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The Eastern Orthodox Church is a body of Christians that claims origins extending directly back to [[Jesus]] and his [[Apostles]] through unbroken [[Apostolic Succession]]. Its doctrines were formalized through a series of church councils in the following centuries. Toward the end of its first thousand years of existence differences developed between the Church in the Eastern and Western Roman Empire that ultimately led to the [[Great Schism]] in 1054 dividing Christianity into [[Roman Catholicism]] and Eastern Orthodoxy. Today the Eastern Orthodox Church includes the the various national churches of Eastern Europe such as the [[Greek OrthodoxChurch]] and [[Russian Orthodox]] churches, and maintains a strong presence in these ethnic communities in countries such as the United States and Australia.

The Oriental Orthodox Communion refers to the churches of Eastern Christian traditions that keep the faith of only the first three [[ecumenical councils]] and reject the the [[Council of Chalcedon]]. Thus, despite potentially confusing nomenclature, Oriental Orthodox churches are distinct from the churches that collectively refer to themselves as [[Eastern Orthodoxy]]. The Oriental Orthodox churches came to a parting of the ways with the remainder of Christianity in the 5th century. The key difference was the views of the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The separation resulted in part from the Oriental Orthodox churches' refusal to accept the view that [[Nature of Christ|Jesus has two natures]] — , one divine and one human, as had been defined by the [[Council of Chalcedon]] ([[Fourth Ecumenical Council]]) of 451. Instead, the churches used the terminology of [[Miaphysitism]] which said that Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine in one nature or "physis". The Oriental Churches include the [[Armenian Apostolic Church]], [[Coptic Orthodox Church]] and the [[Syrian Orthodox Church]].