Councils of the Church

A large gathering of bishops is not automatically an ecumenical council. What makes a council ecumenical in Orthodox understanding is its reception by the whole Church — which is why the reception section of each guide matters as much as the account of what was decided.

The seven ecumenical councils

• The Council of Chalcedon 451, Chalcedon, across the Bosphorus from Constantinople — The council that confessed Christ in two natures, unconfused and undivided, in one person. Its definition is the classic Christological statement of the Church, and its reception divided the Church permanently.
• The First Council of Constantinople 381, Constantinople — The council that confessed the divinity of the Holy Spirit and gave the Church the Creed it recites today. It was not ecumenical when it met; the Church made it so by receiving it.
• The Second Council of Constantinople 553, Constantinople — The council that condemned the Three Chapters and clarified Chalcedon in Cyrilline terms. It issued no canons and no creed, and it was received only slowly in the West.
• The Third Council of Constantinople 680-681, Constantinople — The council that confessed two natural wills and two natural operations in Christ, against monothelitism. It also condemned a bishop of Rome by name, which has been discussed ever since.
• The Council of Ephesus 431, Ephesus in Asia Minor — The council that confessed the Virgin Mary as Theotokos and condemned Nestorius. Its procedure was contested at the time, and its consequences included the first lasting division in the Church.
• The First Council of Nicaea 325, Nicaea in Bithynia, in north-western Asia Minor — The council that confessed the Son to be of one substance with the Father, addressed the date of Pascha, and issued twenty disciplinary canons. It did not decide which books belong to the Bible.
• The Second Council of Nicaea 787, Nicaea in Bithynia — The council that restored the veneration of holy images and distinguished the honour given to an icon from the worship due to God alone. It also issued twenty-two disciplinary canons.

Other councils and the apostolic pattern

• The Apostolic Council of Acts 15 around AD 48-50, Jerusalem — The pattern for every later council: a question the Church could not settle locally, brought before the apostles and elders, argued out from experience and Scripture, and decided in a letter sent to the churches.
• The Council in Trullo 692, The domed hall of the imperial palace at Constantinople — The council that supplied disciplinary canons for the Fifth and Sixth Councils, which had issued none. Its 102 canons are the backbone of the Orthodox canonical tradition, and Rome never received them.