Based off what I've read it seems that the Oriental Orthodox Church doesn't claim that you need to convert to Oriental Orthodoxy if you are Eastern Orthodox to be saved.
Is my understanding correct, or do you need to become Oriental Orthodox to be saved?
If you don't need to be Oriental Orthodox to be saved then why become Oriental Orthodox instead of Eastern Orthodox?
I am not Orthodox but I'm looking into Orthodoxy.
I'm sorry if what I'm saying is offensive, I just can't find a clear answer.
Comments
I know the position of Gregory of Tatev.
But Armenian Apostolic have other saints with different opinion.
For instance, our Catholicos St Nerses IV the Gracious (Shnorhali) (1102-1173) believed that we have one faith with Greek Orthodox and even tried to unite Churches.
Next, St Nerses Lambronatsi (1153–1198) tried to unite Armenian Church with Roman and Greek Churches. He became a zealous advocate of the union of the Greek and Armenian Churches. In 1179 he attended the Council of Hromkla, in which the terms of the union were discussed. He said:
«As for me, an Armenian is like a Latin, a Latin is like a Greek, a Greek is like a Copt, and a Copt is like a Syrian. … Thanks to the grace of Christ, I destroy all the barriers that separate us; through this my good fame will reach the Latin, Syrian and even Greek Churches, for I am imperturbable among them.»
«You [Greek] say: I move away from the Armenian, so that he does not defile me. For the same reason, I, an Armenian, move away from the Greek. What impudence, what servility to the wiles of the devil! A Christian defiles a Christian. Let's take a look - what is this filth? Of course, not in morals and not in deeds, but in the fact that we confess Christ as God and Man. We, both sides, remaining in the same faith, because of some words and sayings consider each other bad! Woe to us when we, who have neglected the law of love, appear with our hatred at an impartial judgment!»
He also became saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
There are a lot of other Armenian Fathers, who thought the same (Mchitar Gosh, Catholicos Magakia (Ormanyan), St Ovanes Harnetsi).
Finally, our current Catholicos Garegin II said, that we don’t have any differences with Greek Orthodox, but the only reason we cannot unite is the conservative position of Greeks:
God bless you,
The main problem here is not the faith, but some proudnes of chalkinodian. St Nerses Shnorali didn’t have faith disagreement with them. He wrote about 2 wills in one. But Greek wanted us to accept all their Councils and change our prayers, rites, bread and wine in communion, calendar and many other things. They wanted to make us Greek Orthodox. So, it was not possible. Unity should be with equal and equal, but not lord and a slave.
Talking about Tatevatsi, he lived in a period of Catholic mission in Armenia. He was protecting our tradition and had a lot of disputes with them.
The mistake of the Chalcedonites is that they distorted the understanding of the concept of nature. Nature is a general concept, not a particular one. Nature cannot mean "part of Christ."
So, Dr. Khosrovik Targmanich (who took part in the Manzikert Council) said in letters to chalkidonites that if you combine 2 natures into one hypostasis, then either the Trinity is united with all mankind in Christ, or no one is united with anyone, since nature is understood either as the totality of all individuals, or as a speculative concept.
Moreover, nature in the philosophy of Aristotle and David Anakht (Armenian philosopher) is the definition of a thing. If one thing cannot be given one definition, then it is not one thing, but several. Further, the big question is why the Chalcedonites call Christ the God-Man. I asked about the nature of the property of the God-man. They couldn't answer.
God bless you,