Council Day 5 – Vito

Day five of council accomplished a lot regarding the creed and canonical statements. We voted on the creed, finalized the canon on lapsed clergy, discussed women in the clergy, and finalized the role metropolitan bishops. Regarding the creed, I am not very pleased with what was passed. I did vote yay in order to move on with the council and continue canonical discussions. The discussion on the creed can be had later and needed to be tabled at the moment. The creed does state “true god from true god” and does not include the word “begotten.” However, there is still much I disagree with. I believe there needs to be an explanation about Jesus’ and Gods relationship, and so far it is extremely vague. This will allow heresies to rise in the Christian religion and that will tear apart our church. Therefore, I do not think I can sign a creed until certain changes are made.

The rest of the council day went very well. We decided clergy should be allowed to return to the clergy if they lapsed. I understand clergy receiving a harsher punishment if they lapsed because they spread the word of God and took a special vow to do so. However, in Christianity, we have to be fair and should not treat them any different than we do the lapsed. I was pleased this is what we came too. Furthermore, we discussed women in the clergy. The council voted they would have no role in the clergy. This allows for our religion to succeed in today’s culture.

Lastly, I brought up an important canon Sylvester, the Bishop of Rome, is passionate about, the power of metropolitan bishops. I proposed that metropolitan bishops would have power over local bishops. Others argued that local bishops should hold the same power to promote equality. However, in a society there needs to be a hierarchy to promote order and serve as a mentorship for those below. The cannon I proposed was passed after some revising of the canon. In addition, I proposed there would be one metropolitan bishop in charge of all the others. I wanted this one to be just the Bishop of Rome, but before I could propose this Marcarius passed a canon that stated the Bishop of Rome and Jerusalem are co-equal. Therefore, I was in a bind and had to compromise. Overall the council went more smoothly than passes session, but there is still more we need to work on and not much time left.