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

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centuries they had managed to maintain a measure of contact with the patriarch in<br />

Babylon/Baghdad, and had had a succession of bishops, all of whom came from Mesopotamia.<br />

Only in the seventeenth century did they get an indigenous Indian as bishop. The language of<br />

the liturgy was traditionally in Syriac.<br />

Technically the Malankara <strong>Church</strong>, which does not accept the Council of Chalcedon, is a socalled<br />

Monophysite church, but, as we have seen, these labels can be misleading and are often<br />

rejected by the people on whom they are pinned. Whatever the historical events, the Malankara<br />

<strong>Church</strong> is currently dialoguing with the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic<br />

Chruch. The latter dialogue began in 1989. The hope of these dialogues is that they will clear<br />

up the misunderstandings that originated with the often difficult Christological debates in the<br />

fourth and fifth centuries and for which many people and churches have suffered injustices over<br />

the centuries.<br />

The current Catholicos (patriarch) or Catholicos Patriarch, of the Malankara <strong>Church</strong> is His<br />

Holiness Baselius Mar Thoma Mattheus II, Catholicos of the East. He resides in Kottayam, in<br />

the state of Kerala, India. The patron of this church is St. Thomas, the Apostle.<br />

4. Syrian Orthodox <strong>Church</strong><br />

This is one of the most ancient churches in Christendom. St. Peter preached at Antioch before he<br />

ever got to Rome! At Antioch, where the patriarch used to reside, believers were first called<br />

Christians. Now the patriarch resides in Damascus. (The Antiochian Orthodox <strong>Church</strong> also has<br />

its patriarch resident in Damascus.)<br />

They are sometimes called Jacobite after a sixth century archbishop, Jacob (James) Baradaeus.<br />

They were suppressed and deprived of their clergy by the Emperor Justinian, but revived under<br />

the favour of the Empress Theodora. Baradaeus marked the revival. They are in communion<br />

with the Copts, Ethiopians and Armenians.<br />

For economic reasons (mainly), but also because of the different kinds of oppression they have<br />

suffered, there has been a diaspora of Syrians to all parts of the world. This has occurred mainly<br />

since 1945.<br />

5

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