Syro-Malabar Catholics find a growing community in Grande Prairie

In their monthly Holy Qurbana liturgy, Syro-Malabar Catholics of Grande Prairie have a liturgical ‘home away from home’.

Each month, Fr. Sunny Joseph, pastor of Joussard, comes to Grande Prairie and celebrates a Mass for this growing community of around 130 Indians, in the ancient Syro-Malabar Rite they were raised in.

One parishioner, 29-year-old Alan Jose, was baptized and raised in this Eastern Catholic rite, which traces its roots to the 1st century AD. Alan even studied for six years in seminary to become a Syro-Malabar priest in India.

While today he resides in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Alan remains tied to the rite that formed him through this local Canadian Syro-Malabar community.

“It is very much appreciated,” said Alan, who moved to Grande Prairie in 2023, taking a job with Alberta Health Services as a social worker for people struggling in mental health and addictions. Like all of the Syro-Malabar parishioners in Grande Prairie, Alan is also an active parishioner at St. Joseph Church.

“For me, my mother tongue is Malayalam, so to have Mass in my mother tongue makes it that much more ‘connective’ to me,” he said. “Since I was also in seminary to be a Syro-Malabar priest, this Mass was really part of my daily life, and it is what formed me as a Christian. Those six years gave me a culminating love for Syro-Malabar’s liturgy, its chanting, everything.

“Every time we have the Syro-Malabar Mass together, especially at special times like Christmas, I always get that feeling that my home in India is really not that far away.”

The community usually has their liturgy celebrated at St. Joseph Church, but on occasion they also have it celebrated at the local Ukrainian Catholic parish – Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God.

The Syro-Malabar liturgy is distinctly centered around music and sung prayers, with almost the entirety of the Mass being sung and accompanied by music. The music used has a distinctly Indian and Eastern sound and instrumentation.

“As a tradition, the Syro-Malabar Mass has many songs and sung prayers,” said Grande Prairie resident and parishioner Nivin Setry. “In Holy Qurbana [the name for Mass in the Syro-Malabar Rite], there are three versions celebrated, which changes the songs and prayers for each Mass. Some are for Sundays and some for special feast days.”

Due to the importance of music and sung prayer in the Syro-Malabar liturgy, Nivin emphasizes that it is definitely a “loud Mass”. In Grande Prairie, due to lack of resources for a full choir, a speaker system is utilized that plays instrumental music specified for each part of the Mass, which the priest and congregation sing over top of. In India and larger Syro-Malabar communities in Canada, the music is typically provided by actual instruments.

Also unique to the Syro-Malabar Rite is that part of the liturgy is celebrated versus populum (facing the people), and after the offertory prayer, the Mass is celebrated ad orientem (facing the East/the altar), for the consecration of the Eucharist.

“I know that there are a lot of Syro-Malabar people across Canada who have no access to a Syro-Malabar Mass. So I am very thankful to have the Mass at least once a month. It helps us stay connected with that sense of home,” Nivin said.

“Having Holy Qurbana in our own language, it brings that homely feeling to us, a feeling of acceptance.”

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Alongside celebrating Mass together once a month, the Syro-Malabar community also get together in other ways. Every October they come together to pray the rosary in their native Malayalam language – usually at a person’s home or in the chapel at St. Joseph Church. Every Friday during Lent they also pray the Way of the Cross in Malayalam.

And it is a community that is slowly growing. Alan is preparing to get married in May, and he hopes his future children will also be able to experience their Syro-Malabar heritage in the Canadian north. While the Grande Prairie community will likely never be as large as the Syro-Malabar communities in big cities like Vancouver, Edmonton or Toronto, Alan says it will still provide an important space for his family to hold onto their traditions.

“However many children God blesses us with, I would love for them to know their Catholic tradition and to be able to grow up in it,” he said. “I do feel I need that monthly Mass in the Syro-Malabar tradition. It’s not just the language, there’s ‘life’ I receive in that Mass. I don’t know how to precisely say it, but it helps us stay connected to God, to the Scriptures, and to our traditions. It gives us a sense of ‘dwelling together’ and I hope for the same for my children.”

This is only an excerpt. Read the full story in the March 2025 edition of Northern Light