Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 22 (IANS): A group of senior people attached to the Church of South India (CSI), including Valson Thampu, former principal of Delhi's prestigious St Stephen's College, have petitioned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan against giving state guest status to Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, when he arrives here later this month.

Thampu feels that through this visit by its topmost leader of Church of England (the Anglican Church), the church is aiming for a cleaning up of its image, sullied by a series of corruption charges.

Thampu told IANS that he has put his signature in the memorandum to Vijayan and all what they have written in it are "facts" and they hope that the Kerala government takes it seriously.

The memorandum has listed the corruption cases, in which the Church is caught in, which includes in admissions to a medical college which it owns.

It also points out that the CSI is independent and gives no administrative or spiritual supremacy to the visiting dignitary.

Welby, along with his wife, is arriving in the country after being invited by the United Churches of North and South India on a 10 day visit from August 31 to September 10.

As part of the trip, he has a function at Kottayam on August 31st and would be here till September 2, when he leaves for Bengaluru.

He will also visit Hyderabad, Medak, Jabalpur, Kolkata and Amritsar.