15.

 There are two types of Councils within the Church. What are they called?

            From profound Christian antiquity, local councils of separate Orthodox Churches gathered twice a year, in accordance with the Thirty-Seventh Canon of the Holy Apostles. This canon states: “Let there be a meeting of the bishops twice a year, and let them examine among themselves the decrees concerning religion and settle the ecclesiastical controversies which may have occurred....” [Eerdmans Seven Ecumenical Councils, p. 596.] Local councils were attended by all the bishops of a particular province of the Roman Empire. These councils would ordinarily convene in a provincial capital and would be presided over by the bishop of the capital, the metropolitan. These assemblies, as the canon states, had as their purpose the bishops' giving their opinions on problems that arose — that is, local problems. (Although not mentioned in the textbook, Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky notes that often in the history of the Church there were also councils of regional bishops representing a wider area than individual Churches). The textbook goes on to list general councils in which bishops from the whole Orthodox Church, both East and West, gathered in order to reach a common mind with regard to problems pressing to the entire Church. Included in these general councils are the Ecumenical Councils. The same Fr. Michael explains that when the decisions reached in general councils are approved and accepted into the Tradition of the Church by the confirmation of the bishops at a subsequent general council, the councils then received the title Oikoumenkie Synodos (Ecumenical Synods), from oikoumenikos, meaning from all the inhabited earth — that is, the land which belonged to the Graeco-Roman civilization.