OUR CHURCH'S MANY NAMES MELKITE Using this word to describe the historic n our contemporary culture, it is his term comes from the Semetic Church is usually credited to St. Ignatius of usual to be precise about names. words for king, “melko” or “melek”. Antioch who employed it in the second cen- Businesses have corporate titles, The king in this case was the Byzan- tury. Thus the Greek-speaking Christians of I T the Middle East were the first to be called musical and literary compositions tine emperor who supported the have copywrited designations, all of which are teachings of the council of Chalcedon, held In Catholics. protected by law. Legal documents confer 451. The opponents of this council, most of And so to say that we are Melkite Greek specific names on individuals and to change whom were in the Middle East, called its sup- Catholics means that we are a Church which: one's name is a matter for the courts. porters Royalists (malikiyeen). So the name, Is in the fulness of the Gospel (Catholic); This is, of course, a fairly recent develop- which today refers to the Byzantine Catholics Follows the Traditions of the Greek ment in history, chiefly in the Western world. of the Middle East, originally was an insult Fathers; and In the Middle East as our Church developed aimed at all Christians, both Eastern and Is in harmony with the Chalcedonian there was a much greater fluidity in the use of Western, who supported the Council of Chal- teachings. names. In addition there is even a difference cedon. in the terminology employed in the Middle There are a number of other names asso- East today vs. that which we use in this coun- GREEK (“ROOM” IN ARABIC) ciated with our heritage, although they are try. not part of the official name of our Church. In the Western world today our Church his word refers to the spiritual tradi- These are: is called Melkite Greek Catholic (Grec Mel- tion of the Greek Fathers which our Church follows. At the time of chite Catholique), as is explained below. In the T BYZANTINE Middle East we are generally known as Room Christ, Greek was the spoken lan- his word refers to the city of “New Katuleek, literally “Roman Catholic”, just as guage in the major cities of the Middle East. Rome” mentioned above. Originally those whom we call Antiochian or Greek The New Testament and the writings of the known as Byzantium, it is chiefly Orthodox here are known as Room Orthodox most important Church Fathers were com- T known in history as Constantinople, (“Roman Orthodox”) there. However the Rome posed in Greek. In contrast, people in the rur- the “city of Constantine”. Its present name is they are referring to in these titles is not the al areas spoke Aramaic or Syriac, the historic Istanbul, the Turkish pronunciation of the Rome in Italy, but Constantinople, which the language of the Chaldean, Maronite and Syri- Greek words for “in the city”. Our Church fol- ancients called New Rome. Those whom we an Churches. Only after the Muslim conquest lows the ritual of the Great Church of Con- call Roman Catholics here are known as La- of the Middle East did Arabic become the uni- stantinople for the Divine Liturgy. teen (Latins) overseas. versal language of this area. This often causes confusion when immi- grants arrive from the Middle East and, with a CATHOLIC ANTIOCHIAN literal translation, speak of themselves as Ro- his word means universal. When we t the time the Christian Church be- man Catholics when they actually mean Room say that the Church is Catholic we gan, Antioch was the capital of the Katuleek. It is also confusing for others who mean that it teaches universally and Roman province of “the East” (Anato- come to our churches and are confronted T A completely the full Gospel of our lia). It was the principal economic with the multitude of names our Church uses. Lord Jesus Christ. In contrast, sects stress one center of the entire Middle East, as it was at It is to help clarify some of this confusion that doctrine and exclude another. the crossroads of trade routes connecting the following definitions are offered. Europe and Asia. For these reasons it quickly became the center of Church life in the area as well. Although the city was destroyed by an Serbian) who accept the Council of Chalcedon earthquake in the seventh century, the chief and are generally referred to as “Eastern hierarchs of Churches in the Middle East still Orthodox”. The second group includes those bear the title patriarch of Antioch and all the non-Byzantines (e.g., Annenians, Copts, OUR CHURCH'S East. Ethiopians, Syrians) who do not follows Chal- For the first thousand years of Christian cedon and are usually called “Oriental Ortho- MANY NAMES history, the Greek Church in the Middle East dox”. Since what divides them is precisely the employed the Antiochian ritual, which greatly acceptance of the teachings of an ecumenical resembles the liturgy of the Syrian or Ma- council, it is evident that these two groups of ronite Churches. The only difference was in Churches are not in communion with one an- language: they prayed in Syriac and we in other. Greek. During the Middle Ages, especially as a result of the Muslim conquest and the Cru- EASTERN sades, the Greek Christians of Antioch were drawn closer and closer to their brethren in ased on Mediterranean geography Constantinople. For many years the Antiochi- as seen from a European perspec- an patriarchs and bishops actually lived in B tive, those Churches whose heritage Constantinople and were influenced by its us- sprang from the Eastern Mediter- ages. In time the Byzantine liturgical tradition ranean area have been called Eastern, while became the accepted practice among the An- those whose heritage is that of western tiochian Greeks and it is that worship tradi- Europe have been called Western. It is inter- tion we follow today. esting to note that those Churches of Syriac or Assyrian tradition consider Byzantines as Westerners! ORTHODOX his word literally means “right glori- UNIATE fying”. Like the term Melkite, it was T first used to describe those who re- riginally used in eastern Europe, this mained faithful to the true faith in is a derogatory term used to refer to the theological controversies of the early cen- O Byzantine (Greek) Catholics. Literally turies. One of the most ancient and respected it means those who are living in an ways of describing the Church and its people, “unia”, or dependence for favors on the it is – along with the word Catholic – the term Church of Rome. usually used in our liturgical texts to refer to the Church. In modern usage, the term is employed as a specific designation by two major groups of Eastern Christians. In the first group are OFFICE OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES those Byzantines of various ethnic jurisdic- MELKITE EPARCHY OF NEWTON http://melkite.org/ tions (e.g., Albanian, Bulgarian, Carpatho-Russ- ian, Greek, Middle Eastern, Romanian, Russian, Photo courtesy Joseph Koczera, S.J.