Coptic Church & Ecumenical Movement - Saint Mina Coptic ...

invisible, heavenly and earthly; and because it brings under the sway of true religion all
classes of men, rulers and subjects, learned and ignorant; and because it universally treats
and cures every type of sin, committed by means of soul and body, and possesses in itself
every kind of virtue which can be named, in deeds and words, and spiritual gifts of every
kind.”
Apostolic is the fourth and last of the notes of the Church. The term Apostolic affirms that the
Church is descended from the Apostles by a due succession. The fact of the succession of the
ministry from the apostles, and of the apostles from Christ, was strongly emphasised by St.
Clement of Rome before the end of the first century (Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the
Corinthians, 44). The Episcopate is thus held to create a historical link between the Church of
the Apostolic times and that of today and is both the means and assurance of the continuity of
office and of transmission of grace, and on these grounds the episcopate descended from the
Apostles is the guarantee of the Apostolicity of the Church.
THE THREE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS
Since the dawn of Christianity, the Coptic Orthodox Church has played a leading role in the
ecumenical movement. At the Council of Nicea in 325 AD the Alexandrian Patriarch,
Alexandrus, assisted by his deacon Athanasius, vigorously opposed Arius’ false teachings and
St. Athanasius formulated the Nicene Creed. In 381 AD, at the Council of Constantinople, the
Pope of Alexandria, Timothous, responded to critical questions of dogma, which were enshrined
as canon law. At the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, Pope Cyril of Alexandria chaired the
sessions of the 3 rd Ecumenical Council that excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople,
Nestros. The school of Alexandria stood as a lighthouse for Christianity in the first five
centuries, in the area of biblical exegesis and the theological insight and scriptural scholarship.
THE CHALCEDONIAN SCHISM
Following the schism at Chalcedon in 451, the Coptic Orthodox Church was isolated, persecuted
and incorrectly labelled as Monophysite. Whereas they have always believed in God Incarnate,
with His divinity and humanity fully present and united without mixture, confusion or change.
As concerning the “Two natures of Christ”, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria
unwaveringly upheld the formula of Saint Cyril the Great whose authority had been unanimously
accepted by all members of the universal church. They kept it up without the slightest addition
or alteration. This formula is: “One nature of God the Logos Incarnate”, which reveals the
“Hypostatic union” of both natures, the divine and the human in one without mingling, nor
confusion, nor alteration”. This by no means denies the existence of the human nature in Christ
as Eutychianism did, which the Coptic Church totally rejected since the very beginning.
According to the Coptic concept, God the Son “took to Himself a real and perfect manhood”,
“He bore our sins in His body and He truly died for our sake”. “Godhead and manhood are
united in such a way that properties of divinity and humanity are not lost, nor confused or mixed.
We (the adherers of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria) do not interpret the Cyrillian
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