strong relationship with the Anglican Church. The Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries of the Anglican Church provided a “mission of help” to the Mar Thoma Church by translating the Bible and prayer books into the vernacular of the people. This sparked a reformation movement within the church and strengthened the bond with the Anglican Church. Thus, the Mar Thoma Church shares a full communion relationship with the Anglican Communion worldwide and through that the Episcopal Church, USA.

The IMTC, Virginia is a very young parish of almost five years. The parish is under the Diocese of North America and Europe of Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar in India. IMTC, Virginia is the second parish in the Washington, D.C. area and the first parish in Virginia under Diocese of North America and Europe. The congregation is comprised of approximately 60 families and most are young professionals. Rev. Jaisen Thomas serves the parish as their Pastor and provides spiritual guidance and leadership.

IMTC, Virginia truly began in the early 1990’s with a dedicated group of Mar Thoma families living and worshipping in the Commonwealth of Virginia. These families longed for a place of worship closer to home and a place of Christian learning offered by Sunday school for their children. The technology boom of the late 90’s brought a new wave of Mar Thoma families to Northern Virginia with a desire for worship and fellowship with like-minded believers. The foundations for a future parish were laid over the years by these families as they participated actively in church organizations at the Mar Thoma Church of Greater Washington which as the parent church offered prayerful support to the infant parish.

The parish has several organizations or specified ministries to specially serve the needs of the community. All the ministries to include Parish Mission, Sunday school, Choir, Youth, Women’s Ministry and Young Family have a governing committee and work under the auspices of the Pastor to further the gospel.

Mar Thoma Church was commissioned with this vision of mission. Rev. Jaisen A. Thomas, Pastor and Vicar can be reached at 214-604-6678 or revjathomas@yahoo.com.