New to Oriental Orthodoxy

[Joshua83]

Hi all...I know that even though I am have the Oriental Orthodox icon thing for my congregation/denomination for when I post here on CF, I am still fairly new and very interested in Oriental Orthodoxy. I was wondering if anybody here can fill me in on what it's about and and tell me all I probably should know and anything else really. Like the doctrines, dogmas, traditions, and so on...

[copticorthodoxy]

Hi all...I know that even though I am have the Oriental Orthodox icon thing for my congregation/denomination for when I post here on CF, I am still fairly new and very interested in Oriental Orthodoxy. I was wondering if anybody here can fill me in on what it's about and and tell me all I probably should know and anything else really. Like the doctrines, dogmas, traditions, and so on...

The Oriental Orthodox Churches are " The Church of Alexandria - the Coptic Orthodox Church , The Antioch Church of Syria , The Armenian Orthodox church , The Ethiopean Orthodox church , The Eritrean Orthodox church , the Indian Orthodox churche" all of them are in full communion with each others .

Which of them you want to belong to ?? you should be baptize at any of those churches to belong to the oriental orthodoxy

this link contain selected topics about the Alexandrian Coptic Orthodox church history , worship , dogmas and sacraments
http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/thecopticchurch/index.html

you are welcome to ask about anything you want

God bless you

[Joshua83]

I do know that Oriental Orthodox Churches accept the first 3 councils, hence the name Non-Chalcedonian. I've heard of the dispute concerning the Council of Chalcedon, I think it was called. But I don't think understand that situation good enough. Does matter which Oriental Orthodox church I am a member of? I am ineterested in either Alexandrian/Coptic or Ethiopian, partly because I've herard more about those 2 churches and not a whole lot about the others.

[copticorthodoxy]

it doesn't matter which church of the Oriental Orthodox you belong to , The Church of Alexandria is very great

[Joshua83]

Alot of what I do know about the Alexandrian/Coptic Church and Ethiopian Church is from some of the posts I've read here on CF and tv programs such as the History Channel's Digging for Truth where on episode was about the Ark of the Covenant.I've heard the Alexandrian church also has a good Pope. It seems like a very good church to be a part of, that and the Ethiopian Church.

[copticorthodoxy]

Alot of what I do know about the Alexandrian/Coptic Church and Ethiopian Church is from some of the posts I've read here on CF and tv programs such as the History Channel's Digging for Truth where on episode was about the Ark of the Covenant.I've heard the Alexandrian church also has a good Pope. It seems like a very good church to be a part of, that and the Ethiopian Church.

our present Pope is His Holiness Pope Shenouda III pope of Alexandria and all St. Mark see . the pope of Alexandria has the honor place on the Ethiopean and Eritrean Orthodox churches too

[Joshua83]

Alrighty. Sounds nice. Is there any site where I could find info the Eritean Church at all? There anything else I need know?

[copticorthodoxy]

Alrighty. Sounds nice. Is there any site where I could find info the Eritean Church at all? There anything else I need know?

The Ethiopean and Eritrean churches is not diffrent from each others both of them was one church till the pope of Alexandria ordained a Patriarch to the Eritrean Orthodox church in 1998 , both of them belong to St. Mark see , also both of them have African liturgical traditions not in the Coptic Orthodox Church
this site for the Eritrean Orthodox church
http://www.tewahdo.com/

[Joshua83]

Alright then. Thank you for all that info. God bless...:amen:

[copticorthodoxy]

how is your news ?

[copticorthodoxy]

how are you Joshua83 ?? i don't see you online

[Joshua83]

I'm good

[thomasdanielreji]

The Syriac Orthodox Church and Malankara Jacobite Syrian Christian Church is not diffrent from other OO Churches.

For more details please visit
http://sor.cua.edu/ and http://www.syrianchurch.org/

Few Christian denominations can claim the antiquity of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, whose foundations can be traced back to the very dawn of Christianity. The Church justifiably prides itself as being one of the earliest established apostolic churches. It was in Antioch, after all, that the followers of Jesus were called Christians as we are told in the New Testament, “The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” (Acts 11:26).
According to ecclesiastical tradition, the Church of Antioch is the second established church in Christendom after Jerusalem, and the prominence of its Apostolic See is well documented. In his Chronicon (I, 2), the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea tells us that St. Peter the Apostle established a bishopric in Antioch and became its first bishop. He also tells us that St. Peter was succeeded by Evodius. In another historical work, Historia Ecclesiastica, Eusebius tells us that Ignatius the Illuminator, “a name of note to most men, [was] the second after Peter to the bishopric of Antioch” (III, 36).
In the mid of the 5th century, the Bishop of Antioch, and his counterparts in Alexandria, Byzantium and Rome, would be called patriarchs. The Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch used to be known by his own name; however, since 1293 the patriarchs of Antioch adopted the name Ignatius, after the Illuminator. The See of Antioch continues to flourish till our day, with His Holiness Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I, (http://sor.cua.edu/Personage/PZakka1/index.html) being the 122nd in the line of legitimate patriarchs (http://sor.cua.edu/Patriarchate/PatriarchsChronList.html).
The patriarchate was forced to move from Antioch in ca. A.D. 518, after a period of turbulent history, to various locations in the Near East until it settled in the monastery Dayro d-Mor Hananya (http://sor.cua.edu/ChMon/MardinDKurkmo/index.html) (also known as Kurkmo Dayro, Deir az-Za'faran--Syriac and Arabic respectively for Saffron Monastery) in Mardin, Turkey, during the 13th century. After another period of heinous violence during and after World War I, which took the lives of a quarter million Syriac Orthodox faithful, the patriarchate was transferred to Homs, Syria, in 1933, and later to Damascus (http://sor.cua.edu/Patriarchate/index.html) in 1957.
The Syriac Orthodox Church is quite unique for many reasons. Firstly, it presents a form of Christianity, which is Semitic in nature, with a culture not far from the one Christ himself experienced. Secondly, it employs in its liturgy the Syriac language, an Aramaic dialect akin to the Aramaic spoken by Christ and the Apostles. Thirdly, its liturgy is one of the most ancient, and has been handed from one generation to another. Fourthly, and most importantly, it demonstrates the unity of the body of Christ by the multiethnic nature of its faithful: A visit to your local Syriac Orthodox Church in Europe or the Americas would demonstrate, for example, the blend of Near Eastern and Indian cultures in the motifs and vestments of clergy. The Syriac Orthodox faithful today live primarily in Middle Eastern countries and the Indian State of Kerala, with many communities in the diaspora.
The Syriac Orthodox Church has been a member of the World Council of Churches since 1960, and is one of the founding members of the Middle East Council of Churches. The Church takes part in ecumenical and theological dialogues with other churches. As a result of these dialogues, the Church has issued two joint declarations with the Roman Catholic Church (http://sor.cua.edu/Ecumenism/RC.html) and another with the Eastern Orthodox churches.
In Syriac, the proper name of the Church is `idto suryoyto treeysath shubho. In the past, the name of the Church had been translated to English as “Syrian Orthodox Church”. The Holy Synod of the Church approved the translation “Syriac Orthodox Church” in its session of March 28-April 3, 2000.

[copticorthodoxy]

I'm good

you still searching for an Oriental Orthodox church?

[Joshua83]

I am although the closest one to where I live is probably between a good 90 minutes to about 3 hours from me. There is a couple Eastern Orthodox Churches just minutes from where I live (Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox to be exact) but I would like to have an Oriental Orthodox church in my town or at least alot closer then a couple hours away. I do pray that God will allow for an Oriental Orthodox church to start near my home soon. I don't care at this point if it is Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritean, etc. I just hope and pray that it is Oriental Orthodox, or Non-Chalcedon Orthodx. But yes I am still kind of searching for one.

[copticorthodoxy]

I am although the closest one to where I live is probably between a good 90 minutes to about 3 hours from me. There is a couple Eastern Orthodox Churches just minutes from where I live (Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox to be exact) but I would like to have an Oriental Orthodox church in my town or at least alot closer then a couple hours away. I do pray that God will allow for an Oriental Orthodox church to start near my home soon. I don't care at this point if it is Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritean, etc. I just hope and pray that it is Oriental Orthodox, or Non-Chalcedon Orthodx. But yes I am still kind of searching for one.

that's great , the oriental orthodox churches preserved the orthodox faith and suffered for that alot , tell us about your news

[Joshua83]

I am still looking for which Oriental Orthodox church to bceom a part of out of the 6. I like them all. Which makes a tough search sort of. I think it mainly has come down to the Coptic Church, Ethiopian Church, and the Eritean Church or Indian Church. The Indian Church I don';t know much about and haven't really researched any information on it yet.

[Joshua83]

I am still looking for which Oriental Orthodox church to bceom a part of out of the 6. I like them all. Which makes a tough search sort of. I think it mainly has come down to the Coptic Church, Ethiopian Church, and the Eritean Church or Indian Church. The Indian Church I don't know much about and haven't really researched any information on it yet.

[copticorthodoxy]

I am still looking for which Oriental Orthodox church to bceom a part of out of the 6. I like them all. Which makes a tough search sort of. I think it mainly has come down to the Coptic Church, Ethiopian Church, and the Eritean Church or Indian Church. The Indian Church I don't know much about and haven't really researched any information on it yet.

we welcome you to join our Oriental Orthodox churches
tell me why you are intersted in the Oriental Orthodox churches ?? what attracted you ??
try to visit any OO church near you , i think you can find Coptic Orthodox Church

[zhilan]

You could always become a priest and solve that problem. =)

Good luck with your searching. I've been really lucky in that there are Orthodox churches both near my school and near my home, but it's really inspiring when I hear about people maintaining and struggling for their faith when their are no churches near by. Actually, my priest (who is a convert) had to just go to a Luthern church for his first 5 years as an Orthodox becuase there were absolutely no Orthodox churches anywhere near him and that was the closest thing he could find.

[Joshua83]

my interest began in Orthodox Christianity in general probably no more than 4, or 5 years ago. I was born and raised a Protestant in the Baptist Church, and I think maybe because of that the only other form of Christianity besides Protestant I knew of was Roman Catholic. And the last few years really I have known of the Orthodoxy. I first heard of Oriental Orthodoxy at this site on the scriptures page section of it:

The Orthodox Christian Page in America (http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/)

The scripture part of that page mentions the Ethiopian Church and the number of books in it's Bible Canon. And over the last year or 2 I have become interested in the OO Church. I guess like a lot of former Protestants turned OrthodoxyI seek that form of Christianity that was founded by Christ and his disciples, which I believe was and is the OO. I just really want to be a part of that. As i said before the closest Coptic Church to me is a few hours away from my house in the American City of Chicago. And seeing as though I can't drive makes things rather difficult for me. I have never actually been inside an OO Church or EO church, not even an RC Church. I've only been in Protestant churches, not just Baptist. And then of course not too long ago the History Channel, started a new show called Digging For The Truth, which some of you here on CF I know have seen already, and one of the first episodes I think was on the Ark of the Covenant which included the Ethiopian Church of course. I do feel as though the Holy Spirit is also possibly guiding me towards the OO Church.

[copticorthodoxy]

keep on reading about the Oriental Orthodox Churches and try to read a spirtual OO books to know more about us , i recommend you this book " Orthodox Prayer Life: The Interior Way " for the coptic father Matthew the Poor , he is one of the greatest spirtual monks in the modern age "
http://secure.svspress.com/product_info.php?products_id=208

[Joshua83]

keep on reading about the Oriental Orthodox Churches and try to read a spirtual OO books to know more about us , i recommend you this book " Orthodox Prayer Life: The Interior Way " for the coptic father Matthew the Poor , he is one of the greatest spirtual monks in the modern age "
http://secure.svspress.com/product_info.php?products_id=208
I think I will check out that book as well as other reading material and literature on the Oriental Orthodoxy

[zhilan]

Also you could email an Orthodox priest. Even if you can't get to a church in person there are quite a few web-savy priests who would I'm sure be happy to email with you.

[Joshua83]

I probably could email an orthodox priest, it might help.

[zhilan]

I probably could email an orthodox priest, it might help.

I really encourage you to. Priest, in my expereince, are just totally awesome people. What you might want to do is look up some websites for Coptic (or other OO) churches and see if the priest has an email on there. Of course, realize that not all priests are totally web-savy and are often very busy so don't feel discouraged if you don't hear back right away. If you don't then just find another one and try again. Most likely if you are able to find a priest who is into email and knows how to use it (one of my priests never replied to my first email becuase he coudln't figure out how to reply ^_^ everyone has different gifts!) he will be absolutely so happy to hear from you and talk to you through email. I think this may be a great way for you to start.

Another idea, are you by any chance near any university? You should check out to see if they have a Coptic club on campus. (Just check the school's website and email someone in the club.) A lot of schools have Orthodox clubs and that might be a good way to find out too if that's an option for you.

[Joshua83]

closest the University to is probably I 45 minutes up to an hour maybe from my home. I could still find out on the official website for it though. I'll be sure to email those priest.

[copticorthodoxy]

great , you can talk with me through MSN or yahoo messanger if you like

[Joshua83]

I have yahoo

[copticorthodoxy]

I have yahoo

ok , if you like to talk with me about anything send me a PM with your yahoo email to add you in my contact list