Greetings!

 Hello! My name is Mr. Summers and I started this blog to introduce more people, especially parishioners in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, to the Oriental Orthodox Churches. Most individuals have heard of Eastern Orthodoxy but have never encountered Oriental Orthodoxy. According to the World Council of Churches, the family of Oriental Orthodox Churches are comprised of the Armenian, Syrian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Indian Churches. Historically, they have been referred to as pre-Chalcedonian, Monophysite, Lesser Eastern, or Ancient Oriental Churches (WCC). These Churches are known to have rejected the Council fo Chalcedon, which convened in 451, and the Definition of Faith it produced. These churches thus created their own branch of the Christian Church based on their notion of Monophysism. Monophysism stated that Christ had "one nature" and not "two natures" as defined by Chalcedon. Mono means "one" and physis means "nature." The concern of the Monophysites was that the Council of Chalcedon divided the divine and human natures too much which rendered the incarnation meaningless (Gonzalez, 301-307).

My goal is to bring greater understanding to parishioners and clergy-members of the Oriental Orthodox and the way they do church. I will be posting about every week, sometimes 2-3 times a week, on a different topic for readers to learn about. At the bottom of each post will be my citations for individuals to find which sources I used to provide the information they read in the post. I hope this blog series will enable Christians, especially Lutherans, to learn more about our brothers and sisters in Christ from the East which they may not be altogether familiar with. I believe knowledge and understanding is important and will thus lead to greater unity among the Church Universal. Peace!



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