Editing Ecumenical council (section)

==Acceptance of the councils==
{{Papal primacy and infallibility|expanded=ecumenical}}

Although some Protestants reject the concept of an ecumenical council establishing doctrine for the entire Christian faith, Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox all accept the authority of ecumenical councils in principle. Where they differ is in which councils they accept and what the conditions are for a council to be considered "ecumenical". The relationship of the [[Pope|Papacy]] to the validity of ecumenical councils is a ground of controversy between Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox churches. The Catholic Church holds that recognition by the Pope is an essential element in qualifying a council as ecumenical;<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2A.HTM Catechism of the Catholic Church, 884] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429072610/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2A.HTM |date=29 April 2011 }}. Vatican.va (20 February 1946).</ref> Eastern Orthodox view approval by the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) as being roughly equivalent to that of other patriarchs.
Some have held that a council is ecumenical only when all five patriarchs of the [[Pentarchy]] are represented at it.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CBQ9AAAAIAAJ&q=%22all+five+patriarchs%22 |first=Francis |last=Dvornik |title=The Ecumenical Councils |publisher=Hawthorn Books |year=1961 |page=80 |access-date=10 November 2020 |archive-date=26 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426211459/https://books.google.com/books?id=CBQ9AAAAIAAJ&q=%22all+five+patriarchs%22 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7TQvAAAAYAAJ&q=%22all+five+patriarchs%22+ecumenical+council |first=Francis |last=Aloysius Sullivan |title=Magisterium |publisher=Paulist Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8091-2577-7 |page=86 |access-date=25 January 2016 |archive-date=26 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426211507/https://books.google.com/books?id=7TQvAAAAYAAJ&q=%22all+five+patriarchs%22+ecumenical+council |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3NtcXcy07X0C&pg=PA23 |editor-first1=E M. |editor-last1=Conradie |editor-first2=R. H. |editor-last2=Gouws |editor-first3=D. J. |editor-last3=Prinsloo |title=Christian Identity |publisher=University of the Western Cape |year=2005 |isbn=1-919980-88-1 |page=23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMhzlnY0P0QC&pg=PA325 |first=Leo |last=Donald Davis |title=The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787) |publisher=Michael Glazier |year=1992 | isbn=978-0-8146-5616-7 |page=325}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WtnR-6_PlJAC&pg=PA388 |first=Karl |last=Rahner |title=Encyclopedia of Theology |publisher=Burns & Oates |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-86012-006-3 |page=388}}</ref> Others reject this theory in part because there were no patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem at the time of the first ecumenical council.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/oneholycatholica00kenn |url-access=registration |first=Kenneth D. |last=Whitehead |title=One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic |publisher=Ignatius Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-89870-802-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/oneholycatholica00kenn/page/104 104]}}</ref>

===Catholic Church===
{{main|Catholic ecumenical councils}}
Both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches recognize seven councils in the early centuries of the church, but Catholics also recognize fourteen councils in later times called or confirmed by the Pope.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Iv8pAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 |first=Thomas J. |last=Reese |title=Inside the Vatican |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-674-93261-6 |page=35}}</ref> At the urging of German King [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund]], who was to become Holy Roman Emperor in 1433, the [[Council of Constance]] was convoked in 1414 by [[Antipope John XXIII]], one of three claimants to the papal throne, and was reconvened in 1415 by the Roman [[Pope Gregory XII]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zAsjkHJ8aP8C&pg=PA401 |first=John |last=Deely |title=Four Ages of Understanding |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-44261301-0 |page=401}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k85JKr1OXcQC&pg=PA274 |editor-first1=Orlando O. |editor-last1=Espín |editor-first2=James B. |editor-last2=Nickoloff |title=An Introductory Dictionary of Theology and Religious Studies |publisher=Liturgical Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-81465856-7 |page=274}}</ref> The [[Council of Florence]] is an example of a council accepted as ecumenical in spite of being rejected by the East, as the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon are accepted in spite of being rejected respectively by the [[Church of the East]] and [[Oriental Orthodoxy]].

The Catholic Church teaches that an ecumenical council is a gathering of the [[College of Bishops]] (of which the [[Pope|Bishop of Rome]] is an essential part) to exercise in a solemn manner its supreme and full power over the whole Church.<ref>The [https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2A.HTM Catechism of the Catholic Church, 883–884] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429072610/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2A.HTM |date=29 April 2011 }} states: "The college or body of bishops has no authority unless united with the Supreme Pontiff, Peter's successor, as its head. As such, this college has supreme and full authority over the universal Church; but this power cannot be exercised without the agreement of the Supreme Pontiff. The college of bishops exercises power over the universal Church in a solemn manner in an ecumenical council."</ref> It holds that "there never is an ecumenical council which is not confirmed or at least recognized as such by Peter's successor".<ref>Catechism of the Catholic Church, 884</ref> Its present [[Canon law of the Catholic Church|canon law]] requires that an ecumenical council be convoked and presided over, either personally or through a delegate, by the Pope, who is also to decide the agenda;<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P17.HTM Code of Canon Law, canon 338] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525120911/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P17.HTM |date=25 May 2012 }}. Vatican.va.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum orientalium, die XVIII Octobris anno MCMXC - Ioannes Paulus PP. II {{!}} Ioannes Paulus II|url=http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/la/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_19901018_codex-can-eccl-orient-1.html|access-date=12 September 2020|website=www.vatican.va|archive-date=5 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201005191556/http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/la/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_19901018_codex-can-eccl-orient-1.html|url-status=live}}</ref> but the church makes no claim that all past ecumenical councils observed these present rules, declaring only that the Pope's confirmation or at least recognition has always been required, and saying that the version of the [[Nicene Creed]] adopted at the [[First Council of Constantinople]] (381) was accepted by the Church of Rome only seventy years later, in 451.<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_P17.HTM#XT Catechism of the Catholic Church, 247] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200329042425/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_P17.HTM#XT |date=29 March 2020 }}. Vatican.va.</ref>

===Eastern Orthodox Church===
The Eastern Orthodox Church accepts [[First seven ecumenical councils|seven ecumenical councils]],<ref>[https://archive.today/20120712063414/http://oca.org/OCchapter.asp?SID=2&ID=5/ The Councils] at Orthodox Church in America</ref> with the disputed [[Quinisext Council|Council in Trullo]]—rejected by Catholics—being incorporated into, and considered as a continuation of, the [[Third Council of Constantinople]].<ref>[http://www.orthodoxchristian.info/pages/main.htm/  The Ecumenical Councils of the Orthodox Church] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120722032325/http://www.orthodoxchristian.info/pages/main.htm |date=22 July 2012 }}  at OrthodoxChristianInfo</ref><ref>Runciman, S., (1977), The Byzantine Theocracy, (Cambridge University Press), p61.</ref>

To be considered ecumenical, Orthodox accept a council that meets the condition that it was accepted by the whole church. That it was called together legally is also an important factor. A case in point is the [[Third Ecumenical Council]], where two groups met as duly called for by the emperor, each claiming to be the legitimate council. The Emperor had called for bishops to assemble in the city of Ephesus. Theodosius did not attend<ref>Runciman, S., (1977), ''The Byzantine Theocracy'', (Cambridge University Press), p37.</ref> but sent his representative Candidian to preside.<ref name="Wills2003">{{cite book|author=Garry Wills|title=Why I Am a Catholic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3CcGlcSdxPAC&pg=PA82|access-date=9 October 2011|date=10 September 2003|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0-618-38048-0|pages=82–}}</ref> However, Cyril managed to open the council over Candidian's insistent demands that the bishops disperse until the delegation from Syria could arrive. Cyril was able to completely control the proceedings, completely neutralizing Candidian, who favored Cyril's antagonist, Nestorius. When the pro-Nestorius Antiochene delegation finally arrived, they decided to convene their own council, over which Candidian presided.<ref>Bury, J. B., (1958), ''History of the later Roman Empire: from the death of Theodosius I to the death of Justinian (A.D. 395 to A.D. 565) (Volume 1) '',(Dover Publications; NY), p353</ref> The proceedings of both councils were reported to the emperor, who decided ultimately to depose Cyril, Memnon and Nestorius.<ref>McKinion, S. A., (2000), ''Words, Imagery, and the Mystery of Christ: A Reconstruction of Cyril of Alexandria's Christology (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, V. 55)'', (Brill Academic Pub) p13.</ref> Nonetheless, the Orthodox accept Cyril's group as being the legitimate council because it maintained the same teaching that the church has always taught.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}}

Paraphrasing a rule by St [[Vincent of Lérins]], Hasler states
{{Blockquote|...a teaching can only be defined if it has been held to be revealed at all times, everywhere, and by all believers.<ref>Hasler, A. B., (1981) ''How the Pope Became Infallible: Pius IX and the Politics of Persuasion'' (Doubleday; Garden City, New York), p153.</ref>}}

Orthodox believe that councils could over-rule or even depose popes. At the [[Third Council of Constantinople|Sixth Ecumenical Council]], [[Pope Honorius I|Pope Honorius]] and [[Sergius I of Constantinople|Patriarch Sergius]] were declared heretics.<ref>Sixth Ecumenical Council – Session XIII. The Sentence Against the Monothelites.
(L. and C., Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 943.)</ref> The council anathematized them<ref>Session XVI. (Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 1010.)</ref> and declared them tools of the devil<ref>The Definition of Faith. (Found in the Acts, Session XVIII., L. and C., Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 1019.)</ref> and cast them out of the church.<ref>The Prosphoneticus to the Emperor. (Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 1047 et seqq.)</ref>

It is their position that, since the Seventh Ecumenical Council, there has been no synod or council of the same scope. Local meetings of hierarchs have been called "pan-Orthodox", but these have invariably been simply meetings of local hierarchs of whatever Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions are party to a specific local matter. From this point of view, there has been no fully "pan-Orthodox" (Ecumenical) council since 787. The use of the term "pan-Orthodox" is confusing to those not within Eastern Orthodoxy, and it leads to mistaken impressions that these are ''[[ersatz]]'' ecumenical councils rather than purely local councils to which nearby Orthodox hierarchs, regardless of jurisdiction, are invited.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Others, including 20th-century theologians Metropolitan [[Hierotheos (Vlachos)]] of [[Nafpaktos|Naupactus]], Fr. [[John Romanides|John S. Romanides]], and Fr. [[George Metallinos]] (all of whom refer repeatedly to the "Eighth and Ninth Ecumenical Councils"), Fr. [[George Dragas]], and the 1848 [[Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs]] (which refers explicitly to the "Eighth Ecumenical Council" and was signed by the [[patriarch]]s of [[Constantinople]], [[Jerusalem]], [[Antioch]], and [[Alexandria]] as well as the [[Holy Synod]]s of the first three), regard other synods beyond the [[Second Council of Nicaea|Seventh Ecumenical Council]] as being ecumenical.
{{Citation needed span|text=Before the 20th century, the Council at Constantinople in 879 AD was recognised as the 8th ecumenical council by people like the famous expert on Canon Law, [[Theodore Balsamon]] (11th century), St. Neilos of Rhodes, St. [[Mark of Ephesus]] (15th century), St. [[Symeon of Thessalonica]] (15th century), and the [[Patriarch Dositheos II of Jerusalem]] in his Tome of Joy (17th century).|date=April 2010}}

From the Eastern Orthodox perspective, a council is accepted as being ecumenical if it is accepted by the Eastern Orthodox church at large—clergy, monks and assembly of believers. Teachings from councils that purport to be ecumenical, but which lack this acceptance by the church at large, are, therefore, not considered ecumenical.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hasler |first=A. B. |year=1981 |title=How the Pope Became Infallible: Pius IX and the Politics of Persuasion  |url=https://archive.org/details/howpopebecameinf0000hasl |url-access=registration |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/howpopebecameinf0000hasl/page/153 153]|isbn=9780385158510 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |quote=So the new teachings, that are outside the ecumenical councils cannot be accepted because they have not been verified (by) the whole body of the Church. |url=http://stjohndfw.info/sunday-of-the-holy-fathers-from-the-4th-ecumenical-council-the-right-worship.html/ |title=Sunday of the Holy Fathers from the 4th Ecumenical Council – The Right Worship |access-date=18 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402142126/http://stjohndfw.info/sunday-of-the-holy-fathers-from-the-4th-ecumenical-council-the-right-worship.html/ |archive-date=2 April 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Oriental Orthodoxy===
[[Oriental Orthodoxy]] accepts three ecumenical councils, the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople, and the Council of Ephesus. The formulation of the [[Chalcedonian Creed]] caused a schism in the Alexandrian and Syriac churches. Reconciliatory efforts between Oriental Orthodox with the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic Church in the mid- and late 20th century have led to common [[Christology|Christological]] declarations. The Oriental and Eastern Churches have also been working toward reconciliation as a consequence of the [[Ecumenism|ecumenical movement]].{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

The Oriental Orthodox hold that the [[Dyophysitism|Dyophysite]] formula of two natures formulated at the [[Council of Chalcedon]] is inferior to the [[Miaphysitism|Miaphysite]] formula of "One Incarnate Nature of God the Word" ([[Byzantine Greek]]: ''Mia physis tou theou logou sarkousomene'') and that the proceedings of Chalcedon themselves were motivated by [[imperialism|imperial politics]]. [[Coptic Orthodox Church|The Alexandrian Church]], the main Oriental Orthodox body, also felt unfairly underrepresented at the council following the deposition of their Pope, [[Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria|Dioscorus of Alexandria]] at the council.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

===Church of the East===
The [[Church of the East]] accepts two ecumenical councils, the First Council of Nicaea and the First Council of Constantinople, as well as a series of their own national councils, starting with the [[Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon]] in 410 AD. It was the formulation of Mary as the [[Theotokos]] which caused a schism with the Church of the East, now divided between the [[Assyrian Church of the East]] and the [[Ancient Church of the East]], while the [[Chaldean Catholic Church]] entered into [[full communion]] with Rome in the 16th century. Meetings between [[Pope John Paul II]] and the [[List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East|Assyrian Patriarch]] Mar [[Dinkha IV]] led to a common Christological declaration on 11 November 1994 that "the humanity to which the Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth always was that of the Son of God himself". Both sides recognised the legitimacy and rightness, as expressions of the same faith, of the Assyrian Church's liturgical invocation of Mary as "the Mother of Christ our God and Saviour" and the Catholic Church's use of "the Mother of God" and also as "the Mother of Christ".<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_11111994_assyrian-church_en.html Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090104205725/https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_11111994_assyrian-church_en.html |date=4 January 2009 }}. Vatican.va (11 November 1994).</ref>

===Protestantism===
====Lutheran Churches====
The [[Lutheran World Federation]], in [[ecumenism|ecumenical]] dialogues with the [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople]], has affirmed all of the first seven councils as ecumenical and authoritative. It teaches:
{{blockquote|Both Orthodox and Lutherans affirm that apostolic authority was exercised in the ecumenical councils of the Church in which the bishops, through illumination and glorification brought about by the Holy Spirit, exercised responsibility. Ecumenical councils are a special gift of God to the Church and are an authoritative inheritance through the ages. Through ecumenical councils the Holy Spirit has led the Church to preserve and transmit the faith once delivered to the saints. They handed on the prophetic and apostolic truth, formulated it against heresies of their time and safeguarded the unity of the churches.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Ecumenical Councils and the Authority in and of the Church |url=https://www.lutheranworld.org/sites/default/files/1993-Lutheran_Orthodox_Dialogue-EN.pdf |publisher=[[Lutheran World Federation]] |access-date=9 March 2021 |language=English |date=10 July 1993 |archive-date=9 October 2022 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.lutheranworld.org/sites/default/files/1993-Lutheran_Orthodox_Dialogue-EN.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

====Anglican Communion====
Article XXI of the [[Thirty-nine Articles of Religion]] of Anglicanism teaches: "General Councils ... when they be gathered together, forasmuch as they be an assembly of men, whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and word of God, they may err and sometime have erred, even in things pertaining to God. Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture."<ref>''An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles V2: Historical And Doctrinal'' by Edward Harold Browne.</ref>

The 19th Canon of 1571 asserted the authority of the Councils in this manner: "Let preachers take care that they never teach anything ... except what is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament, and what the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops have collected from the same doctrine."<ref>''The Sufficiency of Holy Scripture as the Rule of Faith'' by [[Daniel Wilson (bishop)|Daniel Wilson]], [[Anglican Diocese of Calcutta|Anglican Bishop of Calcutta]].</ref> This remains the [[Church of England]]'s teaching on the subject. A modern version of this appeal to catholic consensus is found in the Canon Law of the Church of England and also in the liturgy published in ''[[Common Worship]]'':

{{blockquote|The Church of England is part of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, worshipping the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds, which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation. Led by the Holy Spirit, it has borne witness to Christian truth in its historic formularies, the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, ''The Book of Common Prayer'' and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons.

I, AB, do so affirm, and accordingly declare my belief in the faith which is revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds and to which the historic formularies of the Church of England bear witness; and in public prayer and administration of the sacraments, I will use only the forms of service which are authorized or allowed by Canon.<ref>See ''Common Worship'' {{ISBN|0-7151-2000-X}}</ref>|}}

The 1559 [[Act of Supremacy 1558|Act of Supremacy]] made a distinction between the decisions of the [[First seven ecumenical councils|first four ecumenical councils]], which were to be used as sufficient proof that something was [[heresy]], as opposed to those of later councils, which could only be used to that purpose if "the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of the ... canonical Scriptures".<ref>G. R. Elton (ed.), The Tudor Constitution: Documents and Commentary (Cambridge, 1960), p. 368. Via Dr Colin Podmore, "Blessed Virgin: Mary and the Anglican Tradition", [https://www.forwardinfaith.com/uploads/Blessed_Virgin_-_Assumptiontide_Lecture_PRINT_2.pdf  p. 15, note 12] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412003938/https://www.forwardinfaith.com/uploads/Blessed_Virgin_-_Assumptiontide_Lecture_PRINT_2.pdf |date=12 April 2021 }}, Assumptiontide Lecture 2014, St Mary and All Saints, Walsingham</ref> As such, the Anglican tradition accepts the first four ecumenical councils, though they "considered subordinate to Scripture".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Olson |first1=Roger E. |title=The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition Reform |date=1 April 1999 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-1505-0 |page=158 |language=English|quote=The magisterial Protestant denominations such as major Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican (Church of England, Episcopalian) denominations recognize only the first four as having any special authority, and even they are considered subordinate to Scripture.}}</ref>

While the Councils are part of the "historic formularies" of [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] tradition,<ref>For additional references to this section and for more on the Anglican position, see Dr CB Moss [http://anglicanhistory.org/cbmoss/seventh.pdf ''The Church of England and the Seventh Council''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205020233/http://anglicanhistory.org/cbmoss/seventh.pdf |date=5 December 2008 }}</ref> it is difficult to locate an explicit reference in Anglicanism to the unconditional acceptance of all Seven Ecumenical Councils. There is little evidence of dogmatic or canonical acceptance beyond the statements of individual Anglican theologians and bishops. Anglican cleric of Anglo-Catholic churchmanship Bishop Chandler Holder Jones, [[Society of the Holy Cross|SSC]], explains:

{{blockquote|We indeed and absolutely believe all Seven Councils are truly ecumenical and Catholic—on the basis of the received Tradition of the ancient Undivided Church of East and West. The Anglican formularies address only particular critical theological and disciplinary concerns of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and that certainly by design. Behind them, however, stands the universal authority of the Holy and Apostolic Tradition, which did not have to be rehashed or redebated by Anglican Catholics.<ref name=CHJ>[http://philorthodox.blogspot.com/2008/10/seven-ecumenical-councils-in.html The Seven Ecumenical Councils in Anglicanism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110916060450/http://philorthodox.blogspot.com/2008/10/seven-ecumenical-councils-in.html |date=16 September 2011 }}. Philorthodox.blogspot.com (27 October 2008). Retrieved on 2012-05-15.</ref>|sign=|source=}}

He quotes William Tighe, Associate Professor of History at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, (another member of the Anglo-Catholic wing of Anglicanism):
{{blockquote|...despite the fact that advocates of all sides to the 16th-century religious conflict, Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed alike, were given to claiming that their particular doctrinal stances and, in some cases, distinctive practices, were in accord with those of the Early Church Fathers, or at least with those of high standing (such as St. Augustine), none [but Anglicanism] were willing to require, or even permit, their confessional stances to be judged by, or subordinated to, a hypothetical "patristic consensus" of the first four or five centuries of Christianity. But Anglicanism most certainly did, and does so to this day.<ref name=CHJ/>|title=|source=}}

====Methodist Churches====
Methodist theologian Charles W. Brockwell Jr wrote that the first "four ecumenical councils produced and clarified the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Symbol (Nicene Creed), the most important document in Christian history after the Bible itself."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brockwell |first1=Charles W. Jr. |title=The United Methodist Church as a Connectional Covenant Community |url=https://oimts.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/2002-8-brockwell.pdf |publisher=Oxford Institute |access-date=9 March 2021 |page=10 |language=English |date=2002 |archive-date=25 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925105620/https://oimts.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/2002-8-brockwell.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Manual of the [[Church of the Nazarene]], part of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement within Methodism, states "Our denomination receives the creeds of the first five Christian centuries as expressions of its own faith," including the Christological doctrines formulated during the first four Ecumenical Councils.<ref>{{cite web |title="Historical Statement" Manual, 2017-2021 |url=https://2017.manual.nazarene.org/front_matter/historical-statement/ |publisher=Church of the Nazarene |access-date=2 June 2022 |archive-date=16 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220316065243/https://2017.manual.nazarene.org/front_matter/historical-statement/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Other Protestant denominations====
Some, including some [[Christian fundamentalism|fundamentalist Christians]], condemn the ecumenical councils for other reasons. Independency or [[congregationalist polity]] among Protestants may involve the rejection of any governmental structure or binding authority above local congregations; conformity to the decisions of these councils is therefore considered purely voluntary and the councils are to be considered binding only insofar as those doctrines are derived from the Scriptures. Many of these churches reject the idea that anyone other than the authors of Scripture can directly lead other Christians by original divine authority; after the [[New Testament]], they assert, the doors of revelation were closed and councils can only give advice or guidance, but have no authority. They consider new doctrines not derived from the sealed [[Biblical canon|canon]] of Scripture to be both impossible and unnecessary whether proposed by church councils or by more recent [[prophet]]s. Catholic and Orthodox objections to this position point to the fact that the [[Biblical canon|Canon of Scripture]] itself was fixed by these councils. They conclude that this would lead to a logical inconsistency of a non-authoritative body fixing a supposedly authoritative source.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

===Nontrinitarian groups===
Ecumenical councils are not recognised by [[Nontrinitarianism|nontrinitarian]] churches such as [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (and other [[List of denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement|denominations]] within the [[Latter Day Saint movement]]), [[Christadelphians]], [[Jehovah's Witnesses]], [[Church of God (Seventh-Day)]], their descendants and [[Unitarianism|Unitarians]]. They view the ecumenical councils as misguided human attempts to establish doctrine, and as attempts to define dogmas by debate rather than by revelation.{{cn|date=November 2024}}