Within this ancient community, and also among other Christian groups in Kerala, bitter factional splits have repeatedly turned sacred spaces into battlegrounds. The most enduring and bitter of these is the century-old division between the Malankara Orthodox and Jacobite Syrian factions. On Sunday morning, at the St John’s Bethlehem Syrian Church near Muvattupuzha in Piramadom, just as the Holy Qurbana had started, the sanctuary became a place of pushing, shouting and disorderly behaviour among the clergy. For about half an hour, priests from the Malankara Orthodox and Jacobite Syrian factions fought near the altar—that area which is supposed to be the most sacred in the church. A number of Orthodox priests came to the church citing a order from the Muvattupuzha Sub Court which they claimed supported their faction’s claim to the church.