Short introuduction to one of the most ancient
Churches the Coptic Orthodox Christian Church
As an Orthodox Christian, striving to know the ancient practies of
our Saviour Jesus Christ Church by God's grace some few months ago
I was granted to I spend few months of time with an Coptic Oriental
Orthodox Christian (Medhat Baky). Before meeting with Baky, I knew
not that in Egypt there are Christians at all. The little time I
spend with this Oriental Orthodox was very beneficial in spiritual
sense. I was amazed of the deepness in which Baky knew Christian
faith. I was amazed also by the Grace of this Christian as Christ's
joy and presense was very powerful in him. Unfortunately for some
reasons historical and political reasons Copts Orthodox are not in
official communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church. Copts rejected
decisions of Holy Fathers on all Ecumenical Councils after 3rd
one.Interestingly the same Church which has for 20th Pope
(Patriarch) saint Athanasius the Great which jealously was
protecting true Christianity on III-rd ecumenical council did not
participated in the rest of the Church ecumenical councils. Because
of that in-participation of Copts in ecumenical councils, nowdays
there are some dogmatical issues, where we the Eastern Orthodox (in
my view incorrectly accuse) copts for being Mia-physits
(Monophisits). According to definition Mia Physis means (one nature
/ one incarnate God nature), or in other words it claims Christ has
only one incarnate nature (the nature of God) and no human nature.
The dogmatical problem of Monophisitism, is quite severe, according
to our Orthodox Eastern understanding by monophisite we accuse
Copts for believing falsely that on the Cross the divine nature of
Christ suffered only. Though the Monophisitism issue holds back the
true communion re-union between us and copts I believe this whole
issue is more on a "phylosophical" than a faith level. Coptic
Orthodox nowdays is mostly in Egypt, Ethiopia and Africa and
numbers 18 000 000 members. It is interesteng to mention even
though, officially they're considered divided from the Only Holy
(Apostolic) Orthodox Church because of their reject of Ecumenical
Council 4, 5, 6 and 7, Copts spiritual life is still preserved in
the early centuries and faith in them is strong. It would be great
if this 18 000 000 of Christians the whole worldwide congregation
of Orthodox Christians which as of time of writting is estimated
from 300 000 000 to 400 000 000 people ! :)
Officially Copts Reject the accusation of Chalcedon ecumenical
council (for disbelieving the two natures of Christ). Just for the
sake of info on the Chalcedon Ecumenical council copts were judged
to be heretics. Back in the day copts claim there was a political
reason, as there were church fights to abolish the independent
Egyptian Pope - which maintained that Church and State should not
mingle.
Well anyways, I don't know who is right and who is wrong Copts or
us, but what I know for sure is nomatter the dogmatical difference
between us Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox in essence our
faith is alsmost the same. Coptic Church gave born of many saints,
through years many of this saints are also saints in whole Orthodox
realm. Below is a nice videos I found on youtube explaining well,
the basics of Copt faith and few interesting facts of their ancient
faith.
Christians of the Nile Valley: An Introduction to the Coptic
Orthodox Church - Part 1
Christians of the Nile Valley: An Introduction to the Coptic
Orthodox Church - Part 2