The Melkite Greek-Catholic Church is one of the 22 Eastern Catholic Churches. The history of the Melkite Church began when the doctrines of the Catholic Church were established in the first seven Ecumenical Councils. Many churches were formed over the years because not all Christians agreed to the points of doctrine, theology and the church structure. One council named the Council of Chalcedon, had a teaching that Jesus was both human and divine in nature. The Christians who accepted this teaching were named the ‘Melkites’, which comes from the Syriac word for king, hence the church was named the Melkite Catholic Church. The Melkites are the Catholics of Byzantine rite of the patriarchates of Alexandria, Egypt, Antioch, Syria, Jerusalem and Palestine. The Melkite liturgy is of the Greek Byzantine Rite but their language and culture became progressively Arab after Islam’s conquest. Due to the church’s history, it is both in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and is also faithful to the traditions of the …show more content…
The lowest position within the church is the Lector or Reader, followed by the Sub-Deacon and then the Deacon. Next is the priest, who falls into 4 different subcategories: Archpriest, Archimandrite, Mitred Archpriest and Mitred Archimandrite. Continuing on from this role is the Bishop, then the Archbishop and finally at the top of the hierarchy is the Patriarch. The Melkites are known for their acceptance of the teaching of the council of Chalcedon (451 AD) and their belief that Jesus was both human and divine in nature. They also believe that we are called to become partakers of the divine nature and not just be saved from our sins. The Melkites suspect that the reason for Christ’s ascension was so that humans could be physically united with Christ, could be intimately related to God, could have the Holy Spirit dwell within them and so that they could live the life of