What do we mean by Eastern Churches?

St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai.

By Eastern Churches we mean the Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Eastern Catholic Churches, and Church of the East. These are Churches of ancient communities with deep apostolic roots, that grew in the Eastern parts of the Roman Empire, and beyond. St. Mark for example, founded the Church in Alexandria, and was its first Pope. St. Thaddeus and Bartholomew brought the Gospel to the Armenians. And of course, St. Thomas is very well known, even among Western Christians, for bringing the Gospel to India. He also brought Christianity to the Assyrians in modern day Iraq.

These Churches are exceedingly diverse, and have many differences in theology and spirituality, although I think one generalization that applies to all of them is that they take a more mystical and less rational approach to faith in contrast with Western Churches. Christianity is, after all, an Eastern Religion.

The Eastern Orthodox follow the Byzantine Rite originating in the great Church of Constantinople. She claims to be the Church of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. She split with the Church of Rome officially in 1054. For centuries, the Eastern and Western parts of the Imperial Church were drifting apart, with marked differences in theology and spirituality, with cultural, and with linguistic and political factors playing apart in this estrangement. The decisive factors in the Great Schism were the Filioque controversy, and the nature of the Petrine ministry. Some of the Eastern Orthodox Churches are the Greek, Russian, Antiochian, Urkainian, Polish, Czech-Slovak, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Finnish, Alexandrian, Japanese, and others.

The Church of the East split with the Orthodox Church in 431 after the the Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus. This Church, often called in the past the Nestorian Church, took hold mainly among the Assyrians in what is now Iraq. At one time, this Church was one of the largest Churches in Christendom, if not the largest, reaching as far East as China. After centuries of persecution and genocide, the Church of the East remains and is resilient, but relatively small in numbers. The Churches that rejected the Third Ecumenical Council refused to call the Virgin Mary, "Theotokos." The Orthodox party accused the Nestorians, as they were called, of positing two persons in Christ: the Logos, and the man, Jesus.

The Oriental Orthodox Church rejected the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451. They are the Coptic (Egyptian), Ethiopian. Armenian, and Syrian Churches, and Syro-Indian Churches. This Church, too, has endured centuries of suffering and persecution. These Churches stress the unified Nature of Christ, and have been incorrectly termed "Monophysite" by the Romans and Orthodox. Now, it is the view of many in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, that the Christological differences between them and the Oriental Orthodox are more semantic the substantial.

The Eastern Catholic Churches are former Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Church of the East communities that sought union or re-union with the Church of Rome. This strategy of bringing various Eastern Churches into union with the See of Rome has been called "uniatism," and has been now rejected by the contemporary Roman Catholic Church. Historically, these Churches have been unduly influenced by Latin theology. The adoption of Latin theology and practices into the Eastern Catholic Churches has been called "Latinization." Today, the Eastern Catholic Churches for the most part have been striving to return to their original heritage and have been restoring Eastern theology and customs, but there is still much more work to be done on this front.

One Eastern Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, has no analog among the various other Orthodox Churches. She has her own distinct rite, and claims never to have been in schism with Rome.

Although the Uniate Churches have been promoted by Rome to be bridges with the Orthodox, their existence is seen by many Orthodox as a stumbling block for reunion with the Roman Catholic Church. Most Eastern Catholics consider the term "uniate" as a pejorative.

All of the Eastern Churches- Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, and Church of the East- claim to have valid sacraments, priesthood, and apostolic succession, and can in fact claim Apostolic origin. But the Churches are in schism because of theological, political and cultural factors.

One of the purposes of this blog site is to bring some Light from the East. Often our Roman Catholic and Protestant brothers and sisters know little about us. They may know a little about the Eastern Orthodox Church, but usually very little about the Eastern Catholics, the Oriental Orthodox, and the Church of the East. I hope to offer more information on the Eastern Churches, as time goes by.

If you are an Eastern Christian, and are a member of any of these beautiful ancient traditions, please feel free to share them in your comments. I will try over time to incorporate sharings from other Eastern Christians. I will also be going into further detail about the history and theology of the various Eastern Churches in the future.