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ConstantineTG
Guest
Much has been talked about reunion with the Eastern Orthodox. What about the Oriental Orthodox and the Assyrian Church of the East? Are we doing anything about it?
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Wesley7
Guest
I would attend a Oriental Orthodox liturgy if there were one nearby in my area.
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UnworthyApostle
Guest
I, being a Maronite, worship in the Syro-Antiochiene tradition which shares a spiritual heritage with the Sryrian Oriental Orthodox Church, and thus have a personal link with the Oriental churches. I would love to see the OO and the Acoe come into full communion with Rome. I know that there are small Chaldean, Coptic, and Ethiopian Catholic communities in their homelands. I do not know particularly much more than that. I hope Brother Marduk can come and elaborate. He is an encyclopedia when it comes to Oriental Churches.
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Vico
Guest
Vatican efforts:
Assyrian Church of the East
vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/sub-index/index_east-assyrian.htm
Oriental Orthodox
vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/sub-index/index_ancient-oriental-ch.htm
Others:
vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/index.htm
Assyrian Church of the East
vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/sub-index/index_east-assyrian.htm
Oriental Orthodox
vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/sub-index/index_ancient-oriental-ch.htm
Others:
vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/index.htm
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Formosus
Guest
I am not really sure there is anything “we” (as a communion) can do beyond historical scholarship and hosting meetings. Simply put, if the ACoTE and the OO want communion, they have to work for it themselves.
To my knowledge, the Coptic Church and the ACoTE are on very bad terms, bad enough that when Rome started talking with the ACoTE, the Coptic Orthodox stopped talks with us.
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ConstantineTG
Guest
I mean us in reunion with them both.
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Alexander_Roman
Guest
When it comes to the OO and the Assyrian Church of the East, there is a lot of suspicion on both sides, to be sure!
The “Nestorians” always regarded the Copts et alia as “heretics” and vice-versa.
But it seems that there is headway being made between the Assyrians and Rome and they have signed a common confession of Christology.
A big psychological barrier is the condemnation of each other’s Saints and Teachers . . .
There are also Assyrians who have entered communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church.
I doubt highly that the OO and the Assyrians will ever come into union, except, of course, the roundabout way when they will find themselves in communion with Churches that are in union with one another . . .
Alex
The “Nestorians” always regarded the Copts et alia as “heretics” and vice-versa.
But it seems that there is headway being made between the Assyrians and Rome and they have signed a common confession of Christology.
A big psychological barrier is the condemnation of each other’s Saints and Teachers . . .
There are also Assyrians who have entered communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church.
I doubt highly that the OO and the Assyrians will ever come into union, except, of course, the roundabout way when they will find themselves in communion with Churches that are in union with one another . . .
Alex
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Vico
Guest
It was in 1997 that the Assyrian Church of the East and the Syrian Orthodox Church agreed to estblish a bilateral theological dialog. So in 1997 the Assyrian Holy Synod removed all the anathemas against others from the liturgy. The Holy Synod requested that their church not be called Nestorian (it has been used as an insult).
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Peter_Mogila
Guest
D
dzheremi
Guest
I can only speak for the Copts, but I don’t think it will happen. The Copts absolutely loathe Nestorianism, so even if hypothetically they were to enter into union with Rome (another virtually impossible idea, Mardukm excepted 
), they would likely instantly withdraw due to Rome’s overtures towards the Assyrians, with their shared Christological documents and whatnot. All that stuff is not going to fly with the Copts, no matter if they come from the Vatican itself or whatever. Just look at how H.E. Metropolitan Bishoy responds to the perceived defense of the Assyrians by a monk of St. Macarius monastery: www.metroplit-bishoy.org/files/councils/monkathanasius.doc (from H.E.'s official website)
Other articles on the Nestorians from H.E.'s site are also useful for getting the Coptic viewpoint on that particular church, as well as Rome’s apparent agreement with them (basically, the Copts are not fans of this).
), they would likely instantly withdraw due to Rome’s overtures towards the Assyrians, with their shared Christological documents and whatnot. All that stuff is not going to fly with the Copts, no matter if they come from the Vatican itself or whatever. Just look at how H.E. Metropolitan Bishoy responds to the perceived defense of the Assyrians by a monk of St. Macarius monastery: www.metroplit-bishoy.org/files/councils/monkathanasius.doc (from H.E.'s official website)Other articles on the Nestorians from H.E.'s site are also useful for getting the Coptic viewpoint on that particular church, as well as Rome’s apparent agreement with them (basically, the Copts are not fans of this).
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Aramis
Guest
The Chaldean Patriarchate accepted a pro-union bishop of the ACE (and his clerics) when they were expelled from the ACE for their overt and vocal support of rapid movement to reunification. This happened in the last 5 years.
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Alexander_Roman
Guest
Yes, we have a Chaldean Catholic priest here who regularly invites an Assyrian priest to join him in concelebrating the Qorbono . . . He used to celebrate in the school chapel of a Ukrainian Basilian high school and he told me how shocked the Basilians appeared when he told them that “Nestorius was a member of the Basilian Order . . .”
It is interesting that the Assyrian Church repudiates the term “Nestorian” and even condemns “Nestorianism” itself. They do, of course venerate the “Greek Doctors, Sts. Nestorius, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodore of Tarsus.”
Roman Catholic historians commenting on the Assyrians have said in the past that the Assyrians would have to “prune” the name of Nestorius from their calendar upon their “return to the Catholic Church.”
Today, however, there is a movement to rehabilitate Nestorius based on his statements from his Libyan retreat where he was supposed to have affirmed that his faith was that of St Flavian of Constantinople (also regarded with suspicion by the Miaphysites for his “Nestorianizing tendencies”).
The Egyptian Copts also removed a liturgical term of condemnation of Pope St Leo from their services in the same ecumenical spirit.
And, although this has no bearing on anything, I have a Miaphysite icon of St Dioscoros, Pope of Alexandria on papyrus paper . . .
When I bought it at a bookstore of a Coptic Orthodox Church I was visiting, the two Copts manning the store asked me what my Church was. When I told them, they appeared initially shocked that I would be interested in St Dioscoros but then they smiiled and said, “But we live in ecumenical times, don’t we?”
I happily agreed!
Alex
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