| THE HOLY BYZANTINE KATHOLIC ORTHODOX CHURCH A TRADITIONAL COMMUNITY |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
The First Ecumenical Council
This Council was held in Nicea, Asia Minor in 325 A.D. at the
instigation of the Emperor, Constantine the Great. 315 Bishops
were in attendance.
The Emperor called the council due to the raging Arian Controversy
at that time. Arius denied the divinity of Christ, based upon his
supposition that if Jesus was born, then there was a time when He
did not exist. "If He became God, then there was time when He was
not (God)." The Council declared the teaching of Arius to be heresy,
decreeing that Christ is God and declaring Him to be of the same
essence homoousios with God the Father.
The first part of the seven articles of the Creed, known to us as the
Nicene Creed, were ratified at this First Ecumenical Council
The Second Ecumenical Council
This Council took place in Constantinople in 381 A.D., under the
reign of Theodosius the Great. 150 Bishops attended.
Its purpose was to determine a solution to what was called the
Macedonian Controversy. Macedonius misrepresented the
Church's teaching on the Holy Spirit. He asserted that the Holy
Spirit was not a person hypostasis, but only a power dynamic of
God. Consequently in his interpretation, the Holy Spirit was inferior
to the Father and the Son. The Council condemned his teaching
and defined the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, decreeing that there
was One God in three persons hypostases: these persons being
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The holy fathers at the Council added five articles to the Creed:
beginning, as follow:
"And (We believe) in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life,
who proceeds from the Father: who with the Father and the Son
together is worshipped and glorified: who spoke by the prophets.
In one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one
baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the
dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen."
This Council was held in Nicea, Asia Minor in 325 A.D. at the
instigation of the Emperor, Constantine the Great. 315 Bishops
were in attendance.
The Emperor called the council due to the raging Arian Controversy
at that time. Arius denied the divinity of Christ, based upon his
supposition that if Jesus was born, then there was a time when He
did not exist. "If He became God, then there was time when He was
not (God)." The Council declared the teaching of Arius to be heresy,
decreeing that Christ is God and declaring Him to be of the same
essence homoousios with God the Father.
The first part of the seven articles of the Creed, known to us as the
Nicene Creed, were ratified at this First Ecumenical Council
The Second Ecumenical Council
This Council took place in Constantinople in 381 A.D., under the
reign of Theodosius the Great. 150 Bishops attended.
Its purpose was to determine a solution to what was called the
Macedonian Controversy. Macedonius misrepresented the
Church's teaching on the Holy Spirit. He asserted that the Holy
Spirit was not a person hypostasis, but only a power dynamic of
God. Consequently in his interpretation, the Holy Spirit was inferior
to the Father and the Son. The Council condemned his teaching
and defined the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, decreeing that there
was One God in three persons hypostases: these persons being
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The holy fathers at the Council added five articles to the Creed:
beginning, as follow:
"And (We believe) in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life,
who proceeds from the Father: who with the Father and the Son
together is worshipped and glorified: who spoke by the prophets.
In one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one
baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the
dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen."
The Third Ecumenical Council
Held in Ephesus, Asia Minor in 431 under Emperor Theodosius II
(grandson of Theodosius the Great). 200 Bishops were
to a man, Jesus Christ, not God the Logos ("The Word", Son should
not be called Theotokos (Mother of God), but rather, of God).
Following this reasoning, he asserted that the Virgin but rather
Christotokos (Mother of Christ).
should not be called Theotokos (Mother of God), but rather,
but rather Christotokos (Mother of Christ).
Nestorianism over emphasized the human nature of Christ at the
expense of the divine. The Council denounced Nestorius,
emphasizing the our Lord Jesus Christ is one person, not two
separate people:
(1) the man, Jesus Christ and
(2) the Son of God, Logos. He is complete God and complete man,
with a rational soul and body. The Virgin Mary is Theotokos
because she gave birth not to man but to God who became man.
This Council declared the test of the Creed decreed at the First and
Second Ecumenical Councils to be complete and forbade any
change to it.
The Fourth Ecumenical Council
The Council of 630 Bishops met in Chalcedon, near Constantinople,
under the Emperor Marcian in 451 A.D.
The Council was concerned with the Monophysite Controversies,
again dealing with the nature of Christ. Monophysite teaching
believed that Christ's human nature (less perfect) dissolved itself in
His divine nature (more perfect). Thus, as they reasoned, Christ had
only one nature, the divine. This led to the term Monophysite (mono),
meaning 'one', and physis, meaning 'nature'. The Council
condemned this theological theory, proclaiming that Christ has two
natures: the divine and the human, as defined by previous Councils.
They are not confused, or divided, or separate and were in no way
ever changed.
The Fifth Ecumenical Council
The Council of 165 Bishops met in Constantinople in 553 A.D.,
during the reign of the Emperor Justinian.
The key issues were the Nestorian and Eutychian (Monophysite)
Controversies. The Council was called in hope that it would put an
end to this wrangling within the Church. It confirmed the Church's
teaching regarding the two natures of Christ and condemned a
number of Nestorian influenced writings. At this Council, the
Emperor himself confessed his Orthodox Faith in the form of a
famous Church hymn, "Only begotten Son and Word of God".
The Sixth Ecumenical Council
Convened in Constantinople, under Emperor Constantine IV, in 680
A.D., 170 Bishops met to deal with the Monothelite Controversy.
It was a final attempt to compromise with the Monophysites. They
claimed that although Christ had two natures (human and divine), He
nevertheless acted as God only, i.e. His divine nature made all the
decisions and His human nature only carried and acted them out.
Thus, monothelitism ( mono, meaning 'one' and thelesis,
meaning 'will').
The Council pronounced that Christ had two natures with two
activities: as God - performing miracles, rising from the dead and
ascending into heaven; as Man - performing the ordinary acts of
daily life.
These were mystically united in one Divine Person of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council
This Seventh Council of 367 Bishops returned, in the year 787 A.D.,
to Nicea in Asia Minor, at the royal pleasure of the Empress Irene.
It centered around the use of icons in the Church and the
controversy between the iconoclasts and iconophiles. The
Iconoclasts were suspicious of religious art; they demanded that the
Church rid itself of such art and that it be destroyed or broken (as
the term "iconoclast" implies).
The iconophilles believed that icons served to preserve the doctrinal
teachings of the Church; they considered icons to be man's dynamic
way of expressing the divine through art and beauty. The Iconoclast
controversy was a form of Monophysitism: distrust and downgrading
of the human side.
The Council's Proclamation
"We define that the holy icons, whether in color, mosaic, or some
other material, should be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on
the sacred vessels and liturgical vestments, on the walls,
furnishings, and in houses and along the roads, namely the icons of
our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, that of our Lady the
Theotokos, those of the venerable angels and those of all saintly
people. Whenever these representations are contemplated, they will
cause those who look at them to commemorate and love their
prototype. We define also that they should be kissed and that they
are an object of veneration and honor (timitiki proskynisis), but not
of real worship (latreia), which is reserved for Him Who is the
subject of our faith and is proper for the divine nature, ... which is in
effect transmitted to the prototype; he who venerates the icon,
venerated in it the reality for which it stands."
| @2007 by The Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church . All right reserved |