MAR THOMA, QUEENS VILLAGE

By PATRICK O’CONNOR
Forgotten NY correspondent

On a recent Friday afternoon, I was driving to drop my daughter off at a friend’s house in Queens Village.  Google driving directions decided that the return trip would be better to take local roads rather than suffer the highway traffic volume.  Well, lucky for me as I passed by a work of architectural eye candy that is the St. John’s Mar Thoma Church at 213^th Street and 91st Avenue.

In a city of many faiths and many denominations within the faiths, Mar Thoma seems to be one of the less well known.  Mar Thoma is Syriac, a dialect of the Aramaic language, for Saint Thomas, named in honor of the apostle that went to preach the Word in India.  The Church’s roots are traced back to about the year AD 52.  Early 19^th Century English missionaries encountered the community in Kerala, a state on the south coast of India and established a relationship between Mar Thoma and Anglican Churches. 

Mar Thoma, short for Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, now has presence world-wide.  A few other churches of this denomination are nearby, one in South Ozone Park, one in Staten Island and two just north of the border in Mount Vernon and Yonkers.  Their North American/European Headquarters is in Merrick, Nassau County.  A Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, also from Kerala, India and can be found in the Bronx.

The church cornerstone indicates 1925 as the year of construction.  The Queens Village Mar Thoma community dates to 1990 and the church plus the parsonage next door, were purchased from the Calvary United Methodist Church in 1993.   Both buildings were refurbished with the Church being rededicated in 2012 and parsonage in 2017.

1940 tax photos show both buildings in much the same configuration.  Kudos to all for a faithful (pun intended) architectural restoration.

Patrick O’Connor is a lifelong resident of Queens, retired with 40 years of service for City of New York Department of Environmental Protection, a licensed sightseeing guide in New York City.

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7/16/26