How many Ecumenical Councils are recognized as such among the Orthodox?
All Orthodox Christians recognize seven Ecumenical Councils: (1) Nicaea I (325), which condemned Arius and confessed the Son to be homoousios with the Father; (2) Constantinople I (381), which confirmed the divinity of the Holy Spirit and completed the Creed; (3) Ephesus (431), which condemned Nestorius and confessed the holy Virgin to be Theotokos, “she who bore [in her womb] He who is God”; (4) Chalcedon (451), which confessed the one Christ in two natures, without confusion, change, division, or separation; (5) Constantinople II (553), which condemned the “Three Chapters” and errors attributed to Origen; (6) Constantinople III (680–681), which confessed in Christ two wills and two energies, divine and human, against the Monothelites; and (7) Nicaea II (787), which vindicated the veneration of the holy icons.
The Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs of 1848 makes reference to “the eighth Ecumenical Council, congregated at Constantinople (879–880) for the pacification of the Eastern and Western Churches”, the council held under St Photius the Great, but the formal numbering of this council as “eighth” has not gained universal acceptance, and the customary Orthodox reckoning remains seven.
Local and regional councils of great authority have also been held after 787, and indeed after the Great Schism of 1054: notably the Councils of Constantinople of 1341 and 1351, which vindicated the hesychast teaching of St Gregory Palamas on the divine energies; the Synod of Jassy (1642); and the Council of Jerusalem (1672). In our own time, the Holy and Great Council assembled in Crete (2016) as a pan-Orthodox expression of this same conciliar life, although not all Orthodox Churches participated in its final proceedings.
From time to time, the Orthodox primates assemble in synaxis to discuss matters of common concern and to issue joint proclamations. These gatherings, often presided over by the historically recognized “first among equals” of the Orthodox episcopate (the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople), are important manifestations of Orthodox Christian desire to maintain the unity of the entire common union of the Churches of God. They are not, however, to be confused with Ecumenical Councils.
