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

After the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, the Armenians agitated for their own independence, as the
great powers had done nothing to promote their aspirations. The great bone of contention in the
years that followed was the attempted genocide committed on the Armenian people by the Turks
between 1894 and 1922, which resulted in about 1.5 million people being put to death and the
same number resettled. The Turks have denied that it took place. The Armenians want them to
acknowledge that it occurred and to apologize. The alleged reason for resettling the Armenians
was that they were near the border with Russia at the time of the First World War and siding
with them. During the First World War many Armenians fled into various countries including
Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Europe and the USA. Today Los Angeles has a huge
Armenian population.
The Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians has oversight of the Armenian
Catholicosate of Cilicia (nowadays in Lebanon), and the patriarchates of Constantinople and
Jerusalem. Another of his duties is to bless the Holy Oil for use in all churches and to ordain
bishops.
2. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church
This church, sometimes called the Abyssinian Church, is closely related to the Coptic Church, as
it shares the same early history. The exact date of the arrival of Christianity in Ethiopia is not
certain, but we know that St. Athanasius consecrated St. Frumentius in about 347 as head of the
Ethiopian Church. This was indicative of the fact that the Ethiopian Church came under the
jurisdiction of Alexandria.
In the thirteenth century the Coptic Patriarch in Alexandria assumed the right to consecrate a
Coptic bishop as metropolitan of the Ethiopian Church. Moreover, Alexandria limited their
episcopate to seven, thus effectively preventing them having their own metropolitan. This
custom continued until 1959, when Emperor Haile Selassie I secured the autonomy of the
Ethiopian Church. Henceforth they had a head known as a Catholicos-patriarch instead of the
Coptic abuna. Their patriarch, Merkorious, resides in Addis Ababa. Although the primacy of
Alexandria is acknowledged, the Ethiopian Church is independent in all things.
In 1626 they became Uniats (accepted the Pope in Rome as their Pope) under Jesuit influence,
but when the Jesuits were expelled in the year 1632, they reverted to their Coptic allegiance and
so-called monophysitism. In fact, as a church they reject the term Monophysite, preferring the
term that translates as ‘unionite’, expressing the union in Christ of the human and divine natures.
They regard both Nestorius and Eutyches as heretics. At the time of the Council of Florence
they rejected the agreed-upon union with Rome. Today they have become in some ways an
‘island’ church in their isolation, with the Ethiopian Evangelical Mekane Yesus (EECMY)
Church their main competitor. This latter has Lutheran contacts and support. About 17 million
in Ethiopia belong to this church.
3. Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church of India
This church traces its origin to the Apostle St. Thomas. When the Portuguese discovered India
in the fifteenth century, there were about 100,000 St. Thomas Christians in India. Over the
4