Indian diocese dissolved: The Church of England Newspaper, July 9, 2010 p 6.

Bishop Manickam Dorai

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Church of South India has dismissed the executive council and extended indefinitely a bishop’s involuntary two month leave of absence, pending the outcome of criminal and civil fraud proceedings against the Bishop in Coimbatore, the Rt. Rev. Manickam Dorai.

Meeting in Madras from July 1-2, the executive committee of the CSI’s General Synod, under the chairmanship of Moderator the Most Rev. S. Vasanthakumar, effectively dissolved the Diocese of Coimbatore.

The committee reviewed the criminal and civil cases pending against Bishop Dorai and sifted through the numerous complaints lodged by members of the diocese against their bishop.  The bishop and his accomplices are charged with embezzling diocesan funds and taking kickbacks on construction projects amounting to over £500,000.

On May 8, a warrant was also issued for the bishop’s arrest after he failed to appear before a magistrate to answer charges he threatened bodily harm to one of the priests in his diocese.  Bishop Dorai was granted bail on the menacing charge on May 10.  However, since his release from prison, the diocesan administration has ground to a halt prompting the intervention of the General Synod Executive Committee.

The decision to dismiss the diocese’s executive committee and place the administration of the diocese in the hands of the moderator of the CSI also follows upon the resignation of the diocesan treasurer and the request by its interim bishop Dr. Paul Vasantha Kumar, Bishop in Tiruchy-Thanjavur, that he be permitted to return to his own diocese.

Bishop S. Vasanthakumar announced that he would assume temporary episcopal jurisdiction over the troubled South Indian diocese, and announced the appointment of a financial and administrative team to reorganize the diocese.

The case against Bishop Dorai is presently moving through the Indian courts.  On July 2 a petition seeking removal of the case to the Madras Civil Court was filed, with the next hearing scheduled for July 14.