Second Agreed Statement of the Joint Commission of the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches

The Joint Commission met at the centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at Chambésy, near Geneva, from 23 to 28 September 1990. Its members were appointed by their churches: on one side the Eastern Orthodox, who receive Chalcedon, and on the other the Oriental Orthodox, who do not. The statement builds on a first agreed statement made at the Anba Bishoy monastery in Egypt in June 1989.

In ten points both families condemn the teachings of Eutyches and of Nestorius, and say that both have kept the same faith about Christ while using terms differently. Point 7 records that the Oriental Orthodox keep the wording of Cyril of Alexandria, “one nature of the incarnate Logos”, and that the Orthodox are justified in speaking of two natures; point 8, that both accept the first three ecumenical councils. The statement recommends that the old condemnations be lifted. It is a text agreed by a commission and submitted to the churches, which have not all acted on it. It is cited here as a statement, in their own words, of how the Oriental Orthodox describe their faith.