Orthodox Christian Church and Ecumenism - Part 2 - Religion - http://maxpages.com/democracy/Orthodoxy_and_Ecumenism

The Church has not only the mission to guide the discipline of the clergy and the pastoral life of the laity, also the responsibility to express itself in various situations and moments (Acts 15: 26-29, 1 Tim. 3:15). Exercising this authority the Church applies the Economy, using the canons in function of particular pastoral conditions and necessities. Receiving the decisions of the councils is understood the process by which the body of the universal Church ascertain that the ecumenical council confessed the faith transmitted by the Apostles. The Church is consulted before the Councils take place, and during the development of the synod, and the bishops of the council have signed his decisions with the conscience that they represent the faith of the Church from all time and forever. The decisions of the ecumenical councils need the acceptance of the whole Church because the object of the doctrinal definitions regards the conscience of the whole Church, being about her profession of faith.

The acceptance of an ecumenical council was based on its continuity with the previous councils, being in agreement with the apostolic Tradition, as is kept by the conscience of the Church and as was expressed by the previous councils, and placed therefore in their continuity. An ecumenical council was not a simple repetition of the previous councils, but their development. An ecumenical synod does not change the definitions of the previous councils, but bring something new that enrich these definitions. Moreover, the previous councils can be understood in a new sense, in a new light through the decisions of the new council. For example, the decisions of the IV council is better understood if are considered the decisions regarding the christological doctrine of V-th and VI-th councils.

In the decisions of the ecumenical councils there is the distinction between dogma, which has the doctrinal content of the faith and canon, that has a disciplinary character.

Nor the convocation of the councils by the emperors, neither their ecumenical representation, as well as the signature of the bishops on the documents of the councils guarantees the intrinsic Orthodox character of the professed faith, but the acceptance. The decisions of the ecumenical councils do not constitute external criteria of the doctrine, because no external authority can impose the truth of the faith. Therefore, decisions of councils must be received and confirmed by the conscience of the Church.

The ecclesiological sense of the ecumenism is expressed in the sense that there is no need for the Western Church to be present in order to express the true faith. The ecumenicity of the councils has been understood for a long time in a geographical way, that is requiring the representation of the Churches from all the Roman Empire in the council. If it is kept in the geographical sense it requires the agreement of the Western Church. From the ecclesiological point of view, the confirmation of the Western Church is no more necessary because it is no longer Orthodox. In the East, far more important is the authority of the formulation of Truth rather than the authority of the institution that formulates it. The problem of the ecumenical councils is therefore of revealed truth and expressed in doctrines.

Roman Catholic theology maintains that the approval of a council by the Pope is the decisive criteria of the ecumenicity of the council. If the Pope does not accept, the council is not ecumenical.

The oriental tradition recognizes seven ecumenical councils:

First Ecumenical Council

Nicea, Asia Minor - 325 AD.

Formulated the First Part of the Creed. Defining the divinity of the Son of God.

Second Ecumenical Council

Constantinople, 381 AD.

Formulated the Second Part of the
Creed, defining the divinity of the
Holy Spirit.

Third Ecumenical Council

Ephesus, Asia Minor, 431 AD.

Defined Christ as the Incarnate Word of God and Mary as Theotokos.

Fourth Ecumenical Council

Chalcedon, 451 AD.

Defined Christ as Perfect God and Perfect God and Perfect Man in One Person.

Fifth Ecumenical Council

Constantinople II, 553 AD.

Reconfirmed the Doctrines of the Trinity and Christ.

Sixth Ecumenical Council

Constantinople III, 680 AD.

Affirmed the True Humanity of
Jesus by insisting upon the reality of
His Human will and action.

Seventh Ecumenical Council

Nicea II, 787 AD.

Affirmed the propriety of icons as
genuine expressions of the Christian Faith.

The modern ecumenical movement, has its origins in the World's Confederation of Missions (Edinburg 1910), which has been preceded by the creation of organizations with interconfessional character:

- 1864, Evangelical Alliance

- 1895, World's Federation of Christian Association of Students

- 1914, Worlds Alliance for the Promotion of International Friendship of the Church.

- 1947, Ecumenical Youth Action

In the context of the modern Ecumenical Movement, the nature and the function of the World Council of Churches, can be described as having a comprehensive and undivided character. It is one ecumenical movement, open to all Churches, and any Church cannot pretend to be considered the center of this movement; it is "greater" than any Church taken individually, and which includes all Churches.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is not identified with the Ecumenical movement. Even if the Council pursues including all the Churches, the ecumenical movement remains something inclusive. The WCC is a fruit, an instrument of the ecumenical movement, an attempt to express more visible, more structural the communion discovered by the Churches in the ecumenical movement, which extends beyond the WCC.

The Ecumenical Council wants to be a genuine Council of all the Churches. The only condition for the admission of a Church as member of the Council is the acceptance of the foundation. Acceptance does not mean that that the Church renounce at its own conception about the Church, about Christian unity and about the nature of the Ecumenical Movement.

STEFAN CRISBASAN

webmaster@stefanc.findhere.com

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