What is the significance of the Ecumenical Councils?
Principle of Conciliarity The early Church did not have a hierarchal decision making process like the western Church has today. Decisions were made based on the the way the Apostles first made decisions regarding the dogma of the Church. It was a process called conciliarity. The idea of conciliarity is the supreme authority lies in the action of a council. Originally it was a council of the Apostles. This later became the Ecumenical Council of all bishops of the church. Conciliarity means that the supreme authority in the Church lies in the Ecumenical Council. The Apostles showed us how to make a decision in the church. The first church council in history is often referred to as the Council of Jerusalem. It is described in Acts 15. It was called to resolve a disagreement within the early Church between those who desired that all should observe the traditional rules of Judaism and those represented by Paul, who did not believe that there was such a necessity. The central issue was circu
