The mission at Jonai was started by Fr. Abraham Kuttiankal in the year 1979. He had visited the place a couple of times while staying at Silapathar. Fr. Abraham had been in Silapathar in the year 1976 but when Fr. S.L. Paul came in 1977 as the parish priest of Silapathar, Fr. Abraham was transferred to Kumrikatta to assist in the parish there. It is from Kumrikatta that Fr. Abraham, accompanied by five boys, went to start the new mission at Jonai. The journey to Jonai was made by the train ‘Arunachal Express’. He got down at the Murkongselek railway station and went to Mr. Ao’s house with whom he had contacted earlier. He stayed in a rented house along with the boys and started the first Catholic community at Jonai. Later Mr. Ao gave his own land to the mission and Fr. Abraham succeeded in purchasing some adjacent plots of land. Today the centre has a spacious compound. Fr Abraham had a very good rapport with the people.

There are mainly three tribes in this area- Misings, Bodos of Assam, and Adis of Arunachal Pradesh. There are also other migrant communities- Nepalese, Biharis, Garos, and Bengali- Santals who have come for cultivation and business. People speak their own dialects but the common language is Assamese and Hindi. The parish of Jonai consists of members from Mishing, Santal, Garo, and Bodo tribes. At present, there are about 184 families with a catholic population of 1100 members on record. The Catholic villages are Rajakhana, Rajakhana- I, Rajakhana-II, Dharmapur, Jelam, Kimi, Sirampuria, Oakland, Jonai, Rayang, and Maidangshree. Most of the villages have village churches. The parish has already gifted the church one priest (John Doley, Diocese of Miao, Arunachal Pradesh)

Jonai is a well-established parish today. It has a very beautiful parish church, a convenient presbytery, a high school, a convent, a dispensary, a shrine in honour of Mother Teresa; hostels for boys and girls, teachers’ quarters, cultivable land and vibrant Catholic communities belonging to Garo, Boro, Mising Santhal and Adi tribes. It was the gateway to our missions in the East and Upper Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

Sisters of St Ann, Luzern (SAL)

At the departure of the MCJs, on January 6, 2013, the sisters of St Ann Luzern (sal) (Northern Province) joined the mission to collaborate with MSFS. The pioneers were SrsInnocencyTharakan, Josephine Vadukkot, and BinitaKujur. One of the three sisters is running a playschool while another assist in our school as a teacher. They cooperate in all other parish activities.