Believers Eastern Church

Believers Eastern Church (previously Believers Church) is an Oriental Protestant Church of Indian origin with congregations and parishes worldwide. It is also a branch of the ministry Gospel for Asia. The church now follows an episcopal governance. The church holds Christ as the head of the Church (Col 1:18) but also requires that bishops and ordained ministers swear to submit to its metropolitan and any successors of the metropolitan. It is governed by a committee of bishops, the synod, with one central bishop holding the honorary title of "first among equals" and follows Evangelical Christian doctrine. Believers Eastern Church is administratively based in the state of Kerala in southwestern India. In 2015, the church reported it was re-organized into 33 dioceses; a decrease from the 36 dioceses reported by Smith in 2009. According to Believers Eastern Church, it claims its membership consists of more than 3.5 million people in 10 countries speaking a hundred languages. The Church has 30 bishops, and the Metropolitan Bishop is Moran Mor Athanasius Yohan Metropolitan (formerly known as K. P. Yohannan).