Orthodox Christian Church and Ecumenism - Part 1 - Religion - http://maxpages.com/democracy/Orthodoxy_and

The Ecumenical Council is the gathering of Bishops of the universal Church which has the authority to take decisions regarding the teaching, morals, discipline and mission of the Church, therefore does not have a permanent and obligatory character.

The relationship between the Church and ecumenical council is reduced to essential questions, as if the council is an institution that has canonical authority itself therefore its dogmatic decisions are valid as such. In this case the acceptance is only an act in which the Church assimilates, interpret and develop the decisions of the Councils.

If the council is dependent upon the acceptance of the Church, then his decisions become valid after the acceptance by the Church, because the infallibility of the Council depends on the infallibility of the Church, and not the other way.

In general, the ecumenical councils were interpreted themselves with the legitimate voice of the Church without their formal acceptance of the Church. For this reason, those that did not accept the decisions of the Councils were not considered Orthodox. The Catholic historian De Vries maintains that cannot be proved that an ecumenical council was corrected by the Church or by another council, therefore a council is ecumenical even before the acceptance by the Church, as is the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedony (AD 541).

For the Church, the ecumenical Council was not simply an ecclesiastical institution that is not in junction with the Church. The ecumenical councils even if the emperors called them, did not have an imperial institution. The emperors sign the synod acts without voting or to influence the decisions, leaving to the bishop's full autonomy in debates.

The Church has worked from beginning with the Synods, which corresponds even with her being of a community of faith. In this sense, the synod is not only an expression of the Church, but an institution that corresponds to the structure of the Church, of conciliator organism. On the other hand the universal Church has a synodical structure, that is she is constituted as a universal community of local communities.

The place of the synod in the structure of the Church is evident only if is considered the sacramental basis and the principle of synodality. If the synod is considered only on the canonical aspect, then we can consider the non-permanent character and non-obligatory of it. The council should be in relationship with the sacramentality of the Church, therefore to be considered as an authentic and permanent institution of the Church. The council's structure of the Church is observed in the act of ordination of a bishop (gr. episcopos - supervisor, pastor, guide), when the new bishop makes the confession of faith in front of a group of bishops and is consecrated in function of more bishops that partake from the same chalice.

The ecumenical councils have authority in matters of faith and that comes from the fact that the bishop has the authority to teach matters of doctrine, and he express this charisma in concordance with the conscience of the Church. In this sense can be observed a convergence between synod and Church, in the sense of conditioning the authority of synod's decisions with the infallibility of the Church.

The authority to teach in the Church, the bishop has received from Christ, through the act of ordination. The function of teaching, therefore, the ability to take decisions with doctrinal character has a sacramental origin. Of course the episcopacy exercises this service in a collegial way. As the unity of the body is in the unity of the members, the function of one member is a function of the whole body; the same unity of the universal Church is in the unity of faith and sacramentality of the local Church. Thus the ecumenical council has the authority to formulate the creed of the Church and he represents not only an expression of sacramental nature of the bishop, also the episcopate and ecclesiastical collegiality.

On the other hand, the ecumenical council is not an authority outside the Church. He constitutes the voice of the Universal Church and decides in ecclesiastical agreement. In the council the bishop represents Christ as well as his local Church. He represents Christ in the measure that he remains loyal to His mystical body, manifested in the local Church to which is sent to serve as descendant of the Apostles.

The ecumenical council is a moment of affirmation of the universality of the Church, of her unity in diversity. The universal spirit of the synod comes from the fact that every local Church confirms her universal unity in her diverse mode of interpretation and experience. The synod constitutes also a confrontation of all the modalities of expression and of the revelation, to establish her united character. For this reason too, the council needs the reception of its decisions by the whole body of the Church.

Beside the dogma (gr. dogma - an opinion), that constitute the object of faith and which indicates the limits of Tradition having a character of definition (lat. finis - boundary, limit), are the cannons, the rules proclaimed by the authority of the Church in the matter of cult and organization applicable in to specific situations and valid for a specific reason. If the reason for which the canons have been emitted has not been reached, they can be reviewed or replaced.
The canons (gr. kanon - measure, rule, law), represents the rules of the Christian ethics, the cult, discipline of the clergy, monasticism, the organization and jurisdiction of the Church, fasting, cult of icons, concerning the saints, Easter, marriage, ordination, divorce, the conduct of the clerics and monastics, participation of celibate in the Church, the hierarchical order, the order of the episcopal seats, relations between Churches, public relations etc. The canons represent the legislation of the Church that constitutes the object of canon law. The canonical Orthodox Tradition has been elaborated in the councils.

STEFAN CRISBASAN

webmaster@stefanc.findhere.com

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