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Copied from someone else.𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗵Each of the Oecumenical Councils met in a time of turmoil, at a time when religion mattered as much – and sometimes far more – than politics. People in the time of the Councils believed that faith was far more than a private affair, best kept to themselves. They were convinced that what they believed and how they lived their lives, had eternal meaning not only for themselves, but for the society around them. The Seven Oecumenical Councils met from 325-787, four hundred and sixty years during which they laid out the Church’s understanding the two basic dogmas of the Christian religion: the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation of Christ. They are the font of our Faith: everything that Christians believe flows from these dogmas. In the most basic sense, though, these dogmas rest on a single historical fact: in Jesus Christ God became a human being, like us in every way except this: He didn’t sin. He perfectly fulfilled the calling He shares with us but which we none of us live up to. Over those four centuries, the Fathers of the Councils – this Sunday we’ll keep the ancient custom of remembering the Fathers of the Fifth of the Oecumenical Councils – debated a plethora of erroneous doctrine with vigor and sometimes ferocity (recall the story of the outraged St Nicholas who crossed the debating floor during Nicaea and slapped the face of arch-heretic Arius). They raided the labyrinthine halls of philosophy for words intricate enough to express the Inexpressible Truth of the Faith. But all was to preserve this: that in Christ, the fullness of God and the fullness of man met in one Person, who “came down” for us men and our salvation. As St Athanasius the Great so succinctly said “He became what we are to make us what He is.”This is the one Faith, the Oecumennical Faith, for all times, all places, all men. All that we do as Christians flows from (or should!) this Truth. It embodies who each of us are called to be and, God willing, who we will be when He’s made us new. Turns out those folks long ago were right: what we believe and how we live their lives, 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 have eternal meaning, not just for ourselves, but for the society all around us.