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If there is could someone simplify it for me?
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The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is part of a separate body of Churches called Oriental Orthodoxy that also includes the Coptic, Armenian, and Syriac Churches. These Churches schismed from the Eastern Orthodox over the definition of Christ as having two Natures and instead believe he has a single Divine-Human Nature. It's definitely not semantics if you understand how these concepts are used. Some say this is a translation issue, but I've yet to find real evidence of this and most Oriental Orthodox heavily disagree. These Churches generally differ a lot from each other, as well as differing in how much they differ from Eastern Orthodoxy, as they have no unity except in rejection Chalcedon and the concept of them as a singular communion is something that really only came about in the 18th century.
I would politely invite you to read this article that would disagree with the statements you've made. https://www.svots.edu/content/beyond-dialogue-quest-eastern-and-oriental-orthodox-unity-today The two churches made a joint statement after the 1964 meeting saying, "We recognize in each other the one Orthodox faith of the church. Fifteen centuries of alienation have not led us astray from the faith of our fathers.... On the essence of the Christological dogma we found ourselves in full agreement. Through the different terminologies used by each side, we found the same truth expressed."
It doesn’t really matter if bishops come to agreement. We’ve already established our formulas for reunion in the first millennium. They have failed to do so time and time again. Even after they realized we weren’t saying “in two hypostases” at chalcedon they still refused to accept “in two essences” because their union isn’t IN the hypostasis it’s of two.
You should also consider this article from Bp. Hilarion (Even though it's not directly related to Hypostases, it's helpful) https://silouanthompson.net/wp-content/uploads/The-Reception-of-the-Ecumenical-Councils-in-the-Early-Church.pdf
If you want to go off the deep end, there's a very interesting talk on youtube between a Coptic and an Assyrian priest, where they dig deep into the matter & actually end up agreeing. Marvelous stuff!
Intriguing
It’s also important to properly understand what we both mean when we say “nature.” For us nature is synonymous with essence but for them nature in Christology refers to the particular or hypostasis. So when they say Christ is one nature, human and divine, they just mean he’s one composite hypostasis, human and divine, which technically speaking we wouldn’t disagree with. We disagree with in what way Christ is a composite hypostasis. For them he’s out of two hypostases while for us the hypostasis itself is divine even though it is proper to call him a composite hypostasis because of the taking on of human nature (essence) rather than human hypostasis (OO position)
In addition to what folks mentioned about the divity of christ, there are other factors as well. Namely that the eastern orthodox church believes in theosis, which is not recognized in any of the oriental orthodox churches, not is it heavily documented by any of the early church fathers except maybe athanasius.
OO heavily bases doctrine on the early church fathers (<500AD), St Macarius, st Chrysostom, Ephraim the Syrian, Isaac the Syrian, and other desert fathers, who all by the way would fall under OO and mostly Coptic church.
Ethiopian church is hard to break into because of cultural stuff, but their divine liturgy is beautiful.
Everything you need to know about the history of ths OO and EO split along with current dialogue is in this link. https://www.svots.edu/content/beyond-dialogue-quest-eastern-and-oriental-orthodox-unity-today When you read it you will know that the theological differences are already solved.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is part of the Oriental Orthodox communion, in communion with the Coptic Orthodox, the Syriac Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic Church, etc.
The Eastern Orthodox Churches would include the Greek Orthodox, the Russian Orthodox, the Antiochian Orthodox, the Orthodox Church in America, etc.
The Eastern Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox split in 451 over the Council of Chalcedon, because of a debate regarding the divinity and humanity of Christ.
The Eastern Orthodox hold to dyophisitism, that Christ is both human and divine, with his humanity and divinity united inseparably in the single Person of Christ, without confusion.
The Oriental Orthodox hold to miaphysitism, and believe that Christ is both human and divine, with his humanity and divinity united inseparably in the single Person of Christ, without confusion.
Huge difference, right?
Thing is, the way we describe our belief (Eastern Orthodox) about Christ's natures has been understood by many OOs as heretical, since our definition emphasizes that the two natures are not confused/mixed together by saying He has two natures.
The OO view has been understood by those on the EO side as heretical since the OO emphasize the unity of Christ's humanity and divinity and define the union as being one compound(?) nature.
In recent dialogues between the two, a Christological agreement came to be which basically said that we're actually trying to say the same thing. I think the biggest thing that hinders official unity is the fact that the Oriental Church has not formally accepted the Council of Chalcedon.
This hugely underplays the real differences, and treats the OO, who tend to emphasize the difference more, like they don't understand their Theology. And the statements of agreement are more vauge than most admit, Copts still use services anathemizing dyophysitism as heretical for instance. And there are many other issues dividing us. The problem is most.of their stuff isn't translated and in the English speaking world they often educate through EO material and institutions. Like there is an anti-deification strand of their Theology, or at least a movement against the language we use for it, in the Middle East but that's crazy to a lot of American Copts.
Interesting; I was not aware of this stuff. Thanks
We also hold to miaphysitism. The issue is: they don’t believe in just Miaphysitism (one hypostasis). They believe in one hypostasis out of two. We don’t. These are different things. We believe in one hypostasis in two essences.
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There is an Ethiopian Orthodox family that attends our Ukrainian Orthodox parish. They are Oriental Orthodox (OO) and we are Eastern Orthodox (EO). They don't receive Communion at our Church. Though there is an agreement with their priest and our Bishop so he is allowed to use our building for celebrating their Liturgy, they just aren't allowed to go behind our iconostatis.
I was having a conversation with my friend about this. He said eth orthodox are Orthodox, but are still outside because of their patriarch. Ion the other hand sat if you can't Commune in an EO church then they're not Orthodox any way you alice it.