How many oriental orthodox

Christians For a Better Christianity. From time to time you will also receive Special Offers from our partners that help us make this content free for you. You can opt out of these offers at any time. Guest Contributor. Randy Alcorn. New Visions. Tom Rapsas. How Awake Are We? When Waking Up is Falling Asleep. Daniel Thomas Dyer. Influenced by a long tradition of monastic spirituality, this church has produced considerable religious literature and has its own iconographic tradition.

It is now gradually moving beyond age-old social and economic structures to meet contemporary challenges. The Eritrean Orthodox Church is also an autocephalous church, with a direct relationship to the Coptic Orthodox Church. Its first patriarch, Philipos I, was consecrated in The Indian church, now divided into Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox families, has suffered from Western colonial missions.

The church came into contact with the Syrian patriarchate of Antioch in and thus inherited the west Syrian liturgical and spiritual tradition. The Orthodox church in India declared itself autocephalous in , though conflicts with the Syrian patriarchate continue.

With two theological colleges, Kottayam and Nagapur, a mission training centre and many educational and charitable institutions, the church is fully involved in the life of the country.

Besides the catholicos residing at Kottayam, Kerala, the church has 17 bishops and more than parishes. Samuel of the Malankara Church have done signal service for the ecumenical movement; Vasken, former catholicos of All Armenia, has hosted a number of ecumenical meetings in Holy Etchmiadzin. Breadcrumb Home item 2. The Oriental Orthodox churches came to a parting of the ways with the remainder of Christianity in the 5th century.

The separation resulted in part from the Oriental Orthodox churches' refusal to accept the Christological dogmas promulgated by the Council of Chalcedon , which held that Jesus Christ is in two natures — one divine and one human, although these were inseparable.

To the hierarchs who would lead the Oriental Orthodox, this was tantamount to accepting Nestorianism. The Oriental Orthodox churches are therefore often called " Monophysite " churches, although they reject this label, which is associated with Eutychian Monophysitism , preferring the term non-Chalcedonian or Miaphysite churches.

Oriental Orthodox Christians anathematize the Monophysite teachings of Eutyches. They are sometimes also known as anti-Chalcedonians.

In the 20th century, a number of dialogues have occurred between the Oriental Orthodox and the Chalcedonian Orthodox which revealed that both communions now share a common Christology with differing terminology. As yet, full communion has not been restored. There have also been some agreed Christological statements issued in conjunction with the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Chalcedonian family Ecumenical Patriarchate and official representatives of other Eastern Orthodox Churches [1].