- Bahrain St. Peter’s Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church is established in 1978 and is directly under the rule of Patriarch of Antioch & All the East.
- However, since 1994 the Patriarch delegates a metropolitan from Malankara to oversee the administrative affairs of the Church.
- A brief history of the formation of this Church in Bahrain is as follows:
The Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church members faced the schism in Church for the last one century regarding the authority of Patriarch of Antioch over it, which ended up with the reunion of the ‘Catholicos faction’ with Jacobite syrian orthodox church in 1964. - The Catholicos faction re-started the schism in 1970’s, which ultimately lead to the split in the Church again.
- The developments in Malankara had its natural impact in Bahrain also.
- The Syrian Orthodox Church in Bahrain, which was built by members of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, on a plot donated to the Patriarch H.H. Ignatius Yacoob III in 1964 by the then Amir H.H. Sh.Isa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa, was came under the possession of ‘Catholicos group’ members.
- The Syrian Orthodox Church members left that Church and under the leadership of the late Fr. P. K. Babu Paraikulath, started a small prayer group at his home in November 1977.
- The spade work of the handful members of that time gave fruits and eventually more members joined the prayer group and it grown exponentially.
- The necessity of establishing a separate Church materialised by the grace of God Almighty, and in 1978 the prayer group got registration with the Ministry of Labour & Social Affairs as “Jacobite Syrian Christian Association & St. Peter’s Prayer Group”, with the right to conduct Church services under the name of “St. Peter’s Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church”.
- The desire of the prayer group members to have a Holy Qurbano was satisfied during the visit of Rev. Fr. Varghese Puliyan from UAE and the first Holy Qurbano was celebrated on the day of the feast of St. Gregorios of Parumala on 2nd November 1978.
- By December, V. Rev. Thomas Moothedam Ramban (The late Thomas Mor Theophilos Metropolitan) took charge of the Church as its first Vicar.
- The regular services were started since then at the residence of Babu Achen.
- Due to the influx of the Syrian Jacobite church members in Bahrain the church membership had grown year after year which resulted in relocating the church premises to different locations.
- Finally in 1991 the church was relocated to the present premise in Salmaniya.
- As the number of families and youth members steadily increased, the need to form spiritual organizations had become inevitable and thus Sunday School, Youth Association and Martha Mariam Vanitha Samajam were came into being. (Cottage prayer meeting).
- The Church was blessed with the Apostolic visits of Patriarch of Antioch & All the East H.H. Ignatius Zakka II was, Supreme Head of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church, in 1989 and 2003.
- The late Catholicos Aboon Mor Baselius Paulose II and the present Catholicos Aboon Mor Baselius Thomas I also visited and blessed our Church in 1988 and 2004 respectively.
- St. Peter’s J.S.O. Church celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1998 in a befitting manner.
- The Silver Jubilee of the church celebrated in 2003 with year-long programs culminated with the Apostolic visit of Patriarch H.H. Ignatius Zakka II was. To commemorate the Silver Jubilee, the Church executed several charity projects in Bahrain and all Dioceses of Malankara; like Marriage Assistance, Housing Assistance, Educational Assistance etc.
- The Silver jubilee of the Sunday School was celebrated in 2005 followed by the 30th anniversary of the Church in 2008.
- The 35th anniversary of the Church is being celebrated this year (2013).
