What are the ecclesiastical laws approved in our Church?

These laws are divided into the following groups:

1. The Collection of the Laws of the Apostolic Fathers:
This includes the 127 canons, in two books: one containing 71 canons and the other containing 56 canons. They were published in the collection Orientalis Patrologia.
The Greeks, however, collect them into only 81 canons.
The Apostolic Canons are sometimes known as the Canons of Clement, on the basis that the Apostolic Fathers sent them through Clement in a collection of books to the churches.
Hippolytus abbreviated them into a collection of canons known by his name, and in Arabic references they are called the Canons of Apollides.
There is no validity to the canons attributed to the apostles in the book Misbah al-Zulmah by Ibn Kabar, which he called the Canons of the Upper Zion, as they contain serious errors proving that they cannot date back to the era of the apostles.
Among what the Apostolic Fathers also handed down to us is the book of the Didascalia, which includes 38 chapters. It is not merely canons, but explanations and teachings, and therefore it was known as the “Teachings of the Apostles.”

2. The Canons of the Ecumenical Councils:
These include the canons of the three Ecumenical Councils recognized by our Church: the Council of Nicaea in 328 AD, the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD, and the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD.
These councils issued canons concerning the faith by which they condemned the heretics, as well as canons concerning the administration and organization of the Church.
The most important collection among them is the Canons of the Council of Nicaea, which include only twenty canons. However, there exists an Arabic collection that attributed another 81 canons to this great Ecumenical Council, which our Church and the majority of the Apostolic Churches do not recognize, as it contains errors that are evident to a discerning researcher.

3. The Canons of the Local Councils:
These include the canons of two councils held before the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea:
– The Council of Ancyra in 314 AD.
– The Council of Neocaesarea in 315 AD.

Because these two councils were the first local councils after the issuance of the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, in which Constantine proclaimed religious freedom, many who had weakened and apostasized during the persecution returned to the faith. Therefore, the canons of these two councils included many regulations for accepting the lapsed, together with the penalties imposed upon them.

c. The Council of Gangra (between Nicaea and Constantinople), which issued 20 canons.
d. The Council of Antioch in 341 AD, which issued 25 canons.
e. The Council of Laodicea in 343 AD or thereafter, which issued canons concerning the acceptance of heretics and innovators, and some concerning rites.
f. The Council of Sardica around the year 343 AD, which issued 12 canons.
g. The Council of Carthage, known as the Council of Africa, which was held in 419 AD, attended by Saint Augustine, and issued 138 canons.

Saint Cyprian was concerned with the study of the issue of the baptism of heretics, and this was in the year 257 AD. Seventy-one bishops gathered, and this council may have had three sessions from 256 AD to 258 AD.

4. The Canons of the Great Fathers:
By these we mean the pillars of the Church whose canons were recognized by the councils. These include:
a. The canons of Saint Dionysius of Alexandria, which include 4 canons.
b. The canons of Saint Peter, Seal of the Martyrs, which include 15 canons.
c. The canons of Saint Athanasius the Apostolic, which in our manuscripts include 106 canons.
d. The canons of Saint Timothy of Alexandria, which include 18 canons. They consist of questions he answered when he attended the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 318 AD, and his answers were considered canons in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
e. The canons of Saint Theophilus of Alexandria, which include 14 canons.
f. The canons of Saint Cyril the Great, which include 12 anathemas against Nestorianism.
g. The canons of Saint Gregory the Wonderworker, which include 12 canons.
h. The canons of Saint Cyril the Great, which in our manuscripts include 107 canons, and in the Greek collection 93 canons.
i. The canons of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, which include 8 canons.
j. The canons of Saint John Chrysostom.

All these canons are recognized by the universal Church, and all of them precede the Chalcedonian schism in the year 451 AD.

5. The Canons of Coptic Councils:
Such as the canons issued by the Holy Synod during the days of Pope Cyril III (Ibn Laqlaq) in the thirteenth century, and the canons issued during the days of Pope Gabriel ibn Turaik.

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Al-Keraza Magazine, fifteenth year, issue four, dated April 1, 1987.

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