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== Oriental Liturgy and other questions ==
I was wondering why there is less discussion of the liturgical traditions of the Oriental Churches. I would like some more information about this. My impression is that the "Mainstream" or Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches have more or less adopted the Byzantine Rite of Ss Basil and John Chrysostom as normative. Normative because there are various Western Rites and the Church of Jerusalem has some different Semetic Rites. There are of course variations between Slavonic (Russo) and Greek (Helenic) usage but there is basic uniformity between them.
However, and I may be mistake, the historic Patriachates have not always enjoyed such uniformity. The Church of Antioch used to have a more Semitic Rite, the Jerusalem Liturgy of St James. Today they use the Greek Byzantine Rite and are in fact called the "Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch" (GOCA) to distinguish them from the miaphysite Patriarch of the same city. If I am correct the "Miaphysite Orthodox Church of Antioch" (MOCA) still uses this older Rite. A possible reunion of these two Patriarchates would allow the minority of Semitic Christians in the GOCA to again worship according to the Semitic Rite and the minority of Greek Christians in the MOCA to worship according to the Hellenic Byzantine Rite.
A similar story can be told about the Alexandrian Patriarchate, the Greek Church using the now normative Greek Byzantine Rite and the Miaphysite Church still using the Coptic (ancient Egyptian) Liturgy of St Mark.
Also, understanding the liturgy of the Armenian Church is very difficult. It's relationship to the Church of Georgia is cloudy in my mind as well. Did the Orthodox Church in Russia always use the Byzantine Rite? I think I heard they used a rite closer to the Roman usage now called the Liturgy of St Gregory. Is there any relation between that and the Armenian Rite which is sometimes described as more Western in style? Why is the Armenian Rite without icons? If they were not in use when they separated then what does that say about the use of icons in tradition? Is this some kind of doctrinal development? Would the Arminian Church theoretical reject the Seventh Ecumenical Council.
Lastly, This article, focused as it is on the Council of Ccalcedon, does not tell whether the Oriental Churches would be open to the rest of the Orthodox Tradition after Chalcedon, such as the Seventh Great Council (Icons), the Eight Great Council (Photius and Filioque), & Ninth Great Council (Gregory Palamas and Hesicast Theology). --[[User:Ryan Close|Ryan Close]] 18:59, January 21, 2009 (UTC)
I added a link for the West Syrian Rite to the Church of Antioch (Syriac) article, and a link for the East Syrian rite to the article on the Church of the East. --[[User:Fr Lev|Fr Lev]] 01:33, January 22, 2009 (UTC)
== Miaphysite Christology and unwarranted attacks ==
Please carefully read HH Pope Shenouda III's [http://www.copticchurch.org/Texts/Spirituals/Natofchr.pdf ''The Nature of Christ''] before attacking us! Also watch [http://realserver.goarch.org/ram/en/bartholomew_interview.ram HH Patriarch Bartholomew I video] and his comments on the Coptic Church and her perfect Christological position. Those who invented monothelism were the Greek Orthodox. "The ease with which Egypt was conquered by Muslims appears to have been due to the treachery of the governor of Egypt, Patriarch Cyrus [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04597c.htm], Melchite (i.e., Byzantine/Chalcedonian Orthodox, not Coptic) Patriarch of Alexandria, and the incompetence of the generals of the Byzantine forces. Cyrus had persecuted the local Coptic Christians. '''He is one of the authors of monothelism''', a seventh century heresy, and some supposed him to have been secretly a convert to Islam." I appeal to Fr John to interfere in this matter, and until resolved I won't be contributing to Orthodox Wiki any longer. In Christ, --Arbible
At this point, the sheer amount of material we have on this topic here seems to me to be way, way out of proportion for the issue. OrthodoxWiki is not a repository for the debate (or lack thereof) over Chalcedon. Indeed, for both our communions, it is a chapter in our history, not the whole story. Let's work to get some serious trimming done. Take a look at some encyclopedias (and even at [[Wikipedia:Main Page|Wikipedia]]), and rethink what we have here. {{User:ASDamick/sig}} 14:58, 3 November 2005 (CST)
== Two natures ==
I brought this up also in an article on Wikipedia. A portion of this article reads: "The separation resulted in part from the Oriental Orthodox churches' refusal to accept the Christological dogmas promulgated by the Council of Chalcedon, which held that Jesus Christ has two natures — one divine and one human, although these were inseparable and only act as one hypostasis.". I'm pretty sure that it is not accurate to say that the content the Oriental Orthodox objected to was that "Jesus Christ has two natures". While they certainly did object to the formula of "in two natures" because they believed this divided the subsistence of Christ, Pope Dioscorus I went so far as to admit "of two natures after the union". The Orientals have made it clear that they recognize the dynamic continuation of the humanity and divinity of Christ after the union with respect to composition, and thus they apparently recognize that "Christ has two natures". [[User:Deusveritasest|Deusveritasest]] 01:36, April 20, 2009 (UTC)
