How much do Americans know about Oriental Orthodox churches like the historical churches of Egypt, Ethiopia or Armenia? There is a large diaspora of these communities in the U.S and the close relationship between Oriental Orthodox and Catholics and various Protestant sects would make it so that they are somewhat well known.
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Most Americans have no knowledge of them at all.
I have a fair amount of knowledge of them and the Oriental Catholic rites and the differences between them… but I’m weird like that.
Very little. The most common orthodox church in the US is the greek one in my experiance.
Very very little. Most Americans exposure to Orthodox Christianity is very limited and is mostly of the Greek or Slavic varieties.
I learned that there was a Syrian Orthodoxy that still existed when I visited the Holy Sepulcher because of the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea was supposedly upkept by the Syrian Orthodox Church. That was back in 2017ish, and the tomb was neither particularly well kept nor as decorated as the others. Of course there were many other oriental orthodox churches present, like Coptic and Armenia, but as far as their traditions and beliefs I hardly know anything about. Granted, I’m Jewish and I was doing the Via Dolorosa for a Catholic friend back here in the states. I had no idea what I was doing, but I got water sprinkled on the rosaries that she gave me to take to all the stops.
Virtually nothing. Those churches do not really have a big diaspora in America, and they are rather distinct from the Catholicism and Protestantism the majority of Americans are familiar with.
Is there a difference between Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox?
Searching online, they appear to be different terms for the same thing, and I’m familiar with “Eastern Orthodox”.
Side note: the term “Oriental” in general was offensive to some friends I had in the past (like 20 years ago) so I stopped using it outside of cases where it was part of a business name or something similar.
I used to know an Egyptian guy named Christian and people would ask him if he was Muslim and he’d be like come on man how many Muslim guys do you think are named Christian? Obviously he was a Copt.
Anyway I am weird and like to learn about weird religions so I am familiar with oriental orthodoxy.
I wouldn’t say the average person knows much about them, although they are certainly present here. I think most folks would have at least heard of *Eastern* Orthodox churches like the Greek Orthodox, but the *Oriental* Orthodox (miaphysite) churches would have much less awareness.
I had no idea Egypt, Ethiopia or Armenia qualified as “oriental”. Oriental means East Asia, not Africa or Far west Asia.
Nothing
Having a Greek mom and being a Greek Orthodox Christian, I personally say I do have a good knowledge of eastern Christianity despite the differences between Greek, Armenian apostolic, etc. But the average American doesn’t have a clue