Eastern Christianity - Oriental Orthodox Churches

Oriental Orthodox Churches

Oriental Orthodoxy refers to the churches of Eastern Christian tradition that keep the faith of the first three Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church: the First Council of Nicaea (AD 325), the First Council of Constantinople (381) and the Council of Ephesus (431), and rejected the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon (451). Hence, these churches are also called Old Oriental Churches.

Oriental Orthodoxy developed in reaction to Chalcedon on the eastern limit of the Byzantine Empire and in Egypt and Syria. In those locations, there are now also Orthodox Patriarchs, but the rivalry between the two has largely vanished in the centuries since schism.

The following Oriental Orthodox churches are autocephalous and in full communion:

  • Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church
  • Syriac Orthodox Church
    • Jacobite Syrian Church
  • Indian Orthodox Church
  • Coptic Orthodox Church
    • British Orthodox Church
    • French Coptic Orthodox Church
  • Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
  • Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church

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    The churches ... have lost much of their authority over youth because they have refused to re-examine their religious sanctions and their dogmatic preaching in the light of modern physiology, psychology and sociology.
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