All about Ecumenical Council

An Ecumenical council is a conference of the bishops of the whole Church convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice. The word obtain from the Greek language “Οικουμένη”, which literally means “The inhabited”, and was originally a figure of speech referring to the territory of the Roman Empire since the initial councils were all convoked by Roman Emperors. In later usage it was applied in a more general way to mean all places that are inhabited by the Church, therefore “world-wide” or “general.” The acceptance of some historical council varies widely between different branches of Christianity. The “whole” church, however, is constructed by Roman Catholics to mean only those in full communion with the Bishop of Rome. Similarly, Eastern Orthodox Christians take the “whole” church as including all Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions in full communion with each other. This does not comprise the Roman Catholic/Eastern Catholic Churches, or the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The last council considered ecumenical by both was Second Council of Nicaea, (787), and hence the significance of the first seven ecumenical councils. These seven councils, at the most, are also the only councils accepted by various Protestants, and hence in a limited modern sense are the only true “Ecumenical” councils. The Quinisext Council, however, is rejected by Roman Catholics but measured part of the 6th council by the Eastern Orthodox. More local meetings are generally called “synods”. The Greek word “synod” derives from “syn” and “odos”, therefore a synod is the coming together of several people sharing a common element, in this case the Christian bishops.