What's the differents in liturgy between the coptic orthodox church and the coptic catholic church?

[piushsu]

What’s the differents in liturgy between the coptic orthodox church and the coptic catholic church?
Thanks!

 

[dzheremi]

Hi Piushsu. Welcome to the forum.

I’ve never been to a Coptic Catholic church (there aren’t very many outside of Egypt), but if you can search on Youtube in Arabic you can find bits and pieces of what appear to be liturgies (?) of some kind at the Coptic Catholic Cathedral in Egypt. It is difficult to find many videos on the Coptic Catholic liturgy. Here are a few for you to look at (there is one longer video with a full Coptic Catholic liturgy, but it’s only audio, and you would miss some of the differences in that case).

Coptic Catholic clip #1: youtube.com/watch?v=mXf9ha1gjBE
Coptic Catholic clip #2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=795q3lBk_IE
Coptic Catholic clip #3: www.youtube.com/watch?v=stHZpFWaM_E

Those three are from their cathedral, but there are also more traditional (or at least less obviously Latinized) videos like this one I found of a Coptic Catholic church in America: youtube.com/watch?v=_gpCn9cPPlc (note: This is the elevation of a priest to the rank of archpriest, not a regular part of every liturgy)

From these videos and others I have seen (from Lebanon and Italy), it seems like the Coptic Catholics are a bit “all over the place”, in terms of their practice. Many seem heavily Latinized, others more traditional, and still others seem to borrow a bit from the Byzantines (particularly in their vestments). I don’t know what to think, but I guess it’s not my church so it doesn’t matter.

Here are some comparisons, from the Coptic Orthodox Church:

Coptic Orthodox clip #1 (sorry for the cuts in the audio a few times; this is recorded from TV and the signal of the Egyptian TV stations is often very poor): Fr. Bishoy prays the fraction prayer for the Lenten fast in Coptic and Arabic
Coptic Orthodox clip #2: Coptic Christmas liturgy in English, Arabic, and Coptic
Coptic Orthodox clip #3 (an ordination to the priesthood, since you saw a Coptic Catholic elevation: youtube.com/watch?v=3eXzILbLV58 (that’s my bishop, HG Bishop Youssef of the Southern United States, in the video!)

As you can see, they are different churches but share some similarities. Copts are culturally the same, no matter if they are Orthodox or in union with Rome (but most are Orthodox; that’s why it’s much easier to find good clips for the Orthodox on youtube).

If you have any questions about the things you see in the Coptic Orthodox videos, I can try to answer them.

 

[malphono]

I’ve never been to a Coptic Catholic church (there aren’t very many outside of Egypt), but if you can search on Youtube in Arabic you can find bits and pieces of what appear to be liturgies (?) of some kind at the Coptic Catholic Cathedral in Egypt. It is difficult to find many videos on the Coptic Catholic liturgy.

Coptic Catholic clip #1: youtube.com/watch?v=mXf9ha1gjBE
Coptic Catholic clip #2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=795q3lBk_IE
Coptic Catholic clip #3: www.youtube.com/watch?v=stHZpFWaM_E

Those three are from their cathedral,

The first two aren’t exactly “latinized” but more “maronitized” than anything else. The first one is from a service “borrowed” from the Maronites, that being the Blessing with the Icon of the Holy Virgin. The second is a neo-Maronite hymn. The third, of course, is about a Latin as one can get.

but there are also more traditional (or at least less obviously Latinized) videos like this one I found of a Coptic Catholic church in America: youtube.com/watch?v=_gpCn9cPPlc (note: This is the elevation of a priest to the rank of archpriest, not a regular part of every liturgy)

I suppose it’s more or less normal to keep ordination services on the more traditional side. That was the case even with the Maronites up until recently.

 

[dzheremi]

Maronitized…Latinized…and here I thought I might avoid the common complaint that I am unfairly representing the Catholic faction of the Coptic people (as I supposedly did when I shared a link to the video of the Lebanese Coptic Catholic liturgy here on CAF…you know the one…) by taking video from Egypt – and their cathedral, no less! I suppose bad taste knows no bounds…Lord have mercy.

Well, I give up. Maybe Mardukm will show up and either yell at me or share his personal observations regarding how close or far apart they are. In a way, the Coptic Catholic videos still speak for themselves.

 

[shlomo3amrooh]

Unfortunately it is the same story with the SCC.

This was never the case though. In some part of Iraq people would just be ‘Sourian’ and attend whatever parish was closest to them (and communicate). The people were too ‘simple’ to worry about Catholique or Orthodoxe. Obviously there were the few extremist here and there.

It is a very sad situation indeed.