Diocese of calcutta

9 Mirza Ghalib Street, Kolkata 700 016 : Sunday Worship Service Timing – 8:30am

As one walks through the sea of humanity on Alimuddin Street, one cannot escape the majestic structure of St. Saviour’s Church. A place of worship for the growing Tamil community, this one hundred and fifty year old church is the only Tamil Church in the city. As the Church bears the name St. Saviour, the festival of the Holy name of Jesus has become the Patronal Festival on the 7th of August every year.
Situated at 9, Haji Md. Mohsin Street, St. Saviour’s Church started functioning in the year 1860, when a group of Tamil Christians came together to form the St. Saviour’s Tamil congregation. But the Tamil congregation did not worship in the church till Easter 1938, when the Bengali congregation started using the newly constructed St. George’s Church for worship. The Tamil Christians, who had come to Calcutta in connection with their work, were drawn together by their common faith and tradition and were bound together as Christ’s Body by the unifying power of the Holy Spirit. They worshipped regularly in the Parish Hall by the side of the Church.
The first baptism was performed at St. Saviour’s in 1968 by the Principal of Bishop’s College. The appointment of Rev. Thomas Sitther provided the church with its first honorary Tamil priest. St. Saviour’s has two services every Sunday, one in Hindi and another in Tamil. The Harvest Festival is celebrated on the first Sunday of November. On this day, members offer one-tenth of their monthly income as cash offering and use their talents to make articles like clothing, small furniture items and other utility goods. These are blessed at the service and auctioned afterwards. There is also a school called St. Saviour’s Tamil Church School within the premises of the church. Initially, it was started in 1884 for Tamil children, but the church took over and made it a mission school for children belonging to the underprivileged rungs of the society. As there is a majority of Muslims in the area, the students mainly belong to this community.
Rev. Dr. Samuel Raj, who has been with the St. Saviour’s for the past fifteen years had this to say, “We are all one big family. We have no difference of opinion and extend our help to everyone possible. We contribute generously for all noble causes.” St. Saviour’s is an example to other churches as its uses ten percent of its income to support missionaries. It supports seven missionaries, two from the Friend’s Missionary Prayer Band (FMPB), two from the Indian Missionary Society (IMS) and one each from the Mission for the Blind, Kolkata, Serve and Touch Hearts, Kolkata and the National Missionary Society (NMS). The church also supports St. Catherine’s Home for the aged in Kidderpore. The re-roofing of the church building was undertaken in the year 1961 and it was rededicated on 17th December by the Metropolitan, the Most Rev. Dr. A. N. Mukherjee.