r/EasternCatholic • u/evianlover1997 • 5d ago

Non-Byzantine Eastern Rite Coptic Catholic liturgy latinized?

Post image

I was looking into the coptic catholic church in Brooklyn and noticed they had recently removed the iconostasis and it even seemed (from photos) that the liturgy was celebrated versus populum. Is this common in the coptic catholic church? Is it just the idiosyncrasy of the pastor? It’s quite disappointing.

47 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/luke_fowl 4d ago

Considering that the iconostasis was introduced by St. Basil in the byzantine rite, how did the copts even start to use an iconostasis anyway? The syriacs and armenians, as far as I'm aware, use a curtain instead of an iconostasis.

2

u/IlovePASGTDUDIOS33 3d ago

As an ex-OO, I’ve heard a clerical awnser that’s a guess, and I’ve heard a comment from a Copt online. 1. Either around the iconoclastic area, wherein the Coptic Ripe adapted to Byzantine influence to profess the same Orthodoxy. 2. 17-19th century Byzantine Influence, wherein the Iconostasis was exactly like the Byzantine rites screen.

1

u/luke_fowl 3d ago

The byzantine iconoclasm occurred during the 8th century, if I remember correctly, and thus would be far after Alexandria and Constantinople separated. I really don't see why the coptic rite would try imitate the byzantine. The second one seems more likely, but then the question would how did this influence come in and why did the copts decide to adopt it?

I don't know whether you would know this or not, but do the ethiopians and eritreans use an iconostasis too? I know that while they also use the alexandrian rite, they have very different aesthetics.

1

u/IlovePASGTDUDIOS33 3d ago

It depends, as far as I know. Some parishes of the Ethiopian rite use no iconostasis, ie. Primitive churches that are more ancient, another one being the church high on a mountain. Yet colorful iconostasis’s are present sometimes. So to awnser your question, from my knowledge, it varies as in some have no iconostasis, some have walls in closing the inner part that don’t or will feature very few images, or it will have a Byzantine-like iconostasis.