Grade 7 Lesson 12


Grade 7 Lesson 12: The Conciliar Church

Learning Outcomes

Oriental Orthodox Church History

  • G7.LO38 - ​​Examine the schism on the basis of faith questions from the time of the Council of Chalcedon.

Church Fathers

  • G7.LO41 - Analyse how the Church Fathers interpreted the Holy Bible so that heresies were refuted.

Textbook Lesson

Expanding Thoughts on Lesson

  • The Three Great Ecumencial Councils
    • The Oriental Orthodox Church, which is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, accepts only three great Ecumenical councils. Only these hold true to the faith of the ancient Church and the four marks of the Church. They are sufficient to define the Christian faith. Any other councils held outside the Church do not have ecumenical status for the Oriental Church, which includes the Malankara Church.
  • The Council of Nicea
    • Consider sharing with your class that Arius’ supporters went around Constantinople shouting and singing taunts that ‘there was a time when He was not’
    • "East and West" at this time did not include North America as the Americas did not have Christians at that time. The "East" including a bishop named as John by the Church historian Eusebius who represented India at the Council of Nicea.
    • It is often misunderstood that celebrating on Sunday is a "Western style" practice. This argument is usually put forward by Roman Catholic apologists. Victor, Bishop of Rome, did take the lead in dealing with quartodeciman immigrants in Rome. However, the practice of celebrating the Resurrection on ‘the Lord’s Day’ was followed in both East and West from an early date, with Quartodecimans being an exception in the East, likely having been mostly descended from Aramean Jewish-speaking Christians.
    • The further effects of Arianism on the Church: The moderate Arians (Eusebians or semi-Arians) survived under Constantine’s successors and preached their doctrines outside the borders of the Roman Empire. Preachers such as Ulfilas, took the Arian faith to the Germanic tribes and developed their own creed. This is significant because these tribes were eventually converted into the Western, Roman Catholic church by the seventh century. To keep them within the Roman Church, a portion from Ulfilas’ creed was added to the Roman creed in the West. This was known as the filioque clause ‘and the son’. It was added to the section on the Holy Spirit, and compromised the Orthodox faith. It increases the importance of the Son, but reduces the importance of the Holy Spirit. Since the Third Council of Ephesus forbids additions to the creed, the inclusion of ‘and the son’ is not ‘Orthodox’. While the RCC is not Arian, the Arian heresy has had lingering effects and many groups and religions (or 'new Arians' that proclaim Christ preach Christ, being lesser to the Father (JW, SDA, LDS etc). Most Greek-speaking Christians in both East and West (including the Roman Christians who worshipped in Greek) celebrated the Resurrection on Sunday. It is not a practice that originated in Rome.

Lesson Resources

Connecting Materials

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