Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church's supreme head invites PM Modi to visit

New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala-headquartered Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church's supreme head, Baselios Marthoma Mathews III on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his office in New Delhi and extended an invite to him to visit their headquarters at Kottayam, the next time he comes to the state.

Mathews III after the meeting with Modi expressed happiness at its outcome.

"It was my wish to meet the Prime Minister, after I took over as the head of the Church. Now after meeting him, I feel really happy. He asked about the functioning of the Church and I explained in detail and he was happy to hear about what we were doing," he said.

"In between the meeting, I extended an invite to the Prime Minister to visit our headquarters the next time he comes to Kerala and he has agreed to do so," he added.

The Orthodox Church has a strength of around 2.5 million faithfuls and is the second biggest Christian church in numbers in the state after the Catholics.