Now, I do believe that some of these may belong to the Eastern Catholic rite meaning that although they follow their own rite, they are in union with the Pope. But in general, are these Churches in Schism?
--- "My Sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
Re: Schismatic Churches? Ok, first I think we need to define what the term "schismatic" means. Generally, for Catholics, to be in 'schism' means to not be in union with legitimate church authority, in contrast with heresy, which denotes a denial of articles of faith. When we speak of Eastern Christians, to be in schism means to not be in union with Rome, i.e., the Catholic Church. Although all of the schismatic churches have valid orders and sacraments, to not be in union with the Pope causes them to have the title "schismatic". The word 'schism' comes from a Greek word that means 'to break' or 'to split.'
First of all, the term "Orthodox", when used as a proper name, and not an adjective, generally refers to any Eastern church that is in schism, not in union with Rome.
Nestorians are in schism-their non-schismatic counterparts are the Catholic Chaldeans-Nestorians and Chaldeans basically offer the same Divine Liturgy-the majority of the Christians that follow this rite are Catholic. This rite is indigenous to the area that we now call Iraq. The Catholic head of this rite is called the Patriarch of Babylon-Babylon being the ancient name for this area.
Copts are Christians that follow the ancient Coptic Rite that developed in North Africa-the Catholic Copts, the minority, are not in schism-the Orthodox Copts are.-Exactly the same answer holds for the Abyssinians, or Christians that follow the Ethiopian Rite. The head of the Catholic Copts has the title Patriarch of Alexandria, and is usually a cardinal-the head of the Orthodox Copts is also called Patriarch of Alexandria, and is called by them "Pope"; although the meaning of this word is not the same as the term "Pope" when used by Catholics-in this case it simply means their "Papa" or their father, in other words, their patriarch.
Jacobites are in schism-examples are the Syrian Orthodox.
Malabar Catholics are not in schism-the Orthodox Malabars (Jacobites) are. The Malabar Rite is indigenous to India-they call themselves "Mar Thoma" or "St. Thomas" Christians, as they trace their Christianity to the preaching of St. Thomas the Apostle in India.
The Armenian Rite is a rite that developed in Armenia, which claims to have been the first Christian country-the majority of the followers of this rite are schismatic Orthodox-a minority are Catholic.
For the sake of simplification, when we are referring to Eastern Christians, if we use the proper name "Orthodox" we are referring to those that are in schism. The term "Catholic" refers to those that are in union with Rome. If we talk about Christians that offer the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the ones that are in union with Rome we call Byzantine, or Greek Catholic-(this liturgy is sometimes referred to as the "Greek Liturgy")-the ones that are not in union with Rome, or in schism, we call Greek Orthodox-the "Greek" in this sense does not refer to their ethnic origin, simply to their rite.
Wow...thank you for such a clear reply. I thought that I may owe an apology to an atheist who challenged my knowledge of Schismatic Churches. I see now I was correct in thinking that all Orthodix Churches are Schismatic, while the Eastern rite Catholic brances are in union with Rome.
Would you mind if I copied this reply over to my forums?
God bless
Tony
--- "My Sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
