The Mar Thoma Church was founded by St. Thomas in 52 AD and it was reformed by Abraham Malpan who was the leading Protestant reformist of the church. He was a priest and a syriac professor in Kottayam. When British missionaries came to India in the 1850s he had an idea of changing things in the church. He sent his nephew Deacon Mathew to Syria to be ordained as an episcopa. Abraham Malpan had no intentions of creating a new church. Presently the church is headed by His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolition. The Church has more than 1,500 parishes worldwide and has 1 million members. It is in full communion with the Anglican Communion and the Malabar Independent Syrian Church. It is also good friends with the Indian Orthodox Church but has no special relationship with that