Does anyone here belong to this group, or know anything about them? I had a friend a few years ago whose family was from Ethiopia and they were Coptic Christians. Unfortunately I’ve lost touch with her. I was just curious about where they fit into the religious spectrum. I had the impression they were Eastern Orthodox but I could be wrong. Thanks.
Hi, Lisa. I’m Coptic Orthodox. Chances are your Ethiopian friend is Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo, not Coptic. The two were regularly confused, with good reason, in the past due to the history of the Ethiopian Church. Ethiopia, despite being converted in the days of King Ezana (early-mid 300s) by
Syriac monks who legend tells us were shipwrecked in Ethiopia, was administered for centuries as an integral part of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, with the people being shepherded by Coptic (that is to say, Egyptian) bishops, rather than native bishops. This all changed during the time of the later-deposed Coptic Pope Yusab II in the 1940s or thereabouts, when Ethiopia was granted its autocephaly and began electing its own Abunes (Patriarchs). In fact you will still find a lot of writings today by non-Oriental Orthodox sources that call the Ethiopians “Copts”, but they aren’t. They are their own church with very deep historical and present ties to the Coptic Church, but composed of their own native Ethiopian people (mostly highland Semites, but also many Cushitic people, such as the Oromo, Agaw, etc).
As others have written, the Copts are Oriental Orthodox, not Eastern Orthodox. The Ethiopians, Eritreans, Armenians, Syriacs, and Malankara Indians (as well smaller churches composed of native Britons and French, both within the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate) are also Oriental Orthodox. We accept only the ecumenical councils pre-dating Chalcedon in 451 AD.
If you have any further questions about the Copts or the Oriental/non-Chalcedonian communion, feel free to ask.
