The following shows the Christian denominations present in Northeast India, along with number of churches and approximate number of Church members.
Denomination | Churches | Members |
---|---|---|
Baptist | 12,257 | 2,094,994 |
Catholic | 528 | 1,927,734 |
Presbyterian | 4,013 | 1,576,830 |
Note: The membership for Baptist churches mostly denote the adult baptized members of Churches and therefore do not include non-baptized family members as per Baptist Church Doctrine and beliefs.
The Catholic Church in North East India falls under three different rites, all three are in full communion with each other as sister churches and with the Pope and the Holy See of Rome. These include
1) Latin / Roman rite
2) Eastern Syriac - Syro-Malabar Church
3) Western Syriac - Syro-Malankara Church
1) Latin / Roman rite:
The total number of Latin Catholics in North East India as of 2020 stands at 1,913,431 adherents where the region is divided into 3 Metropolitan Archdioceses and 12 suffragan dioceses with a total of 528 parishes and more than 3500 chapels/mission stations/local churches and congregations as per the statistics mentioned below.
Note: The brackets denote the number of Catholic Church parishes
With the decision of the synod of bishops of the Syro Malabar Catholic Church and under the guidance of Mar Raphael Thattil, the Syro Malabar Bishop of Shamshabad, a delegation made a visit to the North -Eastern States of Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh from 7 May to 18 May 2019. On the basis of this visit and after much prayers, reflections and discussions together with the guidance of the Major Archbishop of Syro-Malabar Church Archbishop Mar George Alenchery, the Bishops took the decision to start the evangelical mission of the Syro Malabar Church in Northeast India. Thus the Eparchy of Irinjalakuda was invited to start a mission in the Northeast. The Bishop of Irinjalakuda accepted the Divine invitation and started the Silchar Syro-Malabar Catholic Mission - in short Silchar Mission - with St. Paul the Apostole of the Gentiles as the Heavenly Patron. On the day of the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, 15 August 2019, the first mission house and chapel dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus were blessed at Silchar and the solemn Holy Qurbana was offered.
Pope Francis, on 26 March 2015 at 4:30 pm by the Decree N 7780/15 also erected the St. John Chrysostom Diocese for the Malankara Syrian Catholic Church which include the North Eastern region of India. The mission to North East India is presently under the care of Rev. Fr. Jigmy Thomas, Rev. Fr. Justin Raj R. and Rev. Fr. Sabi Varghese.
The Presbyterian Church of India consists of the following synods with 4,616 churches and 1,467,529 members as of 2018:[45][46][47]