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The Church of Christ is unity in diversity. Around the great centers of diffusion, the rites have been gradually defined as “the liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary patrimony, culture and circumstances of the history of a distinct people, by which its own manner of living the faith is manifested” (Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches can. 28 § 1). At the same time, the necessity of the existence of the sacred ministry for the celebration of the Eucharist and the Sacraments is the basis for the establishment of the hierarchy of bishoprics that are formed ontogenetically and diachronically around the primary diffusion center, recognized as the Mother Church or, starting from the IVth–Vth centuries, as the Patriarchates. The tensions between dissident factions culminated in the Ecclesiastical Schism of 1054, which separated Eastern Christianity from the Roman Church. The restoration of the unity of the Constantinopolitan Churches of Central and Eastern Europe began with the Union of Brest–Litovsk (1595–1596), which generated a process of gradual entry of the territories of the Eastern Churches into unity, in 1700 reaching Transylvania. The Greek Catholic Churches fought a pioneering struggle in asserting their own traditions in order to restore the unity of the Church. The Eastern churches that re-entered the unity of the Catholic Church faced a change of ecclesiological paradigm, being in a permanent struggle to preserve their own specificity and to affirm the unity. The signatories of the Union Acts rejected “the Uniatism” from the beginning, a fact accepted today within the theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches, the canonical evolution and the treatises of Greek–Catholic theology being the result of a process of experimentation “from within” of unity and catholicity in the context of the modern and contemporary era. The United Churches have paved the way for the restoration of unity between East and West, being obligated to grasp different forms of canonical manifestation of unity in the absence of a Patriarchate in communion with the Church of Rome, during which they offer a reflection that fully grows through a theology of restoring the unity of the Church, benefiting today from the ecclesiological paradigm shift of Vatican II and by the conceptual tools provided by the traditions and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. Full article

Although at first sight Eastern Christianity is not associated with Africa, the African continent has shaped the establishment and development of three of the four main Eastern Christian traditions. Through a sociological lens, we examine the identity of the above African churches, focusing on the socio-historical entanglements of their religious and ethnic features. Firstly, we study the identity of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Eritrean Orthodox Church belonging to Oriental Orthodoxy. We focus on these African churches—and their diasporas in Western countries—as indigenous Christian paths in Africa. Secondly, we examine the identity of Africans and African-Americans within Eastern Orthodoxy. We consider both to have some inculturation issues within the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the development of an African-American component within Orthodoxy in the USA. Thirdly, we analyze the recent establishment and identity formation of African churches belonging to Eastern-rite Catholic Churches. In short, we aim to elaborate an overview of the multiple identities of African churches and one ecclesial community in Eastern Christianity, and to compare diverse sociological entanglements between religious and ethnic traits within them. A fruitful but neglected research subject, these churches’ identities appear to be reciprocally shaped by their own Eastern Christian tradition and ethnic heritage. Full article