THE Orange Indian community will celebrate the canonisation of two Indian saints at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Orange on Sunday.
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The mass will be celebrated in the Syro-Malabar rite, the style in Kerala, India, where many of the Orange Indian congregation originate from.
It will also be spoken in Malayalam, and will include more singing than a regular mass.
Orange assistant priest Father Ephrem Thadathil said in the past seven years the Catholic Indian community had increased from a handful of families to about 55 families in Orange.
“The Catholic families are mostly young couples,” Father Ephrem said. “The reason is that the majority of members live in Orange as part of Australia’s skilled migration program. They work and live here.
“This [the mass] gives an opportunity for the local people to get to know the other customs and tradition, they can experience how we do things.”
Father Ephrem said the mass will celebrate Father Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Sister Euphrasia who were canonised in Rome last Sunday.
Both saints came from Kerala, India and were members of the Syro-Malabar Church, the second largest of the 22 oriental Catholic churches.
Father Kuriakose Elias Chavara was involved in starting the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate congregation, which the four Indian priests in the Bathurst diocese - Father Ephrem and Fathers Joshy Kaithakulangara of Bathurst, Antony Vattakkunnel of Dubbo, and Augustine Mathew of Molong - are all from.
Bishop Michael McKenna will also attend the mass along with Bishop Bosco Puthur of Melbourne and of the Syro-Malabars (Australia) who is visiting the diocese for the first time.
More than 300 people are expected to take part in the Orange celebrations.
The mass will start at 11am.
tanya.marschke@fairfaxmedia.com.au