7 Ecumenical Councils

Point 5 of the Theological Statement of the Anglican Church in North America reads

"Concerning the seven Councils of the undivided Church, we affirm the teaching of the first four Councils and the Christological clarifications of the fifth, sixth and seventh Councils, in so far as they are agreeable to the Holy Scriptures."

The first seven councils have the most relevance to Protestant Christianity. Other subsequent councils are of particular interest only to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

1. First Council of Nicaea, (325): affirmed that Jesus is truly God and equal to the Father; repudiated Arianism, adopted the Nicene Creed.
2. First Council of Constantinople, (381): affirmed that Jesus was perfectly man against the Apollinarians; revised the Nicene Creed into its present form which is used in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches; prohibited any further alteration of the Creed without the assent of an Ecumenical Council.
3. Council of Ephesus, (431): affirmed that Jesus is one person against Nestorianism; proclaimed the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God, and also condemned Pelagianism.
4. Council of Chalcedon, (451): affirmed that in Jesus there are two distinct natures in one person that are hypostatically united "without confusion, change, division or separation"; repudiated the Eutychianism and Monophysitism; adopted the Chalcedonian Creed.
5. Second Council of Constantinople, (553): reaffirmed decisions and doctrines explicated by previous Councils, condemned new Arian, Nestorian, and Monophysite writings.
6. Third Council of Constantinople, (680–681): asserted that Jesus had both a divine and human will; repudiated Monothelitism.
7. Second Council of Nicaea, (787); restoration of the veneration of icons and end of the first iconoclasm. It is rejected by some Protestant denominations, who instead prefer the Council of Hieria (754), which had also described itself as the Seventh Ecumenical Council and had condemned the veneration of icons.

Ordinands are expected to have familiarity with the 7 councils and an understanding of the heresies the church has rejected.

The ACNA and the Anglican Church in general follow the following understanding concerning the first seven ecumenical councils of the Undivided Catholic Church (before the 1054 A.D. Great Schism that continues to this day between Eastern and Western Churches). “Concerning the seven Councils of the undivided church, it [ACNA] affirms the teaching of the first four Ecumenical Councils and the Christological clarifications of the fifth, sixth and seventh councils, in so far as they are agreeable to the Bible.” Biblically speaking the first Ecumenical Council, and the model for all to come, is described in the Book of Acts, Chapter 15. The elements of that gathering to consider whether or not one needed to become a law-keeping Jewish convert in order to follow Jesus can be seen in these later seven Ecumenica#A gathering of all the apostles and elders available (later, Bishops) • #Debate and Searching of Holy Scriptures • l Councils. These are: • #Prayer • #Patience (no ending time set) • #A determination to stay together and keep working on it until one can reasonably say as James does in Acts 15 at the end of his letter to the churches from the council: “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

The bold assurance at the end of the council in Acts 15 is the mark of every council as well as enormous majorities coming together to make the Faith clear. These councils then were generally accepted by the five Patriarchates affirming them.

The Orthodox and Anglicans believe that there have been no truly Ecumenical Councils since the Great Schism. The Roman Catholics now number over 20 Ecumenical Councils since their definition of “ecumenical council” is any council ratified by the Pope.

Recommended Reading

Bray, Gerald, Creeds, Councils, and Christ. InterVarsity, 1984.

Kelly, J. N. D. Early Christian Doctrines. 5th ed. Harper & Row, 1978; Prince Press, 2003.

Resources

Wikipedia Article

References

Theopedia

A short summary of the Seven Ecumenical Councils from the Orthodx perspective can be found here.

Canonical Areas

Church History/Anglican Church History

a. Patristics & Early Church b. 7 Ecumenical Councils c. Reformation History - Continental & English d. Heresies - Ancient & Modern e. Celtic Christianity f. Foundation of Church in England & Canterbury g. Elizabethan Settlement h. BCP Development i. 39 Articles j. Oxford Movement k. Chicago Lambeth Quadrilateral l. North American Church History m. ACNA Foundations n. Missional Movements, Ancient and Modern