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

Since the beginning the Church used her teaching authority in condemning heresy, following
Christ’s command: “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to
hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.” (Matthew 18:17).
St. Paul is explicit: “Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition.” (Titus 3:10).
St. Ignatius of Antioch writes: “Be not deceived my brethren. If any man follows one that makes
schism, he ‘does not inherit the kingdom of God’. If any one walks in strange doctrine, he has
no fellowship with the Passion.”
“Present Roman Catholic teaching makes a distinction between ‘formal’ and ‘material’ heresy.
The former, which is heresy properly so called, consists in the wilful and persistent adherence to
an error in matters of faith on the part of a baptised person; as such it is a grave sin involving
ipso facto excommunication. ‘Material heresy’, on the other hand, means holding heretical
doctrines through no fault of one’s own, ‘in good faith’, as is the case, eg. With most persons
brought up in heretical surroundings. This constitutes neither crime nor sin, nor is such a person
strictly speaking a heretic, since, having never accepted certain doctrines, he cannot reject or
doubt them.”
It is true that ‘material heresy’ is considered less serious than ‘formal heresy’; yet still it is a sin
of ignorance. In the Old Testament, unwitting or inadvertent sin, which although less serious
than conscious transgression, involves guilt and requires atonement. Intellectual ignorance can
lead to sin; in fact, ignorance of God and the Gospel is identical with spiritual estrangement and
apostasy, eg. The Jews’ ignorance in crucifying Jesus (Acts 3:17) and Paul’s ignorance in
persecuting the Christians (1 Timothy 1:13), and the failure of the Jews to acknowledge Christ
(Acts 13:27) and to understand the true ‘righteousness’ of God (Romans 10:3), and the failure of
the Gentiles to know the true God (Acts 17:30, 1 Corinthians 15:34, Ephesians 4:18, 1 Peter
1:14).
Anyhow, it is the duty of the Church to instruct material heretics, preferably through dialogue.
But their admittance into communion must be on the basis of unity in faith after renouncing their
heresies.
NO COMMUNION WITH NON-CHRISTIANS
The Church has the obligation to use all available means for evangelisation of the World
including dialogue with non-Christians and unbelievers. But unless they accept the Christian
faith, there can be no possibility, of course, for communion with them. Therefore: “Do not be
unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with
lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with
Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of
God with idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16).
These verses and others (1 Corinthians 7:39, Deuteronomy 7:2-3, Joshua 23:12, 1 Kings 11:2,
Ezekiel 9:2) pronounce also against mixed marriages between Christians and non-Christians, and
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