I take this opportunity to thank and praise the Lord Almighty Who bountifully bestowed His benevolence on me to compose this book. To Him, I offer my adoration again and yet again.

It is my bounden duty to specify the help, support and encouragement extended to me in this venture, by my preceptors, well-wishers, friends, relatives and others.

I acknowledge that I am singularly fortunate to have tutoring on sacred subjects like Ecclesiology and Liturgy, at the Mar Thoma Vidya Niketan, Changanacherry, Kerala, the well reputed Institute of Theology for Laity, affiliated to the St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary, Vadavathoor, Kottayam. My indebtedness to the 'great Gamaliels' of the academy who spared no efforts to disseminate the vast and wide knowledge in the branch of their specialisation.

In this context, I place on record the respect and obligation to my venerable teacher Rev. Sr. Dr. Sophy Rose C.M.C. of the Vidya Niketan, for her direction and guidance in my academic activities, for the pains she undertook to correct the draft of my book and finally for her comments on it. By dedicating this book of mine at her feet, I feel honoured and satisfied as a student should be.

Rev. Fr. Dr. Joseph Perumthottam, Rev. Fr. Dr. James Palackal, Rev. Sr. Dr. Prasanna Vazheeparambil C.M.C., the Director, the Joint Director and the Registrar respectively of the Mar Thoma Vidya Niketan, are thanked most sincerely for their evaluation and constructive criticism of this work of their student. As far as possible, I have complied with the thinking of these eminent professors of mine.

To Rev. Fr. Dr. Geevarghese Panicker of the St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, Kottaym, I offer most sincere thanks and esteem. Really, the learned Father has rendered an invaluable service to me. Very studiously he scrutinized my book, altered its style and structure most befittingly. Besides, he has honoured me by furnishing a very scholarly and scientific foreword for the book.

My thanks to Rev. Fr. V.M. Gheevarghese Kalloopparambil, Pallom, Kottayam, the former cleric Trustee of the Syrian Orthodox Church, Kerala, under the Holy See of Antioch, for his services in my attempt to bring forth this Book. He very patiently perused the draft of the book and provided me with worthwhile suggestions on the Sacramental Theology of the Syrian Church.

The analysis and the appreciation that Rev. Fr. Dr. K.G. Pothen, professor of Theology and Ecclesiology, Mar Thoma Syrian Theological Seminary, Kottayam, was kind enough to make, are acknowledged hereby. I value very much his positive comments on my treatment of the theological and Trinitarian aspects of Ecclesiology and his enlightenment on the Protestant perspectives of these topics.

Services rendered by Smt. Susheela Jacob and Sri. C.M. George, the Librarian and Asst. Librarian of the Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam are remembered with gratitude. Very earnestly did both of them search the archives and make accessible to me the books, periodicals and other documents needed for my work.

So also, members of the staff of the libraries of the St. Ephrem Research Institute, Kottayam and the Mar Thoma Vidya Niketan helped me. My thanks to them too. My gratitude to my dear student Kum. Baby Veena of the School of Indian Legal Thought, M.G. University, Kottayam, for the laborious work of transcribing the M.S. and making it legible for the D.T.P. process. A word of thanks is due to the 'Graphic System' of Kottayam that brought out the D.T.P. of the book, not on commercial motive but on the principle of customer satisfaction.

I shall be guilty of ingratitude if I do not record a few words about the great services, the members of my family rendered in this exacting enterprise. In this list, I must reverentially remember what all did my lovable father, the late Sri. O.M. Mathew (Senior) transmit to me. It was he who imbued in me the incisive interest on 'Mother Church'. Although he was not a theologian, he was nevertheless well versed in the History of the Church, especially of the 'St. Thomas Christians' of Kerala. The articles that he published and the discussion that he had had with me did create in my outlook a noble concept about the Ecclesia. I must proudly accept that the 'seeds' that he implanted in my mind during the formative period, sprouted out in the 'fullness of time', at the congenial environs of the Mar Thoma Vidya Niketan. Naturally, I must thank the co students for their co-operation, in this endeavour.

My wife Jolly Mathew, sons Angiras, Brighu, Kashyp, sisters Walsa, Lizzy and mother Sosamma deserve gratitude and special thanks in no mean measure for the varied and valuable help in this venture. During periods of drudgery and monotony, the natural concomitants of continuous reading and cogitation, they certainly kept up my wits and buoyed up my spirits by poignant discussion and positive thought on allied subjects. But for their selfless co-operation, this work would not have been finished at all. I thank my dutiful wife Jollyamma, especially for having corrected painstakingly the proof of the book, re-arranged its style of presentation and brought it out without many a mistake and defect.

The magnanimity and magnificance that impelled Rev. Fr. Dr. Jacob Thekkeparambil, the Director of St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute Kottayam, to limelight this book are too great to be concised in a few words. I verily vouch that though I belong to the Syrian Orthodox Church, Fr. Jacob and 'SEERI' have profusedly showered on me the spirit of 'Ecumenism' which is the ideal of the Institute and the dynamics of its Director. For me, he has proved himself to be the right person at the right context. My obligation to him is obvious. But for his proffer to publish this book,through SEERI, Kottayam, it would not have been in the reach of the readers. My immense thanks to Fr. Jacob for the gesture of 'charity' that he has extended to me.