St. Mary's Dallas Church, History
The city of Dallas, for its current development, has the history of 180 years. From 1830 onwards people from different parts of the world began to come in to this city. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, this so called city was still full of wild thicket of brush and trees. In fact, Dallas was not the direct destination of the first Malankara Catholic migrants to the US. Many of our families first came and settled in big cities like New York, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia, Los Angeles, etc.. Later on people began to migrate from there to many other places such as Dallas, Florida, Detroit and several other areas because of the convenience of jobs and earnings. In the last twenty five years many Malankara Catholic families got settled in Dallas. Already from the year 1991, many of these people, because of their enthusiasm and love for our liturgy and tradition, came together from far and near at least once in a month to share their religious experience and to pray together. This humble beginning of the Dallas Malankara Catholic mission took place seven years after the official inauguration of the Malankara Catholic community in the United States of America by the then Metropolitan Archbishop of Trivandrum His Grace Benedict Mar Gregorios. In the beginning there were only 11 families from all over the city of Dallas. However this community was fortunate to have the spiritual guidance and support from Fr. William OIC who was in Chicago then. Since we had not purchased any property as our own, at that time there was no particular place of worship for this community. But many of the neighboring Latin Catholic parishes surrounding parishes were kind enough to provide their facility for our liturgical celebration after their normal use on Sundays. Even though we did not have a parish as our own, Rev. Augustine Kailath was appointed to look after the community in 1993. After him Rev. Fr. Abraham Kadamala was appointed as the vicar to this mission. It was during his leadership that we bought a new church of our own in Garland. Consequently, on January 1, 1996 the St. Mary’s Malankara Catholic Church was officially inaugurated in Garland, Texas. Next 10 years, we were fortunate to have the services of. Rev. Fr. Abraham Kadamala Rev. Fr. Peter Kochery, Fr. Chacko Narimattathil, Rev.Fr. Thomas Kottayil, and Rev. Philips Chacko. As the City of Dallas is a growing city the community is also a growing community. Now there are over 59 families are in this mission. Slowly we found that the facilities in the present church was not sufficient to meet all the pastoral needs of this growing community including the catechism classes for children and youth, prayer groups, place for socialization, etc. Consequently we were forced to buy a new church. In 2008 under the initiative of the then parish priest Chorepiscopo Geevarghese Mannikarottu and with the consent of the Parish Council and the entire community, a plot of 5 ½ acres of land with a building in it was purchased in Mesquite, Texas. This building was reconstructed as a magnificent church which could accommodate more than 300 people. The New Church was officially inaugurated on May 7, 2011 by His Excellency Most Rev. Thomas Mar Eusebius the bishop of the Malankara Catholic Exarchate in the United States of America.
From June 26, 2011 Rev. Fr. Joseph Nedumankuzhiyil is our vicar. He came from New York after his successful service in St. John Chrysostom Malankara Catholic Church, Long Island. Under his spiritual guidance and motivation this mission is advancing in its mission of spreading the faith and being a witness not only to the community but to the country at a large. The church members are working hard to keep their faith and to grow their children in the same faith. Our church is blessed with many talented youth and children. Ignoring all the hardships of their daily life all the parishioners find time to gather together in worshiping. This parish takes special pride in its sense of brotherliness that envelopes the members of the Church and they come together to share their faith and involve themselves in many activities of the church.
From June 26, 2011 Rev. Fr. Joseph Nedumankuzhiyil is our vicar. He came from New York after his successful service in St. John Chrysostom Malankara Catholic Church, Long Island. Under his spiritual guidance and motivation this mission is advancing in its mission of spreading the faith and being a witness not only to the community but to the country at a large. The church members are working hard to keep their faith and to grow their children in the same faith. Our church is blessed with many talented youth and children. Ignoring all the hardships of their daily life all the parishioners find time to gather together in worshiping. This parish takes special pride in its sense of brotherliness that envelopes the members of the Church and they come together to share their faith and involve themselves in many activities of the church.
As the name of the parish indicates we keep great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and we do celebrate our church feast along with the feast of the Nativity of Our Blessed Virgin Mary.
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