Κηφᾶς,
Although the admins deleted your post, I had already read it. Extremely humorous, but warranted sarcasm. With folks like that I am less interested in debating with them and more focused on third parties seeing the nonsense. That's the onl…
No. I do not want you to explain what I said. My contention is with the words you used "It is an effective symbol of death". Our baptism is not a symbol at all but an effective death and resurrection with Christ.
Explain what an effective death is t…
So I can follow your argument, can you please elaborate as to what is an effective symbol? Is there an effective symbol and an ineffective symbol? Please give some scriptural references.
You are the one who said our death in baptism is effective. I…
It is an effective symbol of death. Are you arguing that St. Basil is wrong? Telling me to read one of Pope Shenouda's books isn't a way to make a point. Please read "Salvation in the Orthodox Concept" by Pope Shenouda, starting with page 34, to …
We do not die symbolically with Christ. We do die effectively with Christ and rise with Him.
Take up your parsing of words with St. Basil the Great:
And ere now there have been some who in their championship of true religion have undergone the death…
Baptism is necessary. Two things take place in baptism. 1) we symbolically die with Christ, 2) we are re-born. The Martyrs who became thus before their baptism in water, instead of symbolically dying with Christ, actually died. Others have been …
Take the good, leave the bad. What's counter-productive is to write off the whole man because of the bad. I think everyone can agree to this.
I think St. Augustine wrote about the question of the pre-existence of the soul (in his Anti-Pelagian wr…
However, souls do exist before uniting with the body. This is clearly seen in Christ's manifestation in the Old Testament. If one wants to argue that Christ is the exception, we can still look at Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew…
Well, I like to stay away from the words "schism and heresy" just because it puts a bad taste in people's mouths ;). Of course that is not to say there's a lot of anathemas out there. But I'd put it this way - Oriental Orthodoxy is true and correc…
Fine, but we understand the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood differently from RCs. They like to philosophize as to how the bread and wine change, while the Orthodox don't.
You, me, and a lot of other people on these forums ph…
Your link says:
Thomas Acquinas from the Catholic Church is the one who introduced the term "transubstantiation" and it describes the process of change itself. The Orthodox Church refuses to use the term; since it is a mystery and cannot be explaine…
@imikhail and Severian
What in the world are you two talking about? "Transubstantiation" means "the changing of one substance into another." You two better believe that the wine and bread are turned into the Blood and Body of Christ. If this tra…
Thank you COPT.Mark, I said what I said because I sensed a fight was coming on.
I hope it wasn't anything I said. Not trying to be confrontational at all :).
I take it then that its up to the individual to discern whether he/she should have communion there then?
No, the only communion we can take is that of other OO churches or the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria (only if you are married to one of th…
Darn.. can we get an official answer then?
The Church has never made Synodal decisions to appease curiosity. These decisions are only made when there is a real need to refute attacks on the Faith. This goes as far back as the Orthodox Creed itself…
@Soverian
Your question was originally about RC Eucharist, and I alread answered it:
The Coptic Synod has never actually made any official statements about the "validity" of anyone's Eucharist.
My conclusion that their sacraments are valid is based on the above logic. Its not someone's fault if he was born Catholic!! I knew about Orthodoxy thanks to my parents. Their parents were catholic. Indeed, now I know both Churches, its clear that O…
I'm just curious, but why is everyone using the term EO for the RC? The RC are not part of the EO. - I know the Byzantine Rite of the RC is indeed VERY close to the EO, and it is quite common for them to become EO's, but inherently, whoever is under…
Actually, I am pretty positive that our Church recognizes the Eucharist of ALL the EO Churches. But, if I am wrong correct me. I have been told that all the OO synods have officially declared them to be Orthodox. But of course, just because we don't…
The Coptic Holy Synod recognizes none of the Roman Catholic Sacraments. To my knowledge, we only recognize the baptism of EO churches that recognize ours. I think the only EO Eucharist we recognize is the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria's, and…