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What does the Coptic Orthodox Church teach about the Holy Trinity?

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The Coptic Orthodox Church believes in one God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is the faith into which Christians are baptized and the name in which the Church worships.

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Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:19 · NKJV

One God in three Persons

The Church confesses one divine essence and three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father; yet the Three are one God, equal in glory and worshiped together.

This mystery is confessed more than it is solved. The Church teaches it from Scripture, receives it in the Creed, and prays it constantly in the Liturgy. Every sign of the Cross, every Trinitarian blessing, and every Baptism places the faithful inside this confession.

The Trinity in Coptic prayer

Coptic worship is Trinitarian in shape. The Church prays to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. The doxologies glorify the Holy Trinity. Baptism is performed in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Eucharistic prayer gives thanks to the Father and asks for the Holy Spirit to sanctify the gifts.

The doctrine is the living faith of the Church: God reveals Himself, saves His people, and brings them into communion with Himself.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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