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Pray
for Christians in the Middle East and North Africa
Monthly
Cycle of Prayer for
the Church in the Middle East
Diocesan Prayer Fellowship--(The Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf)
Who
are the Christians in the Middle East?
An Overview of
Christianity in the Middle East
Introduction:
The Christian Church
throughout the Middle East
is a small minority with Islam being the principal religion.
Yet the diversity within this minority is greater than in any
other part of the world. Virtually
the entire spectrum of worldwide Christianity is represented.
Some of these Churches have been there from earliest times.
The world’s oldest Churches are to be found in the Middle East
and many claim specific apostolic founders.
Others emerged in the course of theological and political
disputes in the early centuries. Some
are the result of proselytizing zeal at various periods including the
nineteenth and twentieth century. The
breach between Eastern and Western Christianity has kept the Churches of
the two hemispheres in virtual isolation from one another for almost a
thousand years. Consequently,
many Westerners are unfamiliar with the present-day distribution of the
Churches in the Middle East. In this regard, it would
perhaps be helpful to provide a general overview of Christianity in the
region.
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Today there are between 14 and 15 million Middle
Eastern Christians, but only about 10 million remain in the Middle East
due to rapid immigration. This
represents a small minority among 200 million Muslims and 3.5 million
Jews in the region. Yet
these Churches carry rich spiritual, cultural, and doctrinal traditions,
most of which are very different when viewed from our Western Christian
experience. Yet we have much
in common and a great deal we can learn from each other.
The incredibly rich Middle Eastern Christian spirituality, which
is Oriental in its orientation, teaches much about prayer, meditation,
fasting, and even martyrdom. Arab
Christians can share with us how to live with Muslims, who represent the
fastest growing religion in the West. |
The Middle East Churches are grouped according
to five major families.
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The largest Church family is the
Oriental
Orthodox Community. The
largest single Church is the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt,
which traces its roots to the Pharonic Egyptians who converted during
St. Mark’s ministry. The
rich tradition of monasticism in the eastern desert is very alive today,
as is the Coptic missionary movement.
Next in size is the Armenian Apostolic Church, with its unique ethnic history (Armenia
was the first nation to claim Christianity in 301 A.D.), and successive
persecution. It has
approximately 2 million members worldwide.
The Syrian Orthodox Church, with its Patriarch in Damascus, is the smallest in the
Middle East
(approximately 160,000 members) due to severe immigration.
The Oriental (non-Chalcedonian) Orthodox Churches
The
Armenian Apostolic Church
The Coptic
Orthodox Church
The Syrian
Orthodox Church
The
Ethiopian Orthodox Church
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The second family is the
Byzantine
(also called Eastern or Greek) Orthodox Churches.
They constitute three self-governing Churches that are linked by
doctrine, liturgy, and canon law, with the Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul
(Constantinople
). They belong to the wider
family of Orthodox Churches in the former Soviet Union
, Europe
and North America. The Antiochian Orthodox
Church (named for the city where Christians claimed the term
“Christian” in Acts 11) counts approximately 1.3 million members,
primarily in Lebanon and Syria. This Church has provided
outstanding leaders in the modern ecumenical movement in the Middle East. The
Church of Cyprus
(mentioned in Acts 11:19) is a product of Paul and Barnabus’ missionary journey.
It constitutes approximately 80% of the population in
Greek-speaking Cyprus.
The Eastern (Byzantine) Orthodox Churches
The
Antiochian Orthodox Church
The
Church
of Cyprus
The Greek
Orthodox Church (Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople)
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Third, the
Catholic family
accounts for approximately 15% of the Middle East Christians.
These Churches all accept the ecclesiastical authority of the
Pope in Rome, but most are not considered Latin-rite, but rather “Eastern-rite”
Churches. The largest of
these Churches are called Melkite Catholics, with significant
communities in Israel/Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. They follow a Byzantine
liturgy, and their doctrine is closer to the Orthodox Churches from whom
they broke in the 5th century. The Maronite Catholics are found primarily in
Lebanon. They are an Eastern-rite
(liturgical) Church that dates back to the 4th century, with
an independent tradition tied to the Lebanese Mountains. There are approximately
1.2 million Maronites in Lebanon, but over 6.5 million in Europe
and the United States. Smaller Catholic
communities include the Chaldeans (Iraq), Armenians, Syrian Catholics,
and Coptic Catholics.
The
Catholic Churches (in communion with Rome, but mostly with Eastern-rite liturgies)
The Chaldean Catholic
The Armenian Catholic
The Maronite Catholic
The Greek (Melkite) Catholic
The Syrian Catholic
The Coptic Catholic
The Latin Patriarchate
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Fourth, with its unique history is
The Assyrian Church (“Nestorian”) of the East, one of the oldest Churches
in the East. It was
excommunicated on the alleged grounds that it followed the teachings of
the heretic Nestorius. It is
found in Iraq, Iran, India, China, and Tibet—with approximately 250,000 members.
This church was the first to send missionaries to China in 410 A.D.
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Fifthly, there is the
Protestant family, the Episcopal and Evangelical Churches--the latest arrivals
in the region. Most are
called “evangelical”, which means Protestant in the Middle East. They are the products of
American and European missions during the previous 150 years.
They include Presbyterians, Anglicans, Baptists, Lutherans,
Congregationalists, Reformed, Methodists, and Quakers.
Conclusion:
Relationships among Christians
in the Middle East
have often left the communities divided and separated from each other
over doctrine, politics, and history.
However, since 1974 the Orthodox and Protestant Churches
have been cooperating through the Middle East Council of Churches, one
of the most creative ecumenical ventures in the world.
In January 1991 the Catholic Churches joined the MECC, bringing
over 90% of the region’s Christians under one umbrella.
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