Famend evangelist Mor Athanasius Yohan I alias Okay P Yohannan, who based the Kerala-based Believers Jap Church, died in Dallas in Texas Wednesday the place he had met with an accident.
An official communication from the Church stated “the metropolitan handed away attributable to sudden cardiac arrest in a hospital in Dallas, Texas the place he had been receiving therapy since his accident on Could 7.’’
Yohannan, 74, who rose from the ranks of a Pentecostal preacher, is an influential Christian chief in Kerala. As soon as blamed by RSS in Kerala for changing Hindus into Christianity, Yohannan had not too long ago hit headlines by extending assist for Anil Antony, BJP’s candidate in Pathanamthitta constituency within the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Yohannan and his Church have been below the scanner of the Revenue Tax Division for the previous couple of years in reference to the alleged diversion of a charity fund, reportedly to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore, for actual property and different enterprise functions.
Yohannan, who joined the evangelical mission at an early age, had arrange Gospel for Asia (GFA) in 1979 alongside along with his spouse Gisela, a German by start, to advertise biblical teachings. Yohannan’s extremely spirited preaching gained him lakhs of followers internationally. Athmeeya Yathra (non secular journey), one of many dozen trusts Yohannan arrange, has been broadcasting spiritual radio programmes.
He established Believers’ Church in 2000 at Thiruvalla in central Kerala, appointing himself the bishop of the newly fashioned Church. He later turned Metropolitan Archbishop, with a bunch of junior bishops below him.
Yohannan’s actual property curiosity got here to the fore in 2005 when the Believers’ Church bought 2,263 acres of rubber property from Harrison Malayalam Ltd for Rs 63 crore. He additionally owned the Cheruvally property, one of many best-managed rubber estates in Kerala.