To continue the ministry of the love of God the Apostles were sent by the Son of God, as He Himself was sent by the Father. The apostolic ministry is carried out by the Church in general while there is the special priestly ministry by the priests in particular.
The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church which is also known as the Indian Orthodox Church is committed to the apostolic task especially through the priestly and theological training programme.
Orthodox Theological Seminary, Kottayam, is entrusted and supported by the Malankara Orthodox Church to train priestly candidates and to facilitate, under-graduate and post graduate theological education with the following objectives:
- Spiritual and liturgical formation of the future ministers of the Malankara Orthodox Church.
- Integration of the Ecclesiastical and Patristic Tradition of the Indian and Oriental Orthodox Heritages.
- Systematic learning of the scriptural, theological, historical, and sociological foundations of Christian Faith.
- Modest awareness regarding and objective evaluation of the history and faith-dimensions of the various Christian denominations and different Religious and Secular Traditions of the world.
- Linguistic, pastoral and professional equipping of leaders, theologians, teachers, preachers, counselors, social-workers etc.
- Developing Communicative and inter-active skills with a clear 'liberation'-emphasis and an ecumenical outlook in approaches.
- Task-oriented training to achieve transformation of persons and communities according to the values of the Kingdom of God as evidenced by Jesus Christ.