Page 43 - AECA.org.uk ¦ Koinonia 64
P. 43

our privilege in this work of exploration and collaboration to handle the under-
standing of the person of Christ Jesus (1 John 1.1) together.

        We have been able to agree on the following statement:

Agreed Statement on Christology

1. We confess that our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ is the Only-
Begotten Son of God who became incarnate and was made human in the full-
ness of time for us and for our salvation. We believe in God the Son incarnate,
perfect in His divinity and perfect in His humanity, consubstantial with the
Father according to His divinity and consubstantial with us according to His
humanity, for a union has been made of two natures. For this cause we confess
one Christ, one Son and one Lord. [Based on the Formula of Re-union, AD
433].

2. Following the teaching of our common father Saint Cyril of Alexandria we
can confess together that in the one incarnate nature of the Word of God, two
di?erent natures, distinguished in thought alone (τη θεωρια μονη ti theoria
moni) continue to exist without separation, without division, without change,
and without confusion.

3. In accordance with this sense of the unconfused union, we confess the holy
Virgin to be Theotokos, because God the Word became incarnate and was
made man, and from the very conception united to himself that perfect hu-
manity, without sin, which he took from her. As to the expressions concerning
the Lord in the Gospel and in the Epistles, we are aware that theologians un-
derstand some in a general way as relating to one single person, and others they
distinguish as relating to two natures, explaining those that be?t the divine
nature according to the divinity of Christ, and those of a humble sort accord-
ing to his humanity. [Based on the Formula of Re-union, AD 433].

4. Concerning the four adverbs used to qualify the mystery of the hypostatic
union: “without commingling” (or confusion) (ασυγγχτος asyngchtos), “without
change” (ατρεπτος atreptos), “without separation” (αχοριστος achoristos), and
“without division” (αδιαιρητος adiairetos), those among us who speak of two
natures in Christ are justi?ed in doing so since they do not thereby deny their
inseparable indivisible union; similarly, those among us who speak of one in-
carnate nature of the Word of God are justi?ed in doing so since they do not
thereby deny the continuing dynamic presence in Christ of the divine and the

                                            41
   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48