abstract:An ecumenical council (or oecumenical council; also general council)Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Council" is a conference of ecclesiastical dignitaries and theological experts convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice in which those entitled to vote are convoked from the whole world (oikoumene) and which secures the approbation of the whole Church.
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an assembly of bishops and other ecclesiastics representative of the Christian Church throughout the world. Roman Catholic canon law states that an ecumenical council must be convened by the pope (基督教会的)大公议会
In the ProtestantandOrthodoxsideoftheecumenicalmovement, which took institutionalform in the World Council of Churches in 1948, there weretwomainstrands.