The history of Christ Church,Trivandrum goes back to the
year 1817. Divine services for the European residents started
in 1817. At that time services were conducted once a month
by the Military Chaplins of Quilon as per the instructions
from the Madras Government. In 1837 a Tamil congregation
consisting of employees of the Government Printing press
and those working in the homes of Europeans stationed in
Trivandrum was formed under the leadership of Mr Christian
David, a clerk in the Government press. They met regularly
for divine services at the residence of Mr David , 
while
the English congregation met for their worship at the Residency.
The need for a permanent place for worship was keenly felt
by the members of the two congregations. The Travancore
Government was pleased to donate a plot of Land for the
construction of a Church building, and on the 13th of December
1858 General Cullen the Resident, laid the foundation stone
of the church building in the presence of a distinguished
gathering which included the Yuva Raja of Travancore. Bishop
Dealtry of Madras consecrated the church on Nov 15, 1859.
In 1876 a Malayalam service was started for the large number
of malayalam speaking christians of the town. In 1887 the
Indian congregation celebrated its Jubilee, and ' The Trivandrum
Indian clergyman's fund ' was started to provide for the
salary of an Indian pastor. The Rev P.O Mathen was the first
indian pastor of the church.
There were two seperate committees, one for the English
section and the other for the Indian section of the church.
At the time of Rev Leslie Brown a joint committee was constituted
for all the three congregations Tamil, Malayalam and English.
A constitution incorporating the new provisions was drawn
up and got passed in the general meetings of the European
and Indian sections.
In 1947, the question of the Christ Church joining the
Church of South India came up. In 1948 it was agreed to
accept an interim measure the Metropolitan's proposal to
permit the Bishop of Travancore - Cochin Diocese to excercise
the episcopal functions in the parish including the appointment
of clergy . The Synod of the CSI in its meeting in 1956
resolved to hand over Christ Church to the CSI and from
1956 Christ Church is regarded as a congregation of the
CSI under the jurisdicition of the Bishop of Central Travancore
and be part of the Central Travancore Diocese (present Madhya
Kerala Diocese) until the CSI with the consent of the congregation
makes other arrangments.
