The Bethany Ashram, formally the Order of the Imitation of Christ, and the Sisters of the Imitation of Christ are the church's religious backbone and its mission arm. Their houses are in Kerala and in mission territories across north and central India, where the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church has established eparchies among populations with no Saint Thomas Christian history. The church's growth outside Kerala is substantially their work, and it has raised the same questions Indian Christian missions always raise about conversion among Dalit and Adivasi communities. The church's own account emphasises schools, dispensaries and the ashram's poverty; its critics in Indian politics describe the same activity differently.