Mateer Memorial Church



Mateer Memorial Church is a Protestant church located in Trivandrum, India. It is under the Church of South India. It was built in December 1906.

Early history
The church's history started with the arrival of the Rev John Cox, the first London Missionary Society missionary in Trivandrum, in 1838. At this time local Protestants in Trivandrum worshipped in a church constructed by the Protestant Evangelical Trust in the 1830s.

After Rev Cox resigned in 1861, he was succeeded by Rev Samuel Mateer, who led the church for 30 years and died in 1893. By this time the congregation had grown and needed larger premises and it planned to build a new church building in memory of Rev Mateer.

Rev. Samuel Mateer
Rev. Samuel Mateer, after whom the church was named, was born near Boardmills in County Down. He was the first missionary who endeavored to grow an indigenous church. He prepared local people for church ministry and tried to transfer administrative responsibilities to them. It was during his tenure that a number of local people were ordained as ministers.

Rev. Mateer is seen as a pioneer of indigenization of the church. When he arrived there were 25 congregations, 3000 Christians and an annual income of Rs. 800/-. However, when he retired after 33 years, the number of congregations had increased to 56, Christians to 10,060 and annual income to Rs. 3000/-.

He wrote two books about his time in Travancore, Native Life in Travancore and The Land of Charity.

In 1890, Mrs. Mateer had to return to England owing to ill health. Rev. Samuel Mateer went to England in 1891 on leave, and died there on 24 December 1893. He is buried at Clifton Street Cemetery in Belfast. It was in the same year that the Trivandrum Church was promoted to the position of a pastorate. The church building constructed in the LMS compound and dedicated to the memory of Mateer was opened for worship on 1 December 1906.

Later history
Rev. Samuel Sumanam worked in the church as an evangelist from 1878 onwards.

Mathew Kesari was the first Indian to be ordained as the pastor of that church in 1895. He retired in 1904 and his son John M. Kesari was the first pastor of the newly constructed Mateer Memorial Church, serving there from April 1905 to March 1913.

The last LMS missionary was Rt Rev A H Legg in 1947. After this the South India United Church joined with the Anglican and Methodist Churches to form the Church of South India (CSI).

On 29 April 2022 the South Kerala diocese of the CSI took over control by illegally breaking open the gates of the church and converted it into a cathedral. Bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam is an accused who is under investigation by ED and central agencies is facing litigation from the Church congregation. This move by the Bishop seems to have been opposed by the congregants.

Architecture
The architectural style used in constructing the church was Hallenkirche (hall church) style. The church building was made in granite, with a square bell tower with a vestibule beneath and a roof supported by gothic arches. The Celtic cross on the bell tower is made of cut stone, and commemorates Mateer's Irish background.

Current activities
The church has several activities, including Youth fellowship, boys’ club, Sunday school, Senior fellowship and 4 choirs in 3 languages.