Notes on the Œcumenical Councils

excerpt of an emailing from David, 

April 2023

This year, Gregorian Easter, Jewish Passover, and Ramadan all fall on the same weekend.

We probably don't need the reminder, but it may be nice to have it on hand.  From the Council of Antioch which closely followed the First Ecumenical Council:

Canon 1.

As for all persons who dare to violate the definition of the holy and great Council convened in Nicaea in the presence of Eusebeia, the consort of the most God-beloved Emperor Constantine, concerning the holy festival of the soterial Pascha (or Easter, as it is called in ordinary English), we decree that they be excluded from Communion and be outcasts from the Church if they persist more captiously in objecting to the decisions that have been made as most fitting in regard thereto; and let these things be said with reference to laymen. But if any of the persons occupying prominent positions in the Church, such as a Bishop, or a Presbyter, or a Deacon, after the adoption of this definition, should dare to insist upon having his own way, to the perversion of the laity, and to the disturbance of the church, and upon celebrating Easter along with the Jews, the holy Council has hence judged that person to be an alien to the Church, on the ground that he has not only become guilty of sin by himself, but has also been the cause of corruption and perversion among the multitude. Accordingly, it not only deposes such persons from the liturgy, but also those who dare to commune with them after their deposition. Moreover, those who have been deposed are to be deprived of the external honor too of which the holy Canon and God’s priesthood have partaken. 

• • •

an emailing from ROCOR Fr. Andrew Frick, 

August 2023

A HOMILY FOR

THE SUNDAY OF THE COMMEMORATION OF THE

HOLY FATHERS OF THE SEVEN OECUMENICAL

COUNCILS

GOC Archpriest Thomas Maretta July 30, 2023

Pentecost 8

About the Seven Oecumenical Councils and Their Meaning for Us

Brothers and sisters!

In order to remind us of the immense significance of the oecumenical councils for the defense and formulation of our faith, the Orthodox Church commemorates the holy fathers of all seven oecumenical councils every year on this Sunday.  Because some of you may not know or have forgotten what occurred at certain of these great synods, I would like to tell you a little about each of them in my homily today.  This way, you will be able to appreciate the importance of the commemoration, and will value more fully the tremendous service the fathers of the councils have rendered the Holy Church and all of us, her faithful children.

The First Oecumenical Council was convened in the year 325 in Nicaea, a city of Asia Minor – modern day Turkey – by Emperor Constantine the Great.  It was the first general synod, representing the entire Church of Christ, to meet since the time of the Apostolic Council that figures in the Book of Acts.  This council was necessitated by the appearance of the heresy of Arius, a protopresbyter of Alexandria who held that the Son of God was of a different essence from the Father, and that the Son did not exist from all eternity.  Thus Arius did not teach that Christ was truly and fully God.

In refuting Arius, the 318 fathers of this council affirmed that the Son of God was “begotten of the Father before all ages,” “true God of true God,” and “of one essence with the Father,” embedding these phrases in the Creed or “Symbol of Faith,” the first seven points of which were drawn up by them.

Additionally, the First Council established a universal method for the entire Church to use in calculating the date of Pascha, anathematizing anyone who would employ a different method; it recognized the special prerogatives of the episcopal sees of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, thus establishing the system of the patriarchates in the Church; and it confirmed the married priesthood.

The chief defender of Orthodoxy at the First Council was Saint Athanasius the Great.

The Second Oecumenical Council met in Constantinople in 381, during the reign of Emperor Theodosius the Great, to combat the ruinous teaching of Macedonius, Bishop of Constantinople.  Macedonius denied the divinity of the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.  He taught that the Holy Spirit is not God, and called Him a “created force” subject to God the Father and the Son, like one of the angels.  The 150 bishops present at this council, headed by Saint Gregory the Theologian,  condemned and anathematized the heresy of Macedonius and confirmed the dogma of the consubstantiality of God the Holy Spirit with God the Father and God the Son.  It also added the final five points to the Symbol of Faith composed by the First Oecumenical Council, thus giving us the Creed in the form used till this day by the Orthodox Church.

The Third Oecumenical Council took place in 431 in the city of Ephesus while Theodosius the Younger ruled the Byzantine Empire.  This Council refuted the false teaching of Nestorius, Archbishop of Constantinople, who impiously taught that Christ consisted of two individual identities, and denied the hypostatic unity of His divinity and humanity.  Furthermore, the Nestorians spoke of the inhabitation of the man Jesus by the divine Logos as different only in degree from God’s indwelling in the saints, and thus they called Jesus Christ not the God-man, but the “God-bearer.”  They considered that the Holy Virgin bore a mere infant, and thus they referred to her not as the Birthgiver of God, the Theotokos, but only as Christotokos, “she who gave birth to Christ.”

Both the heresies of Arius (who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ) and that of Macedonius (who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit) eventually died out, although they were resurrected a few centuries ago by the Unitarians, and have been embraced more recently by a wide variety of people of a religiously liberal, unbelieving orientation, belonging to many different denominations.  The Nestorians, on the other hand, have survived as an organized group continuously from ancient times until the present.  Today they number a few thousand persons, living mainly in Iraq.

The great defender of Orthodoxy at the Third Council, which was attended by two hundred bishops, was Saint Cyril of Alexandria.  The Third Council anathematized the doctrines of Nestorius and confirmed that Jesus Christ is perfect God and perfect man, and that the most holy Virgin Mary truly gave birth to God.  It also confirmed the Creed composed by the first two Councils and forbade any future additions to it or subtractions from it.  Most unfortunately, this prohibition was subsequently violated by the Western Church with the introduction into the Creed of the Filioque, which asserts that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Son as well as from the Father, and thus in effect denies that the Father is the sole source of the Godhead.  This innovation, espoused by the Roman Catholics and Protestants alike, distorts the central dogma of Christianity, the teaching of the Church concerning the All-holy Trinity.   Besides this, it contradicts both the enactments of two oecumenical councils and the sacred words of Christ our Lord Himself, as recorded in the Holy Gospel.

The Fourth Oecumenical Council was convened in the year 451.  It took place in Chalcedon, a city of Asia Minor, during the reign of Emperor Marcian.  This Council pronounced the anathema against the false teaching of an archimandrite of Constantinople named Eutyches.  In his opposition to the Nestorians, Eutyches overstepped the bounds of truth and taught that Christ’s humanity was altogether swallowed up by His divinity, like a drop in the sea, and that Christ has but one mingled nature.  The belief that Christ has only one nature is called Monophysitism.  To this day the Monophysites remain numerous, and include the Armenians; the Copts; the Ethiopians; the Jacobites of Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq; and certain Christians of southern India.  Although the main group of Monophysites subsequently condemned Eutyches’ most extreme views, to this day these heretics continue to attribute to Christ a single, combined divine and human nature.  Such a nature overturns both the true divinity and true humanity of Christ, since it cannot be properly said to be the nature of either God or man, but a confusion of both.  As such, it also overturns   the entire oeconomy of our salvation.  Monophysitism today poses a grave danger to the Orthodox Church, because the Orthodox modernists and ecumenists, ignoring the decisions of the Fourth Oecumenical Council, now propose a union of the Church of Christ with this heresy, even though the Monophysites still refuse to employ the Orthodox definition of the two natures of Christ.  Indeed, two local Orthodox Churches, the Patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch, have gone so far as to enter into partial Eucharistic communion with Monophysites.

Six hundred and fifty bishops attended the Fourth Council, which confirmed that our Lord Jesus Christ has two perfect natures and is fully and truly God, and fully and truly man; and that at His Incarnation, His divinity and humanity were inseparably and indivisibly united in His single person, but without any mixing or changing of His two natures. 

The Fifth Oecumenical Council met in Constantinople in the year 553.  It was convoked by the famous Emperor Justinian the Great because of the continuous conflict between the parties of Nestorius and Eutyches.  The writings of three Syrian ecclesiastics, Theodore of Mopsuetia, Theodoritus of Cyrrus, and Ibo of Edessa, contained expressions of the Nestorian heresy, and were frequently cited as authoritative patristic works by persons tainted with Nestorianism.  Since the Fourth Council had said nothing concerning them, the Monophysites used this as an excuse to reject the council itself, accusing it of leaning towards Nestorianism.

One hundred and sixty-five bishops attended the Fifth Council.  They condemned the writings of all three authors, as well as the person of Theodore of Mopsuetia, who had not repented of his errors.  It also issued fresh anathemas against the heresies of both Eutyches and Nestorius.

The Sixth Oecumenical Council was convened in the year 680, also in Constantinople, when Constantine Pogonatus was Emperor.  One hundred and seventy bishops attended this council.

After the Fifth Council, the disturbances caused by the Monophysites greatly endangered the security of the Byzantine Empire, and the Emperor Heraclius hoped to calm these heretics by forcing the Orthodox to compromise with them.  To this end, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Sergius, began propagating the error known as Monothelitism.  This was an entirely artificial attempt to create a middle ground between what can never be reconciled, Orthodoxy and heresy.  According to Monothelite teaching, Jesus Christ has two natures, one human and one divine (in this it agrees with Orthodoxy), but only a single, combined will (as in Monophysitism).

In those days God raised up three great defenders of the faith:  Saint Martin, Pope of Rome; Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem; and most eminent of all, our celestial patron Saint Maximus the Confessor, whose tongue and right hand were cut off because of his steadfastness in Orthodoxy.  It was primarily their opposition to Monothelitism that resulted in the convening of the Sixth Oecumenical Council.

The Sixth Council condemned the Monothelite heresy and confirmed that as Christ has two natures, so He has two wills, at the same time confirming that His human will stands, not in opposition to the divine will, but in perfect submission to it.  In the acts of this Council (which were signed by the Roman legates), Honorius, a Pope of Rome, was condemned as a Monothelite heretic.  This plainly shows that oecumenical councils do have authority to judge popes, who, far from being infallible, as the Roman Catholics teach, are quite capable of erring in matters of the faith, and even of falling into blatant heresy.

Eleven years later sessions were held in the imperial palace called “Trullo,” where canons were enacted for the Fifth and Sixth Councils, which had ratified none. For this reason the Council in Trullo is called the Fifth-Sixth Council.  The Trullan Council condemned certain questionable practices which had appeared in the Western Church, such as mandatory celibacy of the clergy, strict fasting on the Saturdays of Great Lent, the depicting of Christ in the form of a lamb, and so forth.  It also composed a list of the canons which were to serve as guides for the Church’s life.  To that list have since been added the canons of the Seventh Oecumenical Council and those of two local councils.  All these canons may be found collected in the book called “The Rudder” -- in Greek the Pedalion, and in Slavonic, Kormchaya Kniga.

Finally, the Seventh Oecumenical Council was convened in Nicaea in the year 787, under the patronage of Empress Irene.  It was attended by 350 bishops.  This council formally defined the degree of veneration due the divine images, basing this on the full reality of Christ’s Incarnation, which permitted and, indeed, required pictorial representation.  The synod carefully distinguished between the legitimate and praiseworthy veneration of icons (proskynesis), and the absolute worship due God alone (latreia).  The latter, if directed to images, was declared unlawful, a form of idolatry.  Moreover, even “relative” worship, or veneration, was never to have as its object of honor solely the image, but that which was depicted, and ultimately, God Himself.

Like several of the other oecumenical councils, the Seventh defended the full reality of Christ’s human nature and of His flesh which, being visible, is also necessarily depictable.

Out of profound gratitude for their having delivered the Church from so many and such pernicious errors, every Orthodox Christian should magnify the memory of the holy fathers who shone forth as beacons of sacred truth at the oecumenical councils.  Under the guidance of Heaven, those blessed defenders of the true faith erected the immovable ramparts of the dogmas around the Church, safely enclosing Christ’s rational sheep and walling out the heretical wolves eager to devour the Lord’s flock.  Because of their confession and confirmation of divinely revealed truth, the chief dogmatic teachings of Christianity, the doctrines of Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity, and of two perfect natures in Christ, have been passed down undistorted to every generation of the faithful.  Praising those great lights of piety, the Orthodox everywhere cry out today to the Saviour:  “Most blessed are Thou, O Christ our God, for Thou hast set our fathers upon the earth as luminaries, and through them hast guided all men unto the true faith.  O Most Merciful One, glory be to Thee!”  Amen.