Believers Church leader KP Yohannan dies after a car accident in the US

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Believers Eastern Church Metropolitan Athanasius Yohan (formerly known as KP Yohannan) died on Wednesday in a hospital in the United States after being seriously injured in a car accident.

In an official statement, the church announced that the prelate died due to sudden cardiac arrest at a hospital in Dallas, Texas, where he was being treated after the accident.

The church’s statement read: “It is with deep sadness and sorrow that we wish to inform you that His Holiness Athanasius Yohan 1, our honorable Metropolitan, rested in the Lord this evening, May 8, 2024.” Further details will be announced by the synod , it continued.

Yohan suffered multiple injuries, including a head injury, in an accident that occurred at 6:45 a.m. (US time) on May 7 when the bishop was on his morning walk along a county road. The impact of the accident was severe, resulting in broken ribs and injuries to the lungs, leading to internal bleeding. He underwent emergency surgery at the hospital.

According to church officials, it was not a hit-and-run and at first glance there is nothing suspicious. The local police have recovered the vehicle involved in the accident and have opened a case in this connection.

Yohan was flown to a Dalla hospital shortly after the accident.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his cabinet colleagues mourned the death of Bishop Yohan.

The 74-year-old bishop was born in 1950 in a family of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church in Niranom village in Upper Kuttanad.

In 1993 he founded the Believers Eastern Church as part of the World Apostolate Gospel for Asia (GFA) and was ordained its bishop in 2003.

According to the Believers Eastern Church, it has 3.5 million members in 10 countries. The church currently has 30 bishops.