Our history

St. Mary’s Syro-Malabar Catholic Mission (SMCM) Leeds had a very small beginning in the year 2002. A few families with a Christian background from Kerala set up a prayer group and had regular prayer meetings every week. SMCC Leeds grew to comprise of six communities : Bradford, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Keighley, Leeds and Pontefract/Wakefield. Various priests (mainly Rev. Fr. Babu Appadan, Rev. Fr. Mathew Choorapoikayil and Rev. Fr. Saji Thottathil) were celebrating the Holy Mass for each community until we had a permanent Syro-Malabar Chaplain in 2012.
Since the arrival of Rev. Fr. Joseph Ponneth in 2012, the first Syro-Malabar Chaplain, the progress of SMCC Leeds was very fast and well-coordinated. Holy Qurbana was celebrated in each community at least once a month. Catechism classes were started in each community.
On 18th October 2015, Right Reverend Marcus Stock, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Leeds, allowed the Syro-Malabar Community within the Diocese to gather at St. Wilfrid’s Catholic church, Lower Wortley for their regular liturgical services and St. Wilfrid’s Presbytery as the residence of the Syro-Malabar Chaplain. Since then, we have Holy Qurbana on every Sunday and weekdays in the Syro-Malabar Rite. We also have Syro-Malabar Holy Mass in English for our children. SMCM Leeds developed an outstanding Catechism School with more than 200 students and 36 teachers and conducted catechism classes every Sunday. We also have an active youth group (SMYM) and the Women’s Forum for our ladies.

In July 2016, Rev Fr. Mathew Mulayolil succeeded Rev Fr. Joseph Ponneth. With the erection of the Catholic Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain on 28 July 2016, the Syro-Malabar faithful became members of this Eparchy and Mar. Joseph Srampikkal was appointed as the Bishop.

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