ORIENTAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES

ORIENTAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES. This phrase is recent and chosen to distinguish the “Eastern Orthodox,” i.e., the churches in communion with Constantinople and accepting the Seven Ecumenical Councils, from the churches of Egypt, Armenia, Ethiopia, Syria, and India, which refused to acknowledge the Council of Chalcedon and as a result severed their relations with the imperial city and with Rome (qq.v.). Formerly referred to as “monophysite,” ecumenical exchange between the two sides has led to a change in nomenclature-the “monophysites” rightly protesting a title that the other side had given them, and that not in an eirenic spirit. (See entries following.)