The Oriental Orthodox Churches

Six ancient churches of Egypt, Syria, Armenia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and India, in communion with one another, which hold the faith of the first three councils and did not receive Chalcedon.

Pope Shenouda III, Comparative Theology (tr. Mary and Amani Bassilli, 1988), CopticChurch.net

Pope Shenouda III, The Nature of Christ, CopticChurch.net

Pope Shenouda III, The Spirituality of Fasting, CopticChurch.net

Bishop Mettaous, Sacramental Rites in the Coptic Orthodox Church, CopticChurch.net

Bishop Mettaous, The Spirituality of the Rites of the Holy Liturgy in the Coptic Orthodox Church, Tasbeha.org

Fr. Tadros Malaty, Introduction to the Coptic Orthodox Church (1993), ch. 2: The Coptic Church and Worship

CopticChurch.net, Introduction to the Coptic Church

The Coptic Synaxarium, Toba 22: St. Anthony the Great, CopticChurch.net

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Worship in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (from The Church of Ethiopia: A Panorama of History and Spiritual Life, 1970)

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, The Bible (the canonical books)

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, The Faith of the Church: The Sacrament of Baptism

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, The Faith of the Church: Holy Communion

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, The Faith of the Church: Holy Orders

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, The Expansion and Consolidation of Christianity

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, What Do We Believe?

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, History: The Orthodox Church of India

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Spirituality

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Armenian Church Overview

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Biography of Karekin II

Paul VI and Shenouda III, Common Declaration (10 May 1973)

Joint Commission of the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, First Agreed Statement (Anba Bishoy Monastery, 1989), Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate, Department of Syriac Studies

Joint Commission of the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, Second Agreed Statement (Chambésy, 1990), Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate, Department of Syriac Studies

The Oriental Orthodox Churches Addis Ababa Conference, January 1965 (official report), Internet Archive

Marina Makary, "Cymbals and a Triangle: A Harmonious Addition to Coptic Hymns," Egyptian Streets (24 August 2022)

Yousef Sawires, "The Forgotten Coptic Prayer for Those in Hades," Journal of the Canadian Society for Coptic Studies 16 (2024)

Oriental Orthodox Churches (Wikipedia)

Council of Ephesus (Wikipedia)

Council of Chalcedon (Wikipedia)

Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria (Wikipedia)

Cyril of Alexandria (Wikipedia)

Severus of Antioch (Wikipedia)

Jacob Baradaeus (Wikipedia)

Frumentius (Wikipedia)

Gregory the Illuminator (Wikipedia)

Anthony the Great (Wikipedia)

Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria (Wikipedia)

Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria (Wikipedia)

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Wikipedia)

Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Wikipedia)

Armenian Apostolic Church (Wikipedia)

The Oriental Orthodox trace their churches to the apostles: Alexandria to Mark, India to Thomas, Armenia to Thaddeus and Bartholomew. Their communion took its shape in the fifth century, when Egypt, Syria and Armenia refused the Council of Chalcedon. The dates below follow that story, from the missions of the fourth century through the parting of 451 and the hierarchy built after it, to the Ethiopian patriarchate, the conference of 1965 and the agreed statements with Rome and Constantinople.

St. Mark in Alexandria

The Coptic Church names St. Mark the Evangelist as its founder. It counts him "the first of their unbroken 118 patriarchs," and also the first of a long line of Egyptian martyrs.

Armenia, the first Christian nation

Through the preaching of St. Gregory the Illuminator and the proclamation of King Trdat III, Armenia became in 301 "the first state to declare Christianity as the state religion." The Armenian Church counts Gregory its first patriarch.

Frumentius, first bishop of Ethiopia

Frumentius, a Christian from Tyre who had risen at the court of Aksum, went to Alexandria and asked Patriarch Athanasius to send a bishop to Ethiopia. Athanasius consecrated Frumentius himself, traditionally in 328, or by other accounts between 340 and 346. Frumentius returned, set his see at Aksum, and baptized King Ezana.

The Council of Ephesus

About 250 bishops met at Ephesus. Under Cyril of Alexandria they removed Nestorius of Constantinople from his see and condemned his teaching, and they confirmed that Mary is the Theotokos, the God-bearer. The churches of the Persian Empire did not receive the council and went their own way as the Church of the East, a separate body with a separate history. Ephesus is the last of the three councils the Oriental Orthodox accept.

Chalcedon refused

In 449 Dioscorus of Alexandria had presided over a second council at Ephesus, which restored the monk Eutyches and deposed Flavian of Constantinople. Two years later the Council of Chalcedon questioned that conduct and deposed Dioscorus. Against Cyril's "one nature of God the Word Incarnate" it confessed Christ "in two natures." Dioscorus died in exile at Gangra in 454. The native Christians of Egypt went on recognizing him as their patriarch rather than Proterius, whom the emperor approved, and after his death they elected his disciple Timothy. Two lines of patriarchs of Alexandria date from that choice.

Jacob Baradaeus and a hierarchy of their own

When the Chalcedonian patriarch of Antioch was persecuting those who refused the council, Empress Theodora and the Ghassanid king al-Harith urged Pope Theodosius of Alexandria to consecrate new bishops. He made Jacob Baradaeus bishop of Edessa in 543 or 544. Traveling in disguise, Jacob ordained bishops, and he made Sergius of Tella patriarch of Antioch, in 544 by most accounts (some date it 557). The refusal of Chalcedon had become a church with its own succession.

The St. Thomas Christians and Rome

Contact with Portuguese colonial power ended, at the Synod of Udayamperoor (1599), in Roman control of the ancient church of the St. Thomas Christians in India. In 1653 "through an Oath" the community threw off "their enforced subjection to Roman Catholicism." From 1665 those who stood against Rome received bishops from the West Syrian Patriarchate of Antioch.

A patriarch for Ethiopia

The Ethiopian church had been part of the Coptic Church of Alexandria since the fourth century. On 14 January 1951 the Coptic Pope Joseph II consecrated Basilios as abuna, the head of the Ethiopian church, and in 1959 Pope Cyril VI crowned him the first Patriarch of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian church became autocephalous, that is, self-governing.

The heads of the churches meet at Addis Ababa

Emperor Haile Selassie opened a conference of the heads of the Oriental Orthodox churches at Africa Hall, Addis Ababa, in January 1965. The conference report says that for the first time in history it "brought together in a formal meeting the Heads of five of the historic Churches."

Rome and Alexandria

Pope Paul VI and Pope Shenouda III signed a common declaration at the Vatican on 10 May 1973. Together they confessed Christ "perfect God with respect to His divinity, perfect man with respect to His humanity," and set up a joint commission. They also said that "since the year 451 A. D., theological differences, nourished and widened by non-theological factors, have sprung up," and that these "cannot be ignored."

The agreed statements with the Eastern Orthodox

Theologians of the two Orthodox families met at the Anba Bishoy Monastery in Egypt (1989) and at Chambésy, Switzerland (1990). They concluded that "both families have always loyally maintained the same authentic Orthodox Christological faith," though "they have used Christological terms in different ways," and asked the churches to lift "all the anathemas and condemnations of the past which now divide us."

The martyrs of 1915

On 23 April 2015 the Armenian Apostolic Church canonized all the victims of the Armenian genocide. The number most often given is about 1.5 million people, though estimates range from 700,000 to 1.8 million. It is believed to be the largest canonization service in history.

Cyril of Alexandria

Pope of Alexandria and the theologian of Ephesus, who defended the title Theotokos against Nestorius. He taught "one physis of the Word of God made flesh," the formula the Oriental Orthodox still confess.

Dioscorus of Alexandria

Cyril's successor, deposed at Chalcedon and exiled to Gangra in Asia Minor, where he died. The Coptic Church recognized him as patriarch until his death. It calls him Dioscorus the Great and, with the other Oriental Orthodox churches, venerates him as a saint.

Severus of Antioch

A monk trained in law, elected patriarch of Antioch in 512, who affirmed Nicaea, Constantinople and Ephesus and condemned Chalcedon and the Tome of Leo. When Emperor Justin I ordered his arrest he fled to Alexandria, and the non-Chalcedonians went on counting him the rightful patriarch of Antioch.

Jacob Baradaeus

Bishop of Edessa from 543 or 544, whose missions helped the Syriac church survive persecution. He traveled in ragged clothes, from which his name Baradaeus comes, and the Syriac Orthodox came to be called the "Jacobite" Church after him.

Shenouda III

Born Nazir Gayed in 1923, a monk at the Syrian Monastery in the Wadi El-Natrun, then bishop for Christian education, and the 117th Pope of Alexandria. In 1981 President Sadat banished him to the desert monastery of St. Pishoy; Mubarak restored him in 1985. His books, among them Comparative Theology and The Nature of Christ, are quoted below.

Not "Monophysites." Their opponents called them Monophysites, believers in a single nature in which the humanity is swallowed up. They reject the name. Pope Shenouda wrote that "the term "Monophysites" used for the believers in the One Nature has been intentionally or unintentionally misinterpreted," and that the Coptic and Syriac churches "were cruelly persecuted because of their belief." They condemn Eutyches, who taught that Christ's humanity was absorbed into his divinity, as firmly as they condemn Nestorius. Modern scholars call their position miaphysite: one united nature of the Word incarnate, formed out of two.

Armenia and Chalcedon. The Armenian church took no part in Chalcedon. The Addis Ababa report says it rejected the council officially in A.D. 506–508, seeing in it a revival of the teaching that "threatened to separate Christ's Person in two."

Not the Church of the East. The Church of the East, in the Persian Empire, never received the Council of Ephesus (431) and was already a separate body before Chalcedon. Its heir, the Assyrian Church of the East, is not part of this communion. It has its own chart.

Divisions within. The communion has its own quarrels. In India the Malankara Orthodox Church and the Jacobite Syrian Church, which stays under the Patriarch of Antioch, have been divided since the twentieth century over who governs the Indian church. The Mar Thoma Church, which reformed its liturgy on Protestant lines in the nineteenth century, became a separate body in 1889.

God's word comes in Scripture and in the apostolic Tradition, received with equal reverence; the faith is that of the first three councils, and the Ethiopian church's Bible has eighty-one books.

The Oriental Orthodox receive the Bible as the inspired word of God and hold it within the Tradition of the church: the teaching handed down from the apostles and the Fathers, the canons and the liturgy. Tradition, Pope Shenouda wrote, contains things "that might not be included in the Holy Bible but in no way contradict it." The Ethiopian church says it receives Scripture and Tradition "with equal veneration." The faith is bound by the first three ecumenical councils, which all six churches accept.

The canon is not the same in every church. The Ethiopian Bible counts 46 books in the Old Testament and 35 in the New, 81 in all. It includes Jubilees and Enoch, and books of church order such as the Didascalia and the Book of Clement. The Malankara Church, for its part, says no other writings "can have the same standing" as the Scriptures.

The word of God is not contained in the Bible alone, it is to be found in tradition as well.

Tradition is every teaching, other than the words of the Holy Bible, that was entrusted to us, by the Apostles and the Fathers.

We hold the Scriptures in the highest respect, and no other writings can have the same standing, for the primary witness to Christ is in the Scriptures.

The Ethiopian church's full statement: "But God's word is not contained only in them, there is an unwritten word of God also, which we call apostolic tradition. We receive the one and other with equal veneration." Pope Shenouda listed what Tradition has kept: "the consecration of Sunday, the making of the sign of the cross, the law of monogamy, prayers for the departed and the work of each order of priesthood." The Malankara Church: "Scripture is part of this tradition," and Tradition "includes knowledge of Christ, the teaching of the Apostles, the doctrine of the Saints and fathers, the practices of worship developed by the community of faith." The Agreed Statement of 1990: "Both families accept the first three Ecumenical Councils, which form our common heritage."

Baptism by three immersions gives new birth and washes away original and actual sin; infants are baptized on the faith of their parents, and salvation is completed in baptism, not by faith alone.

The Oriental Orthodox teach that baptism is the new birth of water and the Spirit, the door into the church, and the washing away of sin. It is given by immersion, three times, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Pope Shenouda taught that "baptism is the way to receive salvation, purification, justification, renewal of life and membership in the Body of Christ," and that the Lord "put the condition of baptism alongside the condition of belief."

Infants are baptized, because they share in Adam's sin and need the new birth to enter the kingdom. In the Coptic rite a mother brings a boy at forty days and a girl at eighty. She confesses the faith, and the priest asks her three times, "Do you believe on behalf of this child?" Baptism is never repeated. Those who fall away and return are restored through penance and Communion.

Baptism is a Holy Sacrament by which we are born again by being immersed in water three times in the name of the Holy Trinity; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

By Baptism we get remission of original and actual sins and God forgets them, so we become as pure as Adam before the fall.

our church believes that babies too should be baptized

Pope Shenouda: "Salvation is completed through baptism," for the Lord "did not say: "He who believes is saved", but He put the condition of baptism alongside the condition of belief" (Comparative Theology, "The Efficacious of Baptism"). On the mode he argued that baptism is a burial and a rebirth, "whereas sprinkling does not express the action of birth at all." The Ethiopian church's first reason for baptizing babies: "Babies are inheritors of Adam's sin." On those who return after falling away: "they are not baptized again In this case it is sufficient that they perform the two sacraments of penance and Holy Communion" (sic). The Coptic rite ties the forty and eighty days to Leviticus 12 (see "The Law's customs" below).

After the prayer the bread and wine are changed into the very Body and Blood of Christ, offered on the altar as an unbloody sacrifice, and given in both kinds to those who have fasted and confessed, infants included.

The Eucharist is the "Crown of Sacraments." The liturgy is served every Sunday and on feasts. The Oriental Orthodox believe that when the priest calls on the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine are changed into the true Body and Blood of Christ, the same body that he took of the Virgin Mary. The Coptic Bishop Mettaous even uses Rome's word, transubstantiation. It is offered on the altar as an unbloody sacrifice for those who receive it in faith. Communion is given in both kinds, and infants receive it.

The church guards the table with fasting and confession. A Coptic adult fasts nine hours before Communion and a child six. A priest may refuse Communion to one who does not confess regularly to his "confession-father." The Ethiopian church's account of 1970 says that only those "who feel pure, have fasted regularly and have conducted themselves blamelessly" commune, so the communicants are usually small children and the very old.

We believe that, after prayer, the bread and wine are spiritually changed into the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

the Holy Communion is offered on the altar as a true sacrifice

the person coming to Communion must practice repentance and confession regularly with their confession-father

The Ethiopian statement goes on: "For this reason we do not look at mere bread and mere wine on the altar, but we truly look at the body and blood of the Lord under the forms of bread and wine." It calls the Eucharist "an un bloody sacrifice" (sic), offered "continuously, in every place on earth." Bishop Mettaous on the fast: "Period of abstaining from food must be nine hours for adults," and "For children, the period of abstinence is six hours." The Ethiopian worship page: "Only those who feel pure, have fasted regularly and have conducted themselves blamelessly receive Communion. For this reason communicants are usually babes-in-arms, infants and the very old."

Bishops, priests and deacons, ordained by the laying on of hands in succession from the apostles; each church governs itself under its patriarch or catholicos and holy synod; priests may marry before ordination, but bishops are chosen from monks.

Holy orders has three degrees: bishop, priest and deacon. Bishops ordain the clergy and oversee dioceses, and the priests serve the parishes under them. Baptism and the other sacraments are given only by the clergy. Each of the six churches is self-governing. Its patriarch or catholicos presides over a holy synod of bishops, and the Coptic Pope of Alexandria holds an honor among them that the Eritrean church, for one, acknowledges.

A married man may be ordained deacon or priest, but no one may marry after ordination, and a widowed priest or deacon may not marry again. In the Coptic Church bishops are chosen from the monks. The Malankara Church calls priests "ruling elders" and also names deaconesses among its serving ministers.

The Bible mentions three degrees; the bishop, the priest and the deacon

the related ministries of ruling elders (priests or presbyters) and serving ministers (deacons and deaconesses)

His choice is fulfilled among monks, just like the bishops.

The Malankara statement places the bishop at the center: the special laying on of hands is given "for the Bishop as the mystery -presence of Christ the High Priest and Good Shepherd with His Church" (sic). The Ethiopian church argues that the apostles "appointed bishops, priests and deacons in the churches which they established." Bishop Mettaous on deacons: "If he is unmarried before his ordination, he must remain unmarried afterwards," and a widowed deacon "is not permitted to re-marry, just like in the case of the priest." Pope Shenouda: "Baptism in the Orthodox Church is administered only by the clergy."

Worship is the sung liturgy of each ancient rite, with incense and icons; Mary and the saints are asked to intercede; Coptic hymns keep time with cymbals and triangle, and Ethiopian cantors sing to drums and sistra.

Each church keeps its own ancient rite and language: Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, and Ge'ez, the old liturgical language of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian church has fourteen anaphoras, the Eucharistic prayers, each for its own holy days. The services are sung, with incense, candles and icons, and the churches count seven sacraments. The churches ask Mary, the angels and the saints to intercede for them, venerate their relics, and hold that this is not prayer to the saints in the sense owed to God.

Singing is mostly by the voice, but not always unaccompanied. In Coptic churches a deacon or cantor plays cymbals and a triangle to keep the rhythm of the hymns, a practice several sources date to the Middle Ages. In Ethiopia the cantors, the debteras, sing in the outer ring of the church to drums, prayer-sticks and sistra. On joyful days they clap and move with a solemn rhythm. In times of mourning the chant is mournful, without clapping, and in Lent the drum is silent except on Palm Sunday.

We do not pray to the Virgin but we address her when we pray and entreat her to intercede for us.

It is not a law that we have to ask the Saints to intercede for us.

who sing hymns and praise God to the accompaniment of musical instruments

The common declaration of 1973: "We venerate the relics of the saints and ask the intercession of the angels and of the saints, the living and the departed." The Malankara Church: "Icons are important for us," and "We do not make images of the unseen God." In 1990 the Oriental Orthodox agreed that the veneration of icons taught by Nicaea II is "in basic agreement with the teaching and practice of the Oriental Orthodox from ancient times." On the Coptic instruments, Egyptian Streets reports that "the cymbals and the triangle were only used to set the rhythm for hymns and praises," and that "It is unknown when the use of the cymbals ( daff ) and the triangle ( trianto ) was introduced." The Ethiopian worship page adds: "During Lent, the use of the drum is forbidden except on Palm Sunday."

The Holy Spirit is given in the Myron, the anointing with holy oil that follows baptism at once, for infants as for adults; the Spirit's gifts are given as God wills, and speaking in tongues was never meant for every believer.

Right after baptism the priest anoints the newly baptized, infants included, with the Myron, a consecrated oil of spices. In the Coptic rite he makes thirty-six crosses on the joints and senses, so that the body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Coptic account is that the apostles first gave the Spirit by laying on hands. When believers grew too many, "they made the Myron" and let the priests anoint with it.

The churches describe the Christian life as the Spirit's work of sanctifying and perfecting, and the Malankara Church speaks of "becoming more and more God-like." Pope Shenouda wrote against the Pentecostal movement that the gifts are given as God wills. Tongues, he said, are last in Paul's order of gifts and never were the sign that a person had received the Spirit.

The baptized person receives it immediately after Baptism, so as to become a temple of the Holy Spirit.

For us the Holy Spirit is Life-giver, Sanctifier and perfecter.

A man can be a saint even though he does not speak with tongues.

Bishop Mettaous: "the Apostles were unable to keep track of each individual to lay upon them their hands in order to receive the Holy Spirit. So they made the Myron out of certain oils mixed with spices," and "allowed the priests to anoint the newly baptized by the Myron to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The baptized "is anointed with 36 signs on his joints and senses so that the Holy Spirit can dwell within them." Pope Shenouda also taught that even in the apostles' time not every believer had to receive the gift of tongues, and that it was never the sign by which one knew the Spirit had come.

Christ will come again to raise the dead and judge the living and the dead; the church prays for the departed at every liturgy, asking God to forgive the small sins they did not confess, but has defined no purgatory.

The Oriental Orthodox confess with the Creed that Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and they look for the resurrection of the body and the renewal of all things. The departed are remembered at every Eucharist. In the Coptic litany for them the church asks God to raise their bodies at the judgment and to forgive what they could not confess before they died. Bishop Mettaous, explaining the litany, cites a saying he ascribes to St. Dionysius: such prayer helps those whose sins were small, but for the gravely sinful "the Lord has already closed the door."

None of the six churches has defined a purgatory, and none grants indulgences. The historian David Daniels notes that in Luther's day the Ethiopian church was known to reject both. In 1999 the Coptic Holy Synod went further and removed from the Pentecost kneeling prayers the litany for those in Hades. Pope Shenouda's reason was that those in Hades cannot be saved.

They and we look in hope for the Second Coming of our Lord when His glory will be revealed to judge the living and the dead.

We remember at every Eucharist the departed as a whole

we ask God to raise their bodies on the Judgment Day and forgive their petty mistakes which they may not have had a chance to repent and confess before dying

Bishop Mettaous quotes "St. Dionisious, a disciple of St. Paul": "The prayers of the righteous benefit the reposed. If the reposed's sins were trivial there would be great benefit from what was done for him after his departure. However, if his sins were serious and heavy, the Lord has already closed the door." On the Hades litany, Yousef Sawires writes that modifications were made "in accordance with the meeting minutes of the Holy Synod in 1999," and that "the late Pope Shenouda III justified this deletion by stating that it is not possible for those in Hades to be saved." Sawires himself argues against the change. The Malankara Church: "Our hope is focused on Christ's coming again."

One incarnate nature

Christ is one Person with one nature formed out of the divine and the human, without mixture or division, the formula of St. Cyril; for this they refused the Council of Chalcedon, which spoke of two natures.

This is the question over which the communion parted from Rome and Constantinople. With St. Cyril the Oriental Orthodox confess "one nature of God the Word incarnate." At the moment of the incarnation the divine and the human were united in the Virgin's womb, so that one nature was formed out of the two, "without mingling, confusion or alteration." The humanity is not swallowed up, and they condemn Eutyches, who taught that it was. But they would not say "two natures" after the union, because in their view the formula of Chalcedon divided Christ. In 1989 and 1990 theologians of both families agreed that they had always held the same faith in different words, and that the anathemas of the past should be lifted. The churches have not yet done so.

one nature was formed out of both

the tone of separation was obvious in the Council of Chalcedon

both families have always loyally maintained the same authentic Orthodox Christological faith, and the unbroken continuity of the apostolic tradition, though they have used Christological terms in different ways

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.

Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them in the sight of the Lord, that they strive not about words, to no profit, to the subverting of them that hear.

What the Oriental Orthodox confess about Christ, Scripture teaches: "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14), and he was "in all things to be made like unto his brethren" (Hebrews 2:17). They condemn Eutyches, who swallowed up the humanity, as firmly as Chalcedon condemned Nestorius, who divided the Person, so on the substance both sides stand with the apostles. But Scripture calls the incarnation "the mystery of godliness" (1 Timothy 3:16) and never defines it in terms of nature and hypostasis. Neither "one nature" nor "in two natures" is the apostles' word, and neither may be bound as a test of fellowship. Paul charged the church "that they strive not about words, to no profit, to the subverting of them that hear" (2 Timothy 2:14), and fifteen centuries of division over a formula is that warning ignored, on both sides.

Judged by Scripture rather than by the authority of Chalcedon, neither side's formula is condemned and neither is required. What is condemned is what both did with them. Each bound a formula the apostles never used, each anathematized the other over it, and each built a rival hierarchy in the same cities. Their own theologians now say it was largely a difference of words, and the anathemas still stand.

The formula in the Agreed Statement of 1989 is St. Cyril's mia physis tou Theou Logou sesarkomene, and both families there say: "We agree in condemning the Nestorian and the Eutychian heresies." In 1990 the Orthodox agreed that the Oriental Orthodox "will continue to maintain their traditional Cyrillian terminology," and the Oriental Orthodox that the Orthodox "are justified in their use of the two-natures formula." The Paul VI–Shenouda declaration of 1973 confesses the divinity and humanity united "without mingling, without commixtion, without confusion, without alteration, without division, without separation."

Mary, the Theotokos

Mary is the God-bearer and ever-virgin, first among the saints, who intercedes for the church; the Ethiopian church keeps thirty-three feasts of Mary a year.

The Oriental Orthodox honor Mary above every saint and every angel. They confess her the Theotokos, the God-bearer, as Ephesus defined, and hold that she remained a virgin all her life; Pope Shenouda answered at length the texts Protestants cite against it. Pope Shenouda wrote that at the incarnation the Holy Spirit "purified and sanctified the Virgin's womb" so that the Child "would inherit nothing of the original sin." That places the cleansing at Christ's conception, not at Mary's own, as Rome's Immaculate Conception does. Mary is asked to intercede in every service. The Ethiopian church gives her thirty-three feast days a year, many kept every month.

We venerate the Virgin Mary, Mother of the True Light, and we confess that she is ever Virgin, the God-bearer. She intercedes for us, and, as the Theotokos, excels in her dignity all angelic hosts.

Of the great Saints in the Church, the first (after Christ) and unique place goes to the Blessed Virgin Mary

No less than thirty-three holy days are devoted to St. Mary.

And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

and knew her not till she had brought forth a son: and he called his name JESUS.

Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?

For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus,

Mary is rightly called blessed, and the one she bore is God; on that the Oriental Orthodox are right. But she rejoiced "in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:47), as one who needed saving, and Matthew writes that Joseph "knew her not till she had brought forth a son" (Matthew 1:25), then names the Lord's brothers and sisters beside his mother (Matthew 13:55-56). Scripture gives no feast of Mary and no prayer addressed to her, for there is "one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). To call on her in every service to intercede, and to say she excels all the hosts of heaven, is to give her a place the apostles never gave her. Her only command in Scripture points away from herself: "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it" (John 2:5).

The long fasts

The churches keep many fasts every year, eating no animal food; the Coptic year has more fast days than feast days, and the Ethiopian has about 250.

Few Christians fast as much. Pope Shenouda defines a fast as going without food for a period, then eating food "free from animal fat." In Ethiopia that means no meat, milk, butter or eggs, and no food before noon. The Ethiopian church keeps about 250 fast days in the year, among them every Wednesday and Friday outside the fifty days after Easter, a Lent of fifty-five days, the Fast of Nineveh, the Fast of the Apostles, the Fast of the Prophets and the fifteen days before the Assumption. Not all are binding on everyone, and the average believer fasts about 180 days. Father Tadros Malaty says of the Coptic Church that "her fasting exceeds half of the year." Pope Shenouda defends the set fasts against the charge in Colossians 2. In his view Paul was speaking of the Jewish laws of clean and unclean, and the church does not abstain from meat as unclean.

Fasting is abstinence from food, and is observed by man at certain times determined by law, to attain forgiveness of sins and much reward, obeying thus the one who fixed the law.

There are approximately 250 fast days in the year, although not all of these are compulsory for everyone.

Fasting is abstinence from food, for a period, followed by eating food free from animal fat.

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall recompense thee.

And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances, Handle not, nor taste, nor touch (all which things are to perish with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Fasting is in the New Testament, and the Oriental Orthodox put most Christians to shame by doing it: Jesus said "when ye fast" (Matthew 6:16), not if, and the church at Antioch "fasted and prayed" (Acts 13:3) before sending out Barnabas and Saul. But Jesus taught a fast seen by "thy Father who is in secret" (Matthew 6:18), and the apostles set no calendar of fast days. Pope Shenouda answers that the church abstains as an ascetic practice, not from unclean food, yet the rules Paul rejects in Colossians are ascetic ones, "Handle not, nor taste, nor touch" (Colossians 2:21), with their show of "severity to the body" (Colossians 2:23), and he calls them "the precepts and doctrines of men" (Colossians 2:22). The Ethiopian law-book sets its fasts "to attain forgiveness of sins," but we have "the forgiveness of our trespasses" (Ephesians 1:7) through his blood. A fast kept freely and in secret is apostolic; a fast bound by law, for forgiveness and reward, is not.

Pope Shenouda's answer to Colossians 2:16: "The Apostle did not say: "Let no one judge you in fasts", but he said: "...let no one judge you in food or in drink." By this he meant the unclean foods forbidden to the Jews." The church, he says, abstains from meat "during fasts as an ascetic practice and not because they are unclean food." The Ethiopian worship page: "During fasting periods, Christians abstain from meat and all animal products: meat, milk, butter and eggs. No food or drink is taken before noon, at the earliest."

Monasticism

Christian monasticism was born in the Egyptian desert with St. Anthony and St. Pachomius; the monasteries still shape these churches, and Coptic bishops are chosen from the monks.

The Copts call St. Anthony (c. 251–356) "the father of all monks." Hearing the Gospel read in church, he gave away his wealth and went out to live alone in the desert, and others followed him. Pachomius gathered monks into communities under a rule, and his rules still regulate the monasteries of Ethiopia, which the Nine Saints founded in the fifth century after living in a Pachomian house in Egypt. Shenouda III was a monk of the Syrian Monastery in the Wadi El-Natrun before he became pope, and Coptic bishops are chosen from the monks. The Malankara Church stresses that married life and monastic life have equal worth.

St. Anthony the Great, the star of the wilderness, and the father of all monks

The Ascetic Rules of Pachomius, which still today regulate the monastic life of Ethiopia

Orthodox spirituality gives enough and equal space for family life and monastic life.

Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.

Have we no right to lead about a wife that is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

The desert fathers gave up much for Christ, and Paul himself counted the single life a gift: "each man hath his own gift from God" (1 Corinthians 7:7). But the New Testament knows no monks: Jesus prayed "not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15), and called his disciples "the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14), a light set on a stand, not hidden in the desert. The apostles had the right "to lead about a wife that is a believer" (1 Corinthians 9:5), and Paul required that a bishop be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2), so a rule that bishops must come from celibate monks turns that qualification upside down. A gift given to some is not a rank to be vowed, nor the door to the bishop's office.

Anthony's call came from a word Jesus spoke to one rich man. The apostles never made it a way of life for an order within the church, and no apostle lived it.

The Synaxarium is candid that "At that time, monasticism had not yet been established," and that Anthony, when he began, "dwelt alone, worshipping and living an ascetic life" on the outskirts of the city. The Ethiopian history says the Nine Saints "lived some years at the monastery founded by Pachomius, before proceeding to Ethiopia," where they went out "to introduce monastic institutions."

The Law's customs

Every Ethiopian church keeps a tabot, a consecrated likeness of the Ark of the Covenant, without which the liturgy cannot be served; Saturday is honored beside Sunday, and some customs of the Law of Moses are kept.

The Ethiopian church keeps more of the Old Testament's forms than any other. At the heart of every church, in the Holy of Holies where only priests and deacons go, rests the tabot, which stands for the Ark of the Covenant. The church holds that Menelik I, son of King Solomon, brought the Ark itself to Ethiopia. It is the bishop's blessing of the tabot that consecrates a church, and on feasts such as Epiphany it is carried out in procession while the people bow. Saturday, the Sabbath, is still kept as a holy day beside Sunday, though Sunday receives the greater honor. The church accepted the practice officially in the fifteenth century. Many Ethiopian Christians circumcise their sons and avoid the meats the Law calls unclean, but the church holds these to be customs of the culture, not religious duties. The Copts, for their part, baptize boys at forty days and girls at eighty, after the days of purification in Leviticus 12.

The sanctity of a church depends upon the presence of the Tabot and without it services cannot be held.

The Tabot represents the Ark of the Covenant, believed to have been brought to Ethiopia by Menelik I, the son of King Solomon.

The eighty days for the female child, and forty days for the male child is identified in the Book of Leviticus, Chapter Twelve.

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.

but now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.

In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away.

For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us:

The Ark, the Sabbath, the clean meats and the days of purification were the Law's shadows, "a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s" (Colossians 2:17). Christ "entered not into a holy place made with hands" (Hebrews 9:24), and the first covenant was "nigh unto vanishing away" (Hebrews 8:13), so the New Testament church had no ark and no inner room where only priests may enter. To make the holiness of a church and the validity of its worship depend on a copy of the Ark is to rebuild what Christ fulfilled. Paul feared for the Galatians because they "observe days, and months, and seasons, and years" (Galatians 4:10), and to fix the day of a child's baptism by Leviticus, as the Copts do, carries the Law into the gospel. The Ethiopian church says circumcision and the food laws are custom, not religion, and on its own word binds nothing there; but the tabot it does bind, and the Scripture is against it.

Bishop Mettaous does not treat the Coptic days as a custom: of the forty and eighty days he writes, "we must obey this commandment without argument or complaint." Paul asked those who kept such days, "how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments" (Galatians 4:9).

The Ethiopian worship page gives the Saturday practice in the past tense: "As in the rest of the Christian world Sunday is observed as a day of rest. In former times Saturday, the Biblical Sabbath, was also observed." Saturday's rest from work has faded, then, but outside accounts still describe Saturday as a holy day of worship beside Sunday. On circumcision, the Ethiopian liturgy itself says, as it is commonly quoted, "let us not be circumcised like the Jews."

The plumb line is the New Testament: what the apostles commanded, and what the churches practiced with their approval. Each position above is set against it, and the wall below shows how far each one stands from it. Choose a course to read the Scripture and the reason. An ancient church can show that its customs are old. Only the text can show whether they are apostolic.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written; that no one of you be puffed up for the one against the other.

I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book:

But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.

Inspired Scripture makes the man of God "complete, furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17), and the church is to learn "not to go beyond the things which are written" (1 Corinthians 4:6). The Ethiopian church says plainly that the word of God "is not contained in the Bible alone," and receives an unwritten tradition "with equal veneration." Its Bible adds Enoch, Jubilees and books of church order to the books the apostles and prophets wrote. The Coptic Church counts as Tradition things "that might not be included in the Holy Bible." Teaching that rests on men's tradition is what Jesus called worship "in vain" (Matthew 15:9). This course stands a little short of the furthest because the communion binds only three councils and no later dogma, and the Malankara Church at least confesses that no other writings "can have the same standing" as Scripture.

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But when they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.

Here the Oriental Orthodox say much that is true: baptism is a burial, "We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death" (Romans 6:4), and they immerse; it is "unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), and they say so. But in Acts those who believed were baptized, "both men and women" (Acts 8:12), and the command is "Repent ye, and be baptized" (Acts 2:38), which an infant of forty days can neither hear nor obey. A mother's "I believe" on her child's behalf stands in no verse. Nor does a child carry Adam's guilt to be washed away, for "the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father" (Ezekiel 18:20). The course stands a little short of the furthest because they immerse and tie baptism to remission as Peter did, but what they rightly teach of baptism they give to those who cannot yet obey.

Pope Shenouda read Mark 16:16 rightly: the Lord joined baptism to belief, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). The same verse puts belief first, and that is the one condition an infant cannot meet. The Ethiopian church argues from circumcision, which was given to infants, but in Christ the circumcision is one "not made with hands" (Colossians 2:11), and those buried with him in baptism are raised "through faith in the working of God" (Colossians 2:12).

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body.

but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

The Oriental Orthodox stand nearer the pattern here than Rome: the table is spread "upon the first day of the week" (Acts 20:7), every Lord's day, and no communicant is denied the cup. But Paul still calls what is eaten "this bread" (1 Corinthians 11:26) after the blessing, and the Supper is "in remembrance" (1 Corinthians 11:24) of a sacrifice finished, for Christ "offered one sacrifice for sins for ever" (Hebrews 10:12). To call it "a true sacrifice" offered "continuously, in every place on earth" adds to that one offering. Paul tells each one to "prove himself, and so let him eat" (1 Corinthians 11:28), and sets no nine-hour fast and no priest's leave. The course stands midway, held back from the far end by the day and the cup.

Infants, who cannot prove themselves, are communed. In Ethiopia, by the church's own account of 1970, the communicants were "usually babes-in-arms, infants and the very old," while most adults stayed away from the table they gather around each week. The Lord did not give the cup to be watched: "this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:25).

Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge; if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children that believe, who are not accused of riot or unruly. For the bishop must be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-willed, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre;

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

In the New Testament the elders and the bishops are one office, plural in each church: Paul told the elders of Ephesus that the Spirit "hath made you bishops" (Acts 20:28), and Titus was to "appoint elders in every city" (Titus 1:5) and then describe them as "the bishop" (Titus 1:7). Peter, "a fellow-elder" (1 Peter 5:1), charged elders to tend "the flock of God which is among you" (1 Peter 5:2). The Oriental Orthodox have one bishop over many congregations, a patriarch over the bishops, and a priesthood that alone may baptize and offer the sacrifice, and the text knows none of this. Scripture asks that a bishop be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2), yet the Coptic Church chooses its bishops from monks who may not marry. The course stands a little short of the furthest because no one bishop rules the whole communion, married men serve as priests, and the Malankara Church still names its priests elders.

And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

There is "one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5), and when John fell before an angel he was told, "See thou do it not … worship God" (Revelation 19:10). The Oriental Orthodox ask Mary, the angels and the saints to intercede in every service and venerate relics and icons, which no apostle taught, and Pope Shenouda's line between addressing the Virgin and praying to her is one the text never draws. The New Testament church sang, "singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19), and much of this worship is still the human voice. But the Copts add cymbals and triangle to the hymns, and the Ethiopian cantors sing in the church to drums and sistra. A communion that sang by the voice alone would earn credit here; that credit does not hold for the two largest churches in it, and this course stands level with the Eastern Orthodox.

Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,

Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.

The promise is joined to baptism: those who repent and are baptized "shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). The Oriental Orthodox keep that bond, and Pope Shenouda was right that not all "speak with tongues" (1 Corinthians 12:30) and that holiness does not hang on it. But Scripture gives the Spirit in baptism with no anointing of oil, and the gifts that came "through the laying on of the apostles’ hands" (Acts 8:18) came through apostles, not through an oil made to stand in for their hands. The Coptic account of the Myron's origin is a later story, not the faith "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3), and infants who have not repented are anointed with it. The course sits where the Eastern Orthodox and Rome sit, short of the furthest because the gift is kept with baptism and not split off into a later rite.

And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment;

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things: but now here he is comforted, and thou art in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us.

For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

The Oriental Orthodox keep what Scripture plainly teaches of the end: Christ's return, the resurrection of the body, the judgment of the living and the dead. None of the six has defined a purgatory, and the Coptic synod even struck out a prayer for those in Hades, holding that they cannot be saved, as the rich man learned: "there is a great gulf fixed" (Luke 16:26); that sets this course a step nearer the line than Rome's. But men die once, "and after this cometh judgment" (Hebrews 9:27), and each receives "the things done in the body" (2 Corinthians 5:10), not things the living do for him afterward. The blood of Jesus "cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7) and leaves no small debts for the church's prayers to settle. To pray at every liturgy that God forgive the departed what they did not confess has no place in the text, so the course stands midway.

Much that the Oriental Orthodox confess, Scripture also teaches, and it should be said plainly. They confess one God in three persons, and Christ truly God and truly man, one Lord, born of a virgin, crucified, risen and coming again to judge the world. They hold Scripture to be inspired by God. They baptize by immersion, three times. They teach that baptism is "unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), that the Lord joined baptism to belief, and that a Christian can fall away. They meet every Lord's day, give the cup to everyone who communes, and much of their worship is sung by the voice. No one of their bishops rules the rest, they receive no council after Ephesus, and they have defined no purgatory. They fast and pray with a seriousness few Christians match. Through fifteen centuries under Persian, Arab, Ottoman and modern rulers, they have kept the faith in Christ at the cost of their blood.

Measured by the New Testament alone, the Oriental Orthodox churches stand far from the pattern, nearer than Rome on some courses, level with the Eastern Orthodox on most. Their rule of faith receives an unwritten tradition with the written word, and in Ethiopia a larger Bible than the apostles left. Their baptism, though a true burial in water, is given to infants who cannot believe. Their Supper is a sacrifice whose bread is held to be bread no longer. Their government is patriarchs and bishops over priests, where the apostles left elders in every church. Their prayers call on Mary and the saints, and are offered for the dead. In Ethiopia the worship of the church is bound to a copy of the Ark.

They stopped at three councils, and that refusal kept them from much that Rome and Constantinople went on to define. But they did not stop at the apostles. The single bishop, the sacrifice, the infant font and the invocation of the saints were already there in 451, and they kept them all. Age is not the test. A teaching is apostolic only if the apostles taught it, and the text that holds their teaching is closed: "the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3).

None of this is contempt for them. These churches have suffered for Christ as few have, from Dioscorus in exile to the martyrs of 1915 and of our own day. The answer to them is not to doubt that faith but to bring it to the Scriptures alone, and do what the converts in Acts did: believe, repent, confess Jesus as Lord, and be buried with him in baptism for the remission of sins. Then worship as the churches of the New Testament did, under their own elders, at the Lord's table on the first day of every week.

More illuminations · Harbinger's Lamp