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

Byzantine Tradition
There are nine rites as follows. The Melkite rite is found in Middle Eastern countries like
Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Israel, with a patriarch in Damascus. Greek is its liturgical language.
The main liturgy is that of St. John Chrysostom. The Ukrainian rite uses the Ukrainian language
mainly in its liturgy. Christianity came to the Ukraine in 988. Saints Vladimir and Cyril and
Methodius are the popular saints. Their elected cardinal resides in Rome. Ukrainians have
immigrated to countries like the USA, Canada and Australia. The Russian rite uses old Slavonic
and some English in its liturgy, depending on where it is found in the world. They have
emigrated to China, Europe, North America and Australia. Like the Ukrainians, they claim St.
Vladimir as their patron and list Saints Olga and Nicholas among their favourites. Their elected
bishop resides in Rome. The Bulgarian rite uses Bulgarian in its liturgies and has been in
existence since 863, when Photius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, introduced Boris I into
Christianity. The Greek rite uses Greek in its liturgies and was established in 1856. The
Georgian rite uses the liturgies of both St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom, and the Georgian
language. The Italo-Albanian rite, found in Southern Italy, Sicily, Malta and Corsica uses both
Greek and Albanian as liturgical languages. The Romanian rite, united with Rome since 1698,
uses Romanian in its liturgies. The Serbian rite uses Slavonic. Some classifications go further
and add seven more rites, or sub-rites to this list, namely, Albanian, Byelorussian, Hungarian,
Ruthenian, Slovak, Yugoslav and USA.
LUTHERANS
Based on the teachings of Martin Luther (the former Catholic priest), the Lutherans can be traced
back to the Reformation in Germany in the year 1517, it broke away from the Roman Catholic
Church when Luther declared the 39 articles. They hold that the bible is the authoritative source
for Christian belief, teaching and practise.
At the time of the Reformation in the 16 th Century, Lutherans made declaration of belief, which
together form the Book of Concord and under the Bible are authoritative for Lutheran belief.
The most important of these are the Augsburg Confession (1530). The above writings highlight
the beliefs of Lutherans, summarised thus: Through Christ alone, by grace alone, in faith alone.
The Lutherans form of worship known as Common Order is similar in liturgical structure to the
Anglicans.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND (ANGLICAN)
In 1534, King Henry VIII of Britain broke away from the Catholic Church of Rome when the
Pope of Rome refused to grant him a divorce. He challenged the authority of the Pope and
established an independent Church in England with the King as its official head. The Church’s
belief doctrines and rites are set down in the Book of Common Prayer. In America and Canada
it is known as the Episcopal Church, where as in Australia, the Church adopted the name
Anglican in 1981.
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