KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 — An 80-year-old local Eastern church expressed gratitude to the Najib administration today for helping it renew its land lease recently, enabling it to keep its current premises for the next 30 years.

Parish priest Rev Philip Simon said the Mar Thoma St Thomas church is a “linguistic minority church” from Kerala, India.

“We have been here over seven decades and the government was so gracious to us, protecting us in our welfare and we are extremely grateful,” he told reporters here after the church’s representatives’ brief meeting with the prime minister.

“The PM was very kind to us in our bid. The present church land, the government has given long lease,” he added.

Philip said the church that was founded in 1936 is located on half an acre of land at Jalan St Thomas, Mile 3.5 on Jalan Ipoh and currently serves 430 families.

“We are the fifth generation here in Malaysia,” he said.

The lease for the KTM land designated for religious purposes — where the church has been located for over 70 years — expires every 30 years.

“Every time it is expiring, the government graciously helps us. That is the beauty of it,” he said.

The lease renewal has retrospective effect, which means there are 25 years left on the lease, church representatives confirmed.

Philip also spoke about the importance of having a permanent spot for a house of worship, adding that the government’s gracious stance has allowed his church members to confidently contribute financially to the building of the church.

“This community has been looking forward to having a permanent place to worship,” he said.

“It’s a very green and beautiful place with a lot of trees and a very good neighbourhood, no better place than that,” he said of the church’s current location.

Other church representatives who attended the meeting are its honourary secretary and lawyer Thomas Mathew, its land committee convenor Thomas Samuel and its trustee finance and manager Mathews George, trustee accounts and finance director Mathew George.

According to Mathew, the church is one of 17 local churches under the Mar Thoma Syrian church in Malaysia, which in turn is part of the Malankara Mar Thoma church in Kerala, south India which “was founded in AD52 by St Thomas, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ”.

The global membership of churches under this denomination is around 1.6 million, Mathew said, also explaining that those in the church are from the Malayalee community.

*Editor’s Note: The age of the church has been amended to reflect the year of its establishment locally, in 1936.