ORIENTAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES-ORTHODOX DIALOGUE

ORIENTAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES-ORTHODOX DIALOGUE. Beginning with the informal talks held between Oriental and Eastern Orthodox theologians in the 1960s, a surprising consensus was arrived at regarding the two sides’ respective Christologies (q.v.). Official dialogue was opened in 1985 and culminated in a formal statement of agreement on the christological issues, published following a meeting of representatives of the different churches in Egypt in the summer of 1989. In the fall of 1992, the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, accepted the 1989 statement as the official position of his patriarchate (qq.v.). A year earlier the bishops of the Coptic Church (q.v.) had agreed to lift the ancient anathemas (condemnations) on the Chalcedonians. In spite of the agreements, however, considerable obstacles to formal reunion remain. These include: the status and meaning of the Ecumenical Councils held following the Third at Ephesus (qq.v.) in 431, the problem of individuals anathematized by the tradition of one side and canonized by the other (e.g., Leo the Great and Severus of Antioch [qq.v.]), and, ultimately, how to arrange the overlapping jurisdictions in the patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch (qq.v.), which would otherwise result from a true union.