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 The Christian Churches of the Arab World

The confessional diversity among the Christian communities of the Middle East is one of the most complicated features of a famously complicated region. There are approximately 15 million Christians in the Arab region. They are divided among 20 different groups. The major religious bodies are:

Catholic
Latin (Roman) Catholic—in Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus, their spiritual leader is the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah; the liturgy is in Arabic.

Armenian Catholic—established in 1840, with a patriarchate in Beirut to serve the communities dispersed across the region since the Anatolian genocide of 1915-23. There are 363,000 members scattered across the world.

Chaldean Catholic—a branch of the Assyrians, from whom they split in the 16th century, and united with Rome in 1681. Concentrated in Iraq and Kurdistan, their numbers are estimated at 400,000.

Coptic Catholic—claiming union with Rome since the Council of Chalcedon in 451; formal union was cemented at the Council of Florence in 1442. There are approximately 200,000 Coptic Catholics in Egypt.

Melkite Catholic—re-established full communion with the Holy See in the early 18th century; mostly concentrated in Syria, with small communities in the Holy Land (especially Galilee), and about two million faithful; liturgy in Arabic.

Maronite Catholic—tracing their lineage to St. Maroun in the 4th century; their early years were characterized by conflict with other Christian sects, particularly the Syrian Jacobites, before communion with the Holy See was re-established during the Crusades. They are concentrated in Lebanon, but there are also communities in Jerusalem and Syria. Liturgy is in Syriac and Arabic. There are approximately 1.2 million Maronites in Lebanon.

Syrian Catholic—re-established communion with the Holy See in 1662; liturgy in Syriac and Arabic.

Greek Orthodox Church
With patriarchates in Damascus, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, the autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church is the largest in the region, and claims to represent the direct continuation of the apostolic tradition; the liturgy is in Greek and Arabic.

Oriental Orthodox
(These disparate Christian bodies are independent, but united in their rejection of the doctrinal decrees set forth by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, asserting that Christ was one person with two undivided natures. For this reason they have been known as “Monophysites”—although this term itself is considered contentious).

Armenian Apostolic—claiming origin in the 4th century, under the leadership of St. Gregory the Illuminator; doctrine differs slightly from Syrian and Coptic Orthodox. The spiritual leader, or Catholicos, resides in Antelias, Lebanon; the liturgy is in Armenian.

Coptic—tracing back to the evangelization of Egypt by St. Mark. The Copts boast their role in the founding of the monastic tradition, and their current status as the single largest Christian community in the Middle East. They were a majority in Egypt until 850 AD; the liturgy is in Coptic. The faithful number somewhere between four and six million.

Ethiopian—claiming the mantle of St. Frumentius in the 4th century. Long allied with Coptic Church, but now independent, their liturgy is in Ethiopian languages. Their Middle Eastern representation is mostly confined to monks and pilgrims in the Holy Land, and relatives of Jewish (Falasha) Ethiopian immigrants.

Syrian—derives from See of Antioch, established by St. Peter. The patriarch resides in Homs, Syria, and the Church follows the Syriac liturgy of St. James. Also known as Jacobite (after a 6th century Bishop of Edessa, who contributed to the preservation of the rite), the Church claims approximately 500,000 members.

Assyrian
The Nestorian, Suriani, and Syriac churches teach that Christ has two distinct persons (the human and divine)—for which they were condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. They derive their faith from the missions of St. Thomas. The “Nestorian” Church, as it was previously known, spread across Persia, India, and China until shredded in the 14th century by the conquests of Tamerlane. Prior to that disaster, the Nestorian or “Thomas Church” was probably the most influential Christian group south of the Mediterranean. The liturgy is in Syriac-Aramaean dialects; the faithful today are estimated at less than 100,000.

Protestant
Mostly converted by British and American missionaries in the 19th and 20th centuries, these Christian groups include the Anglican, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches. The latter accounts for 600,000 Africans in Sudan. There are also small representations of such creeds as the Baptists, Mennonites, and Mormons. n

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