The main stimulus for this post was when I saw the statement by certain bishops and priests in Greece who opposes the ecumenism between Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox churches,especially an article favoring this effort by Fr. John Behr, Dean of St. Vladimir's Seminary. They accuse that we only keep the name of orthodox and we are not actually orthodox and we should accept our folly and accept the Chalcedonian Creed which is the actual orthodoxy. (See the link: http://orthodoxinfo.com/
Oriental Orthodox Communion has the least following compared to other two Apostolic Church Communions namely Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. Since we are "supposed to have come out of the main church communion" early in the Church history, we are accused of not being orthodox and the name "orthodox" is misnomer for us. But the fact is that our church fathers decided to come out because they felt that the church was not following the true faith (orthodoxy). This is my humble attempt to put forward a case for oriental orthodoxy.
We believe that our churches were established by Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ who having received Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost at the Upper Room went to different parts of the world. Hence we have continuous connection with teachings of Jesus Christ and his apostles and we give great importance to the traditions that Apostles passed on to the early church. We follow the hierarchical system of church organization that existed since early church, with church divided into dioceses under bishops and all the bishops come under a single Patriarch / Catholicose. Respective Primate with Episcopal Synod have the sole authority in the internal affairs of individual churches. We follow the same church canon that was prevalent in the early church. In the Oriental Orthodox Communion, all the individual heads of churches have equal status. We reject the doctrine of Petrine Primacy. We believe that Rome only had a status of "first among the equals" when Patriarchs of all major sees came together in a synod, but all the Patriarchs including Pope were equals. All the apostles were given the same right as St. Peter to preach the gospel in different parts of the world. They went to different regions, preached the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, converted the Gentiles and formed new churches. Thus church in Alexandria was started by St. Mark the Evangelist, church in Antioch and Rome was started by St. Peter, church in Armenia was started by St. Bartholomew and St. Thaddeus, church in Persia and India was started by St. Thomas.
We believe in the Trinitarian doctrine about God accepted at the councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) which affirmed faith in one God the Father, His only begotten Son, begotten of Father before all worlds and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father, both of whom are coeternal and consubstantial (homoousion) or share same substance with the Thus, Father. Father, Son and Holy Spirit represents three hypostases within one Godhead, with the Son eternally begotten of Father and Holy Spirit eternally proceeding from Father. Our holy fathers, St. Alexander of Alexandria and St. Athanasius of Alexandria vehemently championed and defended this doctrine at the Council of Nicaea and afterwards when Church came under Arian heresy till AD 379.
Next we believe in the Miaphysite doctrine about one incarnational nature of our Lord Jesus Christ put forward by our venerated father, Cyril of Alexandria in the third council at Ephesus (431). We believe that when Word the God became flesh through Holy Spirit and Holy Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, divine nature of the Word hypostatically united with human nature at the time of incarnation to become one nature which is fully human and fully divine without change, confusion or seperation. Hence Jesus Christ had only one (theo-anthropic) nature and it is wrong to divide the natures of Christ. We know that when sugar is mixed with water it is impossible to differentiate which is which but we know both sugar and water are present in the same quantity without change in it, but it has become a single homogeneous sugar solution. Just like that any attempt to see Jesus Christ's nature into individual natures is impossible and wrong. But we know that he is fully divine so as to have same divine nature with Father and Holy Spirit and fully human in that he lived just like us and suffered like us. Since He is fully divine, it is perfectly justified to call Holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Just as the three hypostases of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit remain together in one Godhead to have a single divine nature, two natures in Christ remain together in Him to have a single nature of Word the God. How it can remain single nature and at same time fully human and fully divine is a mystery that cannot be explained by human comprehension and we should not try to attempt it. We are accused of being monophysites but our view is that our position is that of "miaphysitism" and we reject the monophysite doctrine proposed by Eutyches in 449 AD when he said that human nature was taken in by divine nature thereby again rejecting the full humanity of Lord Jesus Christ. We also reject the heresy of Apollinarius of Laodicea when he said that Lord Jesus Christ has Divine Word replaced as his soul and a human body whereby he rejects the human will and rational soul for Jesus Christ essential for full humanity. We believe that Jesus is fully human in the sense that he has a human will and rational soul and he is fully divine in that he was Word, the God incarnate. But we believe that we are supposed to say that He has One Incarnate nature following His incarnation.
Hence we feel that by accepting Pope Leo's Tome at Council of Chalcedon (451), church was almost going back to the same heresy for which Nestorius had been excommunicated at Council of Ephesus (431). We are of the view that church needn't have had to explain the nature of Christ from what St. Cyril had already done. Venerable Patriarch St. Dioscorus and all the followers of Miaphysite doctrine in the Oriental Orthodox communion could not even think of accepting any doctrine that would divide One Christ whether be it in nature or person and invite the anathema pronounced by St. Cyril upon themselves. Hence we acknowledge only first three synods held at Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381) and Ephesus (431).
We believe that we human beings cannot fully comprehend the mysteries of God. We can only marvel at whatever we know and whatever we don't know. We cannot fully comprehend the mystery of Holy Trinity. We cannot fully comprehend the mystery of the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot fully comprehend how the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus Christ during our Eucharist service. Any attempt to do it stand the risk of falling into heresy and blasphemy. We rather refrain from it and fully believe in what we know and praise and thank the Lord for the wonderful blessings He showers on us and making us worthy of partaking of His Holy Mysteries.
We follow the seven major sacraments right from the early church (Eucharist, Baptism, Confession, Chrismation, Matrimony, Unction and Ordination). We follow the same Eucharistic service that was prevalent in the church since fourth century AD which in itself was the modification of eucharistic service in the early church. For example, Coptic Orthodox Church follows the Liturgy of St. Mark the Evangelist, Syriac Orthodox Church and Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church follows Liturgy of St. James of Jerusalem. We use leavened bread for Eucharist. We have seven canonical hours of prayers and our prayers are always addressed to the Trinity. We commemorate our holy church fathers who handed us the true faith in our prayers and also during their feast days. Fasting has important role in our church. We have five major canonical lents, Great Lent, Lent of Advent, Apostle's Lent and Lent of Dormition of Theotokos, In addition, we fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. During these fasts, we follow strict vegan diet.
If we are still being accused of being not orthodox, only resort for us is to say, "Peace be with you" and move on.
Side Note:
Currently Oriental Orthodox communion has the following churches in their communion:
1. Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria
2. Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch
3. Armenian Apostolic Church
4. Malankara (Indian) Orthodox Syrian Church
5. Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
6. Eitrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Oriental Orthodox Communion has the least following compared to other two Apostolic Church Communions namely Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. Since we are "supposed to have come out of the main church communion" early in the Church history, we are accused of not being orthodox and the name "orthodox" is misnomer for us. But the fact is that our church fathers decided to come out because they felt that the church was not following the true faith (orthodoxy). This is my humble attempt to put forward a case for oriental orthodoxy.
We believe that our churches were established by Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ who having received Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost at the Upper Room went to different parts of the world. Hence we have continuous connection with teachings of Jesus Christ and his apostles and we give great importance to the traditions that Apostles passed on to the early church. We follow the hierarchical system of church organization that existed since early church, with church divided into dioceses under bishops and all the bishops come under a single Patriarch / Catholicose. Respective Primate with Episcopal Synod have the sole authority in the internal affairs of individual churches. We follow the same church canon that was prevalent in the early church. In the Oriental Orthodox Communion, all the individual heads of churches have equal status. We reject the doctrine of Petrine Primacy. We believe that Rome only had a status of "first among the equals" when Patriarchs of all major sees came together in a synod, but all the Patriarchs including Pope were equals. All the apostles were given the same right as St. Peter to preach the gospel in different parts of the world. They went to different regions, preached the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, converted the Gentiles and formed new churches. Thus church in Alexandria was started by St. Mark the Evangelist, church in Antioch and Rome was started by St. Peter, church in Armenia was started by St. Bartholomew and St. Thaddeus, church in Persia and India was started by St. Thomas.
We believe in the Trinitarian doctrine about God accepted at the councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) which affirmed faith in one God the Father, His only begotten Son, begotten of Father before all worlds and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father, both of whom are coeternal and consubstantial (homoousion) or share same substance with the Thus, Father. Father, Son and Holy Spirit represents three hypostases within one Godhead, with the Son eternally begotten of Father and Holy Spirit eternally proceeding from Father. Our holy fathers, St. Alexander of Alexandria and St. Athanasius of Alexandria vehemently championed and defended this doctrine at the Council of Nicaea and afterwards when Church came under Arian heresy till AD 379.
Next we believe in the Miaphysite doctrine about one incarnational nature of our Lord Jesus Christ put forward by our venerated father, Cyril of Alexandria in the third council at Ephesus (431). We believe that when Word the God became flesh through Holy Spirit and Holy Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, divine nature of the Word hypostatically united with human nature at the time of incarnation to become one nature which is fully human and fully divine without change, confusion or seperation. Hence Jesus Christ had only one (theo-anthropic) nature and it is wrong to divide the natures of Christ. We know that when sugar is mixed with water it is impossible to differentiate which is which but we know both sugar and water are present in the same quantity without change in it, but it has become a single homogeneous sugar solution. Just like that any attempt to see Jesus Christ's nature into individual natures is impossible and wrong. But we know that he is fully divine so as to have same divine nature with Father and Holy Spirit and fully human in that he lived just like us and suffered like us. Since He is fully divine, it is perfectly justified to call Holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Just as the three hypostases of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit remain together in one Godhead to have a single divine nature, two natures in Christ remain together in Him to have a single nature of Word the God. How it can remain single nature and at same time fully human and fully divine is a mystery that cannot be explained by human comprehension and we should not try to attempt it. We are accused of being monophysites but our view is that our position is that of "miaphysitism" and we reject the monophysite doctrine proposed by Eutyches in 449 AD when he said that human nature was taken in by divine nature thereby again rejecting the full humanity of Lord Jesus Christ. We also reject the heresy of Apollinarius of Laodicea when he said that Lord Jesus Christ has Divine Word replaced as his soul and a human body whereby he rejects the human will and rational soul for Jesus Christ essential for full humanity. We believe that Jesus is fully human in the sense that he has a human will and rational soul and he is fully divine in that he was Word, the God incarnate. But we believe that we are supposed to say that He has One Incarnate nature following His incarnation.
We believe that we human beings cannot fully comprehend the mysteries of God. We can only marvel at whatever we know and whatever we don't know. We cannot fully comprehend the mystery of Holy Trinity. We cannot fully comprehend the mystery of the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot fully comprehend how the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus Christ during our Eucharist service. Any attempt to do it stand the risk of falling into heresy and blasphemy. We rather refrain from it and fully believe in what we know and praise and thank the Lord for the wonderful blessings He showers on us and making us worthy of partaking of His Holy Mysteries.
We follow the seven major sacraments right from the early church (Eucharist, Baptism, Confession, Chrismation, Matrimony, Unction and Ordination). We follow the same Eucharistic service that was prevalent in the church since fourth century AD which in itself was the modification of eucharistic service in the early church. For example, Coptic Orthodox Church follows the Liturgy of St. Mark the Evangelist, Syriac Orthodox Church and Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church follows Liturgy of St. James of Jerusalem. We use leavened bread for Eucharist. We have seven canonical hours of prayers and our prayers are always addressed to the Trinity. We commemorate our holy church fathers who handed us the true faith in our prayers and also during their feast days. Fasting has important role in our church. We have five major canonical lents, Great Lent, Lent of Advent, Apostle's Lent and Lent of Dormition of Theotokos, In addition, we fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. During these fasts, we follow strict vegan diet.
If we are still being accused of being not orthodox, only resort for us is to say, "Peace be with you" and move on.
Side Note:
Currently Oriental Orthodox communion has the following churches in their communion:
1. Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria
2. Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch
3. Armenian Apostolic Church
4. Malankara (Indian) Orthodox Syrian Church
5. Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
6. Eitrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church
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