Mangkolemba is a village panchayat and sub-division of Mokokchung District in Nagaland. Bounded by rivers and mountains, it covers an area of about 2sq. km. The native language of Mangkolemba is English and most of the village people speak English for communication. It is 165 km or 102.5 miles from Dimapur town. Mokokchung, one of the districts in Nagaland, is considered the home of the Ao Naga tribe. It covers an area of 1,615 km2 and is bounded by Assam to its north, Wokha to its west, Tuensang to its east and Zunheboto to its south. The physiography of the District shows six distinct hill ranges which are more or less parallel to each other and run in the south-east direction. According to the 2011 census of India, AoNagas number 231,823.

The Aos are one of the major Naga tribes of Nagaland. They were the first Naga tribe to embrace Christianity and by virtue of this development the Aos availed themselves to western education that came along with Christianity. In the process the Aos became the pioneering tribe among the Nagas in many fields. Christianity first entered into the Ao territory when an American Baptist missionary, Edwin W. Clark, reached an Ao village called Molungkimong in 1872. Many became Christians in the 1870s. Today, Aos are almost 100 percent Christians, the majority being Baptists. Many Ao people have undertaken missionary work in other areas as well. Their main territory is from Tsula (Dikhu) Valley in the east to Tsurang (Disai) Valley in the west in Mokokchung District. They are well known for multiple harvest festivals held each year.

Most Rev. James Thoppil, Bishop of Kohima, erected the new centre dedicated to the loving Patronage of St Andrew the Apostle with effect from November 11, 2016, and handed it over to the care of the North East India Province of the MSFS, Dibrugarh Region. Fr Kurian Pattimackel is the first Priest incharge of the new Quasi-Parish and Principal of St Andrews School, Mangkolemba. This new MSFS venture was in response to the invitation of Most Rev. James Thoppil, Bishop of Kohima, to open a centre in the Ao village of Mangkolemba, a sub-centre of Mokokchung Parish. With this initiative, Bishop Thoppil expressed the hope that the MSFS with their vast experience as pioneering missionaries would be able to make inroads into Ao communities in and around Mangkolemba, especially by providing quality education to them through the development of the existing St Andrew’s School.

SL. NO	PARISH PRIEST	YEAR
1	Kurian Pattimackel	2016-2019
2	RijeshThalayinakandathil	2019-2021
3	JojanPlathottathil	2021-

 

 

SL. NO	ASST. PARISH PRIEST	YEAR
1	RijeshThalayinakandathil	2016-2019
2	Anthony Kamei	2021-