India’s top court has told the warring factions in the Oriental Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch to share all public amenities at disputed Church properties in a southern state until a solution to the row can be found. The government in Kerala is finding it difficult to implement a 2017 apex court order that awarded disputed churches to the Orthodox faction due to stiff opposition from the Jacobite camp, a breakaway faction of the Da-mascus-based Church. While hearing a contempt petition against the communist-led state government and the Jacobite faction, a division bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan of the Supreme Court on Dec. 3 told the warring fa-ctions to share among them-selves all public amenities in the disputed church compounds without discrimination. The current stalemate concerns six disputed churches located in the state’s Ernakulam and Pa-lakkad districts. These chur-ches are under the control of the Jacobite faction of the Oriental Church, which has nearly 2 million followers in Kerala. “All public facilities like burial grounds, schools, hospitals, etc. on church premises shall continue to be availed by everyone, including Catholics,” the judges said in the order. Though it is an interim order, “it is significant as the court wanted to see both sides come together,” as shar-ing the amenities was not there in the 2017 order,” observed Biju Oommen, secretary of the Orthodox Church Association. He said they would consult their lawyers before sharing the amenities.