Mathews Mar Koorilose -VIII suffered from diabetes and well often had to be admitted to hospital. He therefore asked the Church Council to take steps to convene the general body of the Church in order to elect an Episcopa. On 20 December 1981 the general body elected Fr. Joseph Panakal B.A, B.Ed. The Panakal family had already supplied two bishops: Joseph Mar Koorilose -IV and Paulose Mar Athanasios, Suffragan Metropolitan.

Father Joseph was the second of the five children of Sri P. I. Mathew kutty and Smt Kunjham. He completed his schooling in the David Memorial L P School and the M J D High School at his native Kunnamkulam town. He received his higher education first in the Sree Krishna College, Guruayur, and St. Thomas College at Trissur, and then in the Municipal College of Education at Chick­ ballapur in Karnataka State. Afterwards he was appointed to the staff of St. George’s High School, Thozhiyur, in January 1981. On 5 March 1972 he was ordained a deacon by Paulose Mar Philoxenos -III and on 1 March 1978 a priest by Mathews Mar Koorilose -VIII. He also served as the Secretary of both the Church and the Gospel Association. At his initiative a Youth Movement (with both spiritual and social activities) was organized in 1984. Fr.Joseph was the first editor of Kunjhadukalude Velicham, the first monthly magazine of the church, published by the Youth Association since September 1984.

At the time of his election as a bishop he was only 27 years old, but was nearly 32 when he was consecrated as the Metropolitan of the Church on 27 August 1986. A week earlier he had been made a Ramban by Philipose Mar Chrysostom, Suffragan Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church. The delay between election and consecration and the failure of Mar Koorilose -VIII to consecrate his successor were mainly due to certain differences of opinion between the Met­ropolitan and the Church Council. In June 1986 Mathews Mar Koorilose -VIII passed away and in August 1986 Fr. Joseph was consecrated as Joseph Mar Koorilose-IX by Dr. Alexander Mar Thoma with the assistance of Joseph Mar Irenaeus, Easow Mar Timotheos and Dr. Zacharias Mar Theophilos.

Soon after the consecration the Metropolitan took up enthusiastically the renovation of the cathedral, a long cherished wish of his predecessors. On 30 November 1987 the foundation was laid. With the liberal donations and co­ operation of the members of the Church and her well-wishers, the construction was completed in record time and the Cathedral dedicated on 16 April 1989. Mar Koorilose -IX visited Jordan and Syria and some of the Gulf States in 1988-the first time a Metropolitan of the Malabar Independent Syrian Church had left India. He met His Holiness Zakka -II was, the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch, who made available to him a Tableeta (the wooden board on which the Eucharist is celebrated) and all other things necessarily for the celebration of the Holy Qur­bana. The Metropolitan celebrated the regular services (with his own people attending as well as the local Syrian Orthodox) in Bahrain, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Alayn and Sharjah. The incident is an interesting confirmation of the acceptance of the Metropolitan as a canonically consecrated bishop by the Patriarch (who presumably was informed about the Malabar Independent Syrian Church by his people in India with whom Mar Koorilose -IX has generally cordial relations). In 1989 the present Metropolitan visited England where he met the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie. While in England he declared himself willing to extend Eucharistic hospitality to members of the Church of England. On this and on his subsequent visit the Metropolitan celebrated the Holy Qurbana both with Anglican and Mar Thoma congregations and took part in Anglican services, on occasion together with Anglican bishops, and received Holy Communion. At the end of the visit he spent a few days in Rome. The Metropolitan returned to England in 1991 as an official guest at the Enthronement of Dr. George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury. During that visit (which lasted three months in all) he underwent surgery to replace severely damaged ear-drums. The Metropolitan has also visited Germany, where links have been formed with a Lutheran parish in Hanover.

In December 1989 Mar Koorilose -IX took part in the consecration of three new Mar Thoma bishops at Tiruvalla, Geeverghese Mar Athanasios, Geeverghese Mar Theodosios and Yoakim Mar Koorilose. Friendship and co-operation with the Mar Thoma Syrian Church remain strong, but not at the expense of the Malabar Independent Syrian Church’s traditional Orthodoxy. In January 1991 the Metropolitan took part also in the consecration of the Jacobite bishop Thomas Mar Themotheose at Udayagin Seminary near Mulanthuruthy. The present Metropolitan’s eirenic openness to both ‘reformed’ and ‘unreformed ‘­ and his acceptance by both- is a strength which augurs well for the future role of the Malabar Independent Syrian Church in the attempts to overcome the divisions among the St. Thomas Christians.