Eastern Orthodox Church - Oriental Orthodox Church

Do not make the mistake of thinking that the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church are the same Church - an understandable mistake since 'Eastern' and 'Oriental' have the same meaning.

The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church are distinct branches of eastern Christianity. (See further Principal Christian Denominations.) The Eastern Orthodox Church today comprises the ancient Byzantine patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, together with a number of national Churches, among them the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and the Romanian Orthodox Church; while the Oriental Orthodox Church comprises the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Church, and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.

The division between these two branches of eastern Christianity dates from the fifth century of the Christian era, i.e., it predates the Great (East-West) Schism in the eleventh century when the Roman Catholic Church in the western half of the Roman Empire split from what is today the Eastern Orthodox Church in the eastern half. In the fourth and fifth centuries Christian theologians disputed whether Jesus, as both fully divine and fully human, has two natures, a divine nature and a human nature, each distinct from, but very closely related to, the other (Dyophysitism) or only one nature, a divine nature which in some way includes or absorbs his humanity (Monophysitism). In 451 an ecumenical Council of bishops meeting at Chalcedon endorsed Dyophysitism and condemned Monophysitism as a heresy. However, although the Council's endorsement of Dyophysitism was accepted by all the Churches in the western half of the Roman Empire, it was not universally accepted in the eastern half. Those Churches in the eastern half which accepted the Council's decision constitute what is today known as the Eastern Orthodox Church, while those Churches which rejected the decision constitute the Oriental Orthodox Church.

In recent years there has been progress towards a reconciliation between these two branches of eastern Christianity.