by Jeremy C Bradley, Demand Media

Eastern Christianity is a broad term that encompasses the Christian traditions found in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, Africa, the Middle East and parts of the Far East. All Christian traditions that did not develop in Western Europe are thus considered to be part of Eastern Christianity, however the term does not denote any single tradition or church. Two of the largest Eastern Christian sects are the Oriental Orthodoxy and the Eastern Orthodox Church. While sharing some beliefs, these two churches disagree on fundamental issues of theology.

Nomenclature

In the West, the term "oriental" is often used as a synonym for "eastern." When it comes to religious traditions, however, the two words denote different churches.

Oriental Orthodox churches are distinct from those referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Oriental Orthodox can be further subdivided into five organizations:

Coptic Orthodox,
Ethiopian Orthodox,
Syriac Orthodox,
Eritrean Orthodox, and
Armenian Orthodox

These branches are in communion with one another but have distinct hierarchies.

Points of Departure

Oriental Orthodoxy and Eastern Orthodox Churches disagree on which of the ecumenical councils they recognize. The ecumenical councils were a series of conferences where church leaders and theologists would meet to discuss and settle important matters of Church doctrine. The first seven ecumenical councils date from 325 to 787 and were an attempt to reach a consensus on the establishment of a unified Church throughout the Roman Empire.

Oriental Orthodox churches recognize only the first three ecumenical councils --

the First Council of Nicaea,
the First Council of Constantinople and
the First Council of Ephesus.

They rejected the decisions made at the Council of Chalcedon which followed in 451, so they are sometimes called Old Oriental Churches or Non-Chalcedonians.

The Eastern Orthodox Church -- sometimes called the Orthodox Catholic Church --, on the other hand, considers all seven councils to be important and is therefore not in communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches. Some dialogue, however, has been had between the two branches within the last 50 years.

Christological Terminology

The rift between the Oriental Orthodox churches and the remainder of the Eastern Christian sects, including the Eastern Orthodox Church, was caused by disagreement over Christological terminology, or terms relating to the church's definition of who Christ is.

The First Council of Nicaea in 325 declared Jesus to be "consubstantial" with God, or that they are actually one and the same.

The Council of Constantinople in 381 further solidified and reinforced this belief.

In 431, the First Council of Ephesus held that Jesus, while both divine and human, is only one being or person.

Both the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox accept these three councils.

Twenty years later, however, the Council of Chalcedon declared that Jesus is one person in two complete natures, one divine and the other human. The Oriental Orthodox churches considered this to be heresy and likened it to the beliefs of Nestoria, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428 to 431, who said that Christ was two distinct beings, one divine (the Logos) and one human (the man Jesus).

Further Implications

While the terminology caused the main point of contention, the refusal of the Oriental Orthodox churches to accept the declarations at Chalcedon was coupled with political and imperial issues. The patriarchs of Constantinople, for instance, remained in communication with church leaders from Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem even though they disagreed on church doctrine. On the flip side, Rome pulled away from ties with the Eastern churches.

These religious differences were thus also fueled by political territories. Later, in 1518, the Byzantine Emperor Justin I convinced the Western Roman Empire to adopt the Chalcedon decision which led to a communion between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Holy See which exists until this day, although they too are distinct Christian entities.

References

The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787) -- Their History and Theology; Leo Donald Davis

The Pluralism Project: An Introduction to the Oriental Orthodox Churches

Catholic Library: The 21 Ecumenical Councils

Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope St. Hormisdas

Resources

Peninsula Bible Church Cupertino: The Seven Ecumenical Councils

About the Author

H.H. Pope Tawadros II, Pope and Lord Archbishop of the Great City of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark

His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope and Lord Archbishop of the Great City of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark

Patriarchate:

Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt

History in Brief:

The Coptic Orthodox Church was established through the preaching of its first pope, St. Mark the Evangelist, who entered Egypt some time around the year AD 43. St. Mark’s first proselyte was a cobbler named Anianus, who later succeeded him as Pope and Archbishop of Alexandria. Among his other labors in Egypt, accomplished before his martyrdom in the year AD 68, St. Mark established the great Catechetical School of Alexandria, which would lead to the Coptic Orthodox Church becoming a great pillar of erudition and theology in the Christian world, blessing Christendom with such champions of the Orthodox Faith as St. Athanasius I (ca. AD 296-373) and St. Kyrillos I (ca. AD 376-444), the heroes of the Ecumenical Synods of Nicaea (AD 325) and Ephesus (AD 431) respectively.

Another gift of Alexandria to the universal Church was the origination and development of Christian monasticism, which spread from the deserts of Egypt to the steppes of Russia, the islands of Greece, the caves of Palestine, the wastes of Ireland, and the mountain fastnesses of Ethiopia, among other places. St. Anthony the Great (ca. AD 295-373) is credited with establishing the movement, while St. Pachomius (d. 346) pioneered the cenobitic system in the year AD 290.

H.H. Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and all the East

His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II
Patriarch of Antioch and all the East
Primate of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church

Patriarchate:

H.H. Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians

His Holiness Karekin II,
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians

Patriarchate:

Holy Etchmiadzin, Armenia

Catholicos of Cilicia:

H.H. Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia

Headquarters of the Great House of Cilicia:

H.H. Abune Mathias I, Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, Ichege of the See of St. Tekla Haymanot, and Archbishop of Axum

His Holiness Abune Mathias I, Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, Ichege of the See of Saint Tekla Haymanot, and Archbishop of Axum

Patriarchate:

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

History in Brief:

The origins of Ethiopian Christianity can be traced to the time of Empress Gersamot Hendeke VII (r. ca. AD 42-52). As recorded in the Book of Acts 8:26-39 an Ethiopian treasurer, a government minister in the employ of this monarch, was traveling in Palestine on a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem when he accepted baptism at the hands of St. Philip the Evangelist. This man later returned to his homeland where he won other converts for the Orthodox Christian Faith.

Christianity was enshrined as the national religion in the year AD 328, during the reign of Emperor Ezana (AD 320-356), making Ethiopia the second nation in the world (after Armenia) to declare the Orthodox Faith its official religion of state. It was during Ezana’s reign that St. Frumentius, a Syrian from Tyre, was consecrated as the first Bishop of Axum (capital of the ancient Axumite Empire) by St. Athanasius of Alexandria himself. St. Frumentius is revered in Ethiopia as the “Father of Peace” (Abba Selama) and “Revealer of Light” (Kesate Berhan).

Orthodoxy was later reinforced in the land through the missionary labors of the Nine Saints, Miaphysite clerics who came to Ethiopia from various parts of the Roman Empire during the fifth century, fleeing the persecution of that land’s Diophysite Emperor and Church. During this same period, St. Yared (AD 505-571), the great Ethiopian hymnographer, composed a prolific body of work which continues to characterize Ethiopian ecclesiastical music until this very day.

H.H. Abune Antonious I, Patriarch of Asmara and all Eritrea

His Holiness Abune Antonios I,
Patriarch of Asmara and all Eritrea

Patriarchate:

Asmara, Eritrea

History in Brief:

Once a diocese of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church became a fully independent and autocephalous entity only in 1994. Nevertheless, the history of Christianity in the region dates back to the Apostolic Era. Yemeni and Syrian Christians settled in the port cities of Adulis (near Massawa) and Avalites (Assab) along the Red Sea in the first century, making converts among the locals. In the centuries that followed, churches were built and the Gospel was preached throughout the highlands, particularly in Akeleguzai, Hamasien, and Serae.

Christianity became the official religion of the Axumite Empire (an ancient kingdom which encompassed parts of modern Ethiopia and Eritrea) during the reign of Emperor Ezana (AD 320-356). It was during Ezana’s reign that St. Frumentius, a Syrian from Tyre, was consecrated as the first Bishop of Axum by St. Athanasius of Alexandria himself. St. Frumentius is revered in Eritrea and Ethiopia as the “Father of Peace” (Abba Selama) and “Revealer of Light” (Kesate Berhan).

Within our Oriental Orthodox Family, just in the past century, we have witnessed, the martyrdom of over 1.5 million Armenia Orthodox Christians between 1914 and 1918. We have also witnessed the martyrdom of Bishop Petros and Patriarch Theophlos of Ethiopia who offered their lives during the Italian occupation and the communist regime respectively. We have witnessed periodic persecution of Copts including the burning of at least 30 churches within 24 hours in 2013 and the slaughter of the 21 martyrs in Libya. History will also never forget with what rigor and sacrifice our Indian brethren retained their Orthodoxy during colonialism.

The magnitude of persecution the Syrian Orthodox Church is enduring parallels that of the early Christians. In Iraq and Syria, even children are being martyred, boldly refusing to deny their Orthodoxy. The Eritrean Orthodox Church, although recently autocephalous, is offering many martyrs and confessors including the Patriarch, H.H. Abouna Antonios, who has been under house arrest since 2006.

It is truly an awesome time to witness what we read in our Synaxariums during our own lifetime.

It is with the martyrs in mind, that we welcome you with great joy to the first ever concelebrating of the Divine Liturgy in the Midwest among the local Oriental Orthodox Churches. We gather under the banner of Orthodoxy to raise our voices humbly, on behalf of our persecuted brethren in Syria and Eritrea. We will also commemorate the many martyrs of the Armenia Orthodox Church during World War I.

Most importantly, we are gathering to ask for the intercessions of our new martyrs and confessors. After all, it is us who need their prayers and not the other way. It is them who has “...come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelations 7:14)

In January 2005, the Patriarch was stripped of all his administrative authority. In January 2006, he was put under strict house arrest, where he remains to this day. In the immediate aftermath of His Holiness’ arrest, sixty priests from around Asmara, the capital city were forced out of the church for being suspected of sympathetic to the Pontiff. Many of them were arrested. Ensuing the arrest of the Patriarch the government unleashed a three-pronged attack on the Eritrea Orthodox Church, namely:

1. Appointing a lay administrators and a puppet patriarch to implement the governments anti-church policies

2. Ordering clergies to indefinitely serve in the military, from which the church had been historically enjoyed exemption. This has wreaked havoc in the Church as many parishes and monasteries are being closed for lack of clergies. Hundreds of other priests chose to flee the country and become refugees than serving in the military.

3. Intimidating Orthodox churches in Diaspora and creating parallel uncanonical churches.

Many denounced the action of the government and chose to suffer with their Patriarch rather than compromise their faith. Prominent monastics and scholars, such as Abba Melka Tsadik, Abba Haile Michael, Abba Tekle Haimanot, Merigeta Yetbarek, Abba Amha and his disciples, among whom Deacon Tewodros are only a handful of the multitudes that have been thrown into prisons incommunicado.

Others have chosen to perfect their faith by shading their blood as martyrs. In December 2005, Deacon Hagos, a student in Debre-Merkorios Monastery, was shot dead by soldiers who raided the monastery. This of course is just only one of numerous examples.

More recently, on October 1, 2014, the abbots of Kidus Yohannes, Debre Bizen, Gedam Tsaeda Amba Sellassie, Debre Sina, Debre Tsege Sef’a and Debre Libanos convened a council and excommunicated two individuals, Yof¬tahe Dimet¬ros, the lay government-appointed “General Administrator of the Orthodox Church” and priest Habtom Russom, who have been persecuting the Orthodox Church. Following this bold step, ten monks from the monasteries of Abune Seyfe Michael, Abune Libanos, Abune Abranious, Abune Buruk, and Abune Yonas fled the country, as they were wanted by the government.

In the North Korea of Africa, which is the country Eritrea, information comes in a trickle. The actual level of atrocity that has befallen the Orthodox Church and the population at large is not well documented. As in other eras of persecution in history, this one will give way to resurgence of the Church and many relics will be exhumed and the confessors will share their struggle.

In their brutality, the Ottoman Turks set the tone for the 20th century: a dreadful tone, which would be heard again in the Nazi death camps, in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in Rwanda and Darfur. And it echoes ominously in our own time, in desperate places where “ethnic cleansing” has become a policy of state, instead of a crime before man and God.

The dark episode that came to be known as the Armenian Genocide continued until 1923, and it shocked world opinion of the time. The Turkish atrocities committed against men, women and children of Armenian descent were extensively documented, in eyewitness accounts, in the official archives of the governments of the United States, Great Britain, France, Austria and Germany, and in the world press. The New York Times published over 194 news articles—including the first-hand accounts of American and European diplomats, survivors of the massacres, and other witnesses—on the plight of the Armenian people.

And yet—incredibly—100 years later, the Turkish government is still denying that the Armenian Genocide ever took place. The arguments and tactics they employ in their campaign of denial are disingenuous and intellectually bankrupt; but they are sadly familiar to the serious scholars and historians who, in recent years, have had to wage a battle against deniers of the Holocaust, the Soviet Terror, and other episodes of institutionalized inhumanity.

For those Armenian-Americans who survived the Genocide and found haven in this country, April 24 remains a day of remembrance—of lost loved ones, uprooted lives, and a vicious crime against an entire people. But it is also a day of reflection on the sanctity of life, the blessing of survival, and the obligation we owe to our fellow human beings not to forsake them in their hour of desperation.

The genocide occurred in the modern territory of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. The victims were predominately large communities located in the lands near Hakkari Mountains of province of Van, such as the provinces of Diarbekir, Erzerum, Kharberd and Bitlis, also the regions of Urmia in Iran, Mosul - in Iraq, and the north - western regions of Syria.

H.H. Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, opening the year of the centennial commemoration of Sayfo in Damascus, Syria on January 11, 2015 explained that the name Sayfo comes from the Syriac word 'Sayfo' which means 'Sword' and reflects the horrible way with which our people were put to death. He illustrated this with the example of a mother whose legs and arms were amputated and she was forced to feed her baby holding him with her teeth.

As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Sayfo and Armenian genocide in 2015, sadly the persecution of Christians in the cradle of Christianity continues.

The Patriarch Aprem II explains: "One hundred years after Sayfo, we are confronting a new genocide. New persecutors have emerged and are killing all those who refuse injustice or to change their religion. It seems they are trying to accomplish what was not completed a hundred years ago. Their tools may have changed a little, but the goal is one, to kill those who refuse to be deprived of their liberties."

Newsweek reported that, as many as 4 million Syrian refugees of all religious backgrounds have fled to neighboring countries of which 700,000 were Syrian Christians. More than 200,000 people have died in Syria's four years of civil war.

In Syria, Christian holy places are being erased from the face of the Earth. Over 60 churches and monasteries have already been destroyed, many of which had a history of almost two thousand years and had been unique monuments of world culture. The unparalleled brutality and violence against Christian communities include crucifixion, beheading, torture and rape.

In Syria, much of the ancient town of Maaloula still lies in ruins after months of fierce fighting in 2013. The Syrian city of Homs, the third in the country in terms of population, has almost completely lost its Christian population. Thousands have been killed and about a million have fled. The situation is similar in Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Latakia and other cities. In March 33 Islamic State attacked Khabour River villages in Syria of Christians. The 5,000 defenseless residents were driven into exile, abducted, or killed.

Boulos Yazigi, Archbishop of Greek Orthodox Church, and Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, Archbishop of Syriac Orthodox Church in Aleppo, were abdicated in Syria in April 2013. They were on a humanitarian mission to secure the release of two priests who had themselves been kidnapped two months earlier. Their driver was murdered in the attack. To-date no one knows what happened to them or whether they are still alive.

The situation in Iraq is even worse. It is estimated that in 1990, there were between 1.2 and 1.4 million Christians in Iraq. Today, fewer than 500,000 remain. More than 125,000 Christians have been forced from their homes over the last 10 months alone. In four to five years, many experts feel that very few Christians will be left in Iraq.

In February 2008, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Mar Paulus Faraj Rahho, was abducted and killed. Other priests and religious figures have also been murdered or kidnapped.

In Nineveh Plains in Iraq, the fourth Century monastery of St Matthew had 7,000 monks worshipping there during the times of the Roman Empire. Now there are only six monks remaining in the monastery. Valuable manuscripts, some dating to first century AD, were destroyed or lost. ISIS militants have also destroyed a mosque that was the burial site of the prophet Jonah.

The attacks on Christians are not confined to Iraq and Syria, it is spreading to the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. From church burnings in Egypt to pastors sentenced to death in Iran, attacks against Christians and other religious minorities are escalating across the Islamic Middle East. Christians are being persecuted for their religion in numbers exceeding those martyred during the Roman Empire.

LL HH Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Patriarch of Antioch and East, Syriac Orthodox Church, expressed the agony and pain experienced by Christians in Iraq and Syria the best:

"We are unable to express the pain in our heart for the innocent victims of terrorism and violence. Pray with humility and confidence that they may find solace in the Living Lord. Also beseech the intercession of all the martyrs and saints especially our Holy mother, who is ever-virgin, pure and spotless.”