Ecumenical councilIn Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, an ecumenical council (Greek Οικουμένη (Oikumene), which literally means "inhabited", i.e. all places that are are being inhabited by live beings, therefore "World-wide" or "General") is a meeting of the bishops of the whole church convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice. "The whole church" is construed by Eastern Orthodoxy as including all Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions in full communion with each other. This does not include the Catholic Church since the Orthodox Church considers itself fully empowered to hold an Ecumenical Council without Rome's approval or participation. (A few Orthodox, however, would see a council as fully ecumenical only if it included all the ancient partriarchates, including Rome--this is not mainstream Orthodox opinion.) Catholics, on the other hand, take the whole church to mean only those in full communion with the Catholic church. (Again, some Catholics would see it necessary to include the Eastern Churches in an ecumenical council, in the full and proper sense. As Pope John Paul has often put it, the Church needs to breathe "with two lungs.") More local meetings are sometimes called "synods", but the distinction between a synod and a council is not hard and fast. However, both churches do recognize the validity of all of the early councils before the Great Schism. The Greek word "synod" (σύνοδος) derives from "syn" (together) and "odos" (road, way), therefore a synod is the coming together of several people sharing a common element, in this case the Christian bishops.
Council documentsChurch councils were, from the beginning, bureaucratic exercises. Written documents were circulated, speeches made and responded to, votes taken, and final documents published and distributed. A large part of what we know about the beliefs of heresies comes from the documents quoted in councils in order to be refuted, or indeed only from the deductions based on the refutations. For all councils Canons (Greek κανονες (kanones), "rules" or "rulings") were published and survive. In some cases other documentation survives as well. Study of the canons of church councils is the foundation of the development of canon law, especially the reconciling of seemingly contradictory canons or the determination of priority between them. Canons consist of doctrinal statements and disciplinary measures -- most Church councils and local synods dealt with immediate disciplinary concerns as well as major difficulties of doctrine. Eastern Orthodoxy typically views the purely doctrinal canons as dogmatic and applicable to the entire church at all times, while the disciplinary canons are the application of those dogmas in a particular time and place; these canons may or may not be applicable in other situations. Acceptance of the councilsBoth the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches recognize seven councils in the early years of the church, but Catholics also recognize fourteen councils called in later years by the Pope, whose authority the Eastern Orthodox utterly repudiate as they consider Rome to currently be in schism. The status of these councils in the face of a Catholic-Orthodox reconciliation would depend upon whether one accepts Roman Catholic ecclesiology (papal primacy) or Orthodox ecclesiology (collegiality of autocephalous churches). In the former case, the additional councils would be granted the status of Ecumenical. In the latter case, they would be considered to be local synodical decisions with no authority among the other autocephalous churches.
In the past few decades, many Roman Catholic theologians and even the Bishops of Rome have spoken of the first seven councils as ecumenical in the full and proper sense, enjoying the acceptance of both East and West. Moreover, Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical Ut Unum Sint ("That they may be one"), invited other Christians to discuss how the primacy of the Bishop of Rome should be appropriately exercised from now on; he says that the future may be a better guide than the past. In this way, the Bishop of Rome is allowing for the development of an ecclesiology that would be acceptable to both East and West, would allow for reconciliation of Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and would provide a common understanding of the authority of councils called ecumenical. The mutual excommunications of 1054 between the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople were lifted in 1965 by their successors at that time. Moreover, the 1054 "Great Schism" took place when the Bishop of Rome was dead; Orthodox and Catholics in many places continued to recognize each other as members of the universal Church, for generations. In fact, the Churches drifted apart over time, becoming clearly separated only after the looting of Constantinople in the thirteenth century. As these Churches today work towards reconciliation, the restoration of full communion will also take time. A generally accepted Orthodox perspective on the ecumenical councils will be complimented by some equally agreed upon understanding of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, as the successor of Peter. Many Protestants (especially those belonging to the magisterial traditions, such as Lutheranism and Anglicanism) accept the teachings of the first seven councils, but do not ascribe to the councils themselves the same authority as Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox do. The Oriental Orthodox only accept the teachings of some of the councils: the Assyrian Church of the East only accepts the First Council of Nicaea and the First Council of Constantinople, while the Oriental Orthodox Communion only accepts Nicaea I, Constantinople I and the Council of Ephesus. The first seven councils were called by the emperor (first the Christian Roman Emperors and later the Byzantine Emperors). Most historians agree that the emperors called the councils to force the Christian bishops to resolve divisive issues and reach consensus. They hoped that maintaining unity in the Church would help maintain unity in the Empire. The relationship of the Papacy to the validity of these councils is the ground of much controversy between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Churches and to historians. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rejects the early ecumenical councils for what they see as misguided human attempts without divine assistance to decide matters of doctrine as though doctrine were to be handed down by democratic debate or politics rather than by revelation. That convening such councils was even considered is evidence enough to them that the original Christian church had fallen into apostasy and was no longer directly led by divine authority. They see the calling of such councils, for example, by an unbaptized (let alone unordained) Roman Emperor as preposterous and assert that the emperors used the councils to exercise their influence to shape and institute Christianity to their liking. Some Protestants, including some fundamentalist and nontrintitarian churches, condemn the ecumenical councils for other reasons. Independency or congregationalism among Protestants involves the rejection of any governmental structure or binding authority above local congregations; conformity to the decisions of these councils is therefore considered purely voluntary and the councils are to be considered binding only insofar as those doctrines are derived from the Scriptures. Many of these churches reject the idea that anyone other than the authors of Scripture can directly lead other Christians by original divine authority; after the New Testament, they assert, the doors of revelation were closed. They consider new doctrines not derived from the sealed canon of Scripture to be both impossible and unnecessary, whether proposed by church councils or by more recent prophets. Supporters of the councils contend that the councils did not create new doctrines but merely elucidated doctrines already in Scripture that had been misinterpreted by heretics. List of ecumenical councils
List of Councils of Rome
External links
cs:Koncil de:Ökumenisches Konzil eo:Koncilio es:Concilio ecuménico fr:Concile ja:公会議 la:Oecumenicum Concilium no:Řkumenisk konsil pl:Sobór powszechny Categories: Eastern Orthodoxy | Oriental Orthodoxy | Roman Catholic Church Institutions |
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