Jesus wanted the unity of the Church. The Orthodox are struggling because of a lack of love.

By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-10-10

The desire for the unity of the Church is indeed the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, who prayed "that they all may be one" (John 17:21). However, from a Coptic Orthodox perspective, we must distinguish between spiritual love and theological compromise, and between the failings of men and the purity of the Faith.

1. Unity Must Be in Truth, Not Just Emotion

The unity Christ prayed for is not a mere "agreement to disagree" or a social gathering of different denominations. True unity is a unity of faith and spirit. St. Cyril of Alexandria emphasized that Christ did not seek an αγαπητική (emotional/love-based) synthesis alone, but a physical and substantive unity in the Truth.

If we "unite" with those who hold heretical views—such as the Nestorians who divide Christ into two or the Protestants who reject the Mother of God—we are not achieving the unity Christ wanted. We would be uniting in a lie. True love does not suppress the Truth; it presents the Truth so that others may be saved.

2. The Difference Between the Faith and the Faithful

It is true that we, as individual members of the Church, are sinners. We often fail to live up to the high calling of the Gospel. We may struggle with pride, divisions within our own communities, or a lack of pastoral care.

However, the Orthodox Faith itself is perfect and lacks nothing. We must not confuse the behavior of a few (or many) sinful Orthodox Christians with the Holy Tradition of the Church. Even when the Church faced internal struggles or "miscreant tribes," the Lord manifested miracles—such as blood flowing from a broken chalice—to show that His presence remains in the Sacraments despite human weakness.

3. Love in the Trinity as Our Model

True love means the giving of oneself to the other, just as the Father loves the Son and gives Himself totally to Him (John 5:20, 17:10). In the Coptic family and the Church, this love must be sacrificial. If there is a "struggle" or a lack of love among the Orthodox, it is because we have stopped looking at the Holy Trinity as our model and have started looking at ourselves.

When we lack love, we stop being icons of Christ. But the solution is not to change the doctrines of the Church to make them more "likable" to the world; the solution is for us to repent and return to the asceticism and humility of the Desert Fathers.

4. The "Lack of Love" Label

Often, those outside the Church—heretics, Catholics, or secularists—claim the Orthodox "lack love" because we are "stubborn" about our dogmas. They view our refusal to commune with those of a different faith as "unloving."

But from our perspective:

• It is unloving to let someone remain in a theological error that endangers their soul.
• It is unloving to pretend we are united when we are not, as this is a form of spiritual hypocrisy.
• Straightforwardness about the truth is the highest form of love.

5. Conclusion

If the Orthodox are struggling, it is because we are human and prone to sin. But the "Unity of the Church" is already a reality within the Coptic Orthodox Church—it is the unity of the Apostolic succession, the Liturgy, and the Body and Blood of Christ.

We do not "seek" a unity that doesn't exist; we invite everyone to come back to the original unity that was broken by the heretics at Chalcedon and by the reformers of the West. Love is the fuel of our journey, but the Orthodox Faith is the road. Without the road, the fuel has nowhere to go. The Lord calls us to both: to hold the Truth in love.