On September 16 and 17, the residence of the Coptic Patriarch within the monastery “St. Bishoy’, Wadi el-Natrun (i.e. the Nitrian Valley), hosted a gathering of representatives of the Orthodox Church buildings of the world with the pre-Chalcedonian or historical Japanese Orthodox Church buildings. This comes after a spot of about thirty-four years for the reason that final assembly in 1990, beneath the late Coptic Patriarch Shenouda the Third. The aim of the present assembly was to organize the renewal of the dialogue between the 2 households of church buildings. In the course of the assembly, the contributors additionally mentioned quite a few spiritual and social points within the discipline of church care and ministry beneath the motto “Christ’s love compels us” (2 Cor. 5:14).
Every church was represented by two members who had been from Constantinople, Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, Romania, Cyprus, Jerusalem, Syria, Lebanon, Armenia, Poland, Egypt, Eritrea and Albania.
The assembly was opened with a welcome from Coptic Patriarch Theodore II and a message from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, which was learn by his consultant, Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon.
The contributors agreed to proceed conferences and mutual visits within the subsequent interval with the intention to assist the ministry of the Orthodox Church buildings and to handle the social challenges affecting the Christian household in all its varieties. The co-chairs will go to the church buildings within the numerous international locations and can inform them of the outcomes of the theological dialogue right now.
The resumption of the Orthodox-pre-Chalcedonian theological dialogue comes after the interruption of the dialogue between the Copts and the Roman Catholics, which was introduced by the Coptic Church with its choice of March 2024. As a motive, the Copts highlighted the admission of a type of blessing of same-sex {couples} by the Roman Catholic Church.
This theme additionally discovered a spot within the joint communique after the top of the assembly, by which the representatives of the Orthodox Church and the Pre-Chalcedonian Church buildings acknowledged: “Our church households understand the indissoluble and loving union between a person and a lady in holy marriage as a “nice thriller” (Eph. . 5:32), reflecting the connection between Christ and the Church, in distinction to some trendy approaches to marriage. From this union arises the household, which is seen as the one foundation for the delivery and upbringing of youngsters based on the divine plan. That’s the reason our church buildings contemplate the household as a “small church” and supply it with acceptable pastoral care and assist.
Our church buildings categorically reject the justification of same-sex relations inside the framework of so-called “absolute human freedom” that causes hurt to humanity. Our church buildings, by affirming their full religion in human rights and freedom, additionally affirm that the liberty of the created shouldn’t be absolute to the extent of transgressing and violating the Creator’s commandments.
The communique additionally famous the frequent celebration of Passover subsequent yr: “As 2025 marks the seventeen hundredth anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, and Christians world wide will have fun Passover on the identical date, the representatives of each households expressed their need that each one Christians world wide have fun Easter following the canonical custom of Nicaea and the Orthodox Paschalia”.
