My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

THE 7TH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL (SYNOD)

The 7th Ecumenical Council of the Orthodox Church took place in Nicaea in 787 A.D. and is also as the Second Council of Nicaea. The 7th Ecumenical Council dealt with the holy icons.

Disputes concerning the Person of Christ did not end with the 6th Ecumenical Council in AD 681 but continued through the 8th and 9th centuries. This time, the controversy focused on icons--paintings of Christ, the Theotokos, the Saints, and holy events--lasted for 120 years, starting in AD 726. Holy Icons were kept and venerated in both churches and private homes. The two groups in the controversy were:

Iconoclasts also called "icon-smashers," they demanded the destruction of icons which they saw as idolatry.

Iconophiles also called "icon-lovers", they defended and venerated icons both in churches and privates homes.

The controversy, however, was more than a struggle over different views of Christian art. Deeper theological issues were involved, and it is these the 7th Ecumenical Council addressed:

The character of Christ's human nature
The Christian understanding and attitude toward matter
The true meaning of Christian redemption and the salvation of the entire material universe.

The controversy falls into two periods:

From AD 726 when Leo III began his attack on icons until AD 780 when Empress Irene ended the attacks.
Again from AD 815 through AD 843 when Empress Theodora stamped out the attacks permanently.

Saint John of Damascus (AD 676-749), presented the Iconophiles' or Iconodules' Orthodox position which won out. He addressed the charges against the veneration of the icons thus:

"Concerning the charge of idolatry: Icons are not idols but symbols, therefore when an Orthodox venerates an icon, he is not guilty of idolatry. He is not worshipping the symbol, but merely venerating it. Such veneration is not toward the wood, or pain or stone, but towards the person depicted. Therefore relative honor is shown to material objects, but worship is due to God alone.

We do not obeisance to the nature of wood, but we revere and do obeisance to Him Who was crucified on the Cross...When the two beams of the Cross are joined together I adore the figure because of Christ Who was crucified on the Cross, but if the beams are separated, I throw them away and burn them." -- St. John of Damascus

Concerning the Teaching OF Icons

Venerating holy icons, having them in churches and homes, is what Church teaches. They are "open books to remind us of God."

Concerning the Doctrinal Significance of Icons

Icons are necessary and essential because they protect the full and proper doctrine of the Incarnation. While God cannot be represented in His eternal nature ("...no man has seen God", St. John 1:18), He can be depicted simply because He "became human and took flesh." "Philip said to Him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I Am in the Father, and the Father in Me? (St. John 14:8-10).

Of Him Who took a material body, material images can be made. In so taking a material (human) body, God proved that matter can be redeemed. He deified matter (theosis), making it spirit-bearing, and so if flesh can be a medium for the Spirit, so can wood or paint, although in a different fashion.

"I do not worship matter, but the Creator of matter, Who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in a manner, who through matter effected my salvation" (St. John of Damascus).

The 7th Ecumenical Council upheld the iconophiles' position in AD 787. The Holy Fathers proclaimed: "Icons...are to be kept in churches and honored with the same relative veneration as is shown in other material symbols, such as the 'Precious and Life-giving Cross' and the Book of the Gospels. The 'doctrine of icons' is tied to the Orthodox Christian teaching that all of God's creation is to be redeemed and glorified, both spiritual and material. (Source: Orthodoxwiki)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George