It functions as a largely autonomous unit within the church, under the authority of the Catholicos of India, Baselios Thomas I. Currently, this is the only church in Malankara which has a direct relationship with the Syriac Christians of Antioch, which has continued from after the schism and they continue to employ the West Syriac Rite Liturgy of Saint James.[20][21][22] The faction of the Malankara Church that gained autocephaly in 1912, became the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC), also known as the Indian Orthodox Church, and are an autocephalous (independent) church in the Oriental Orthodoxy communion.