TheFirst Council of Nicaea, held inNicaea inBithynia (present-dayIznik inTurkey), convoked by theRoman EmperorConstantine I in 325, was the firstEcumenical council of the early Christian Church, and most significantly resulted in the first uniform Christiandoctrine, called theNicene Creed. With the creation of the creed, a precedent was established for subsequent 'general (ecumenical) councils of Bishops' (Synods) to create statements of belief andcanons of doctrinalorthodoxy— the intent being to define unity of beliefs for the whole ofChristendom.
The purpose of the council was to resolve disagreements in theChurch of Alexandria over the nature ofJesus in relationship to the Father; in particular, whether Jesus was of the samesubstance asGod the Father or merely of similar substance.St. Alexander of Alexandria andAthanasius took the first position; the popularpresbyterArius, from whom the termArian controversy comes, took the second. The council decided against the Arians overwhelmingly (of the estimated 250-318 attendees, all but 2voted against Arius). Another result of the council was an agreement on when to celebrate theresurrection (Pascha in Greek;Easter in modern English), the most important feast of the ecclesiastical calendar. The council decided in favour of celebrating the resurrection on the first Sunday after the first full moon following thevernal equinox, independently of theHebrew Calendar (see alsoQuartodecimanism). It authorized theBishop of Alexandria (presumably using theAlexandrian calendar) to announce annually the exact date to his fellow bishops.
The Council of Nicaea was historically significant because it was the first effort to attainconsensus in the church through anassembly representing all ofChristendom. "It was the first occasion for the development of technicalChristology." Further, "Constantine in convoking and presiding over the council signaled a measure of imperial control over the church." Further, a precedent was set for subsequent general councils to createcreeds andcanons.
The long-term effects of the Council of Nicaea were significant. For the first time, representatives of many of the bishops of the Church convened to agree on a doctrinal statement. Also for the first time, the Emperor played a role, by calling together the bishops under his authority, and using the power of the state to give the Council's orders effect.
(more)Kirishitan (吉利支丹, 切支丹, キリシタン), from Portuguesecristão, referred to Roman CatholicChristians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term forRoman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christian missionaries consisted of "fathers", or bateren from the Portuguese word “padre”, and "brothers", or iruman from the Portuguese word "irmão".
Catholic missionary activities in Japan began in 1549, exclusively performed by Portuguese-sponsoredJesuits until Spanish-sponsoredmendicant orders, such as theFranciscans andDominicans, gained access to Japan.Francisco Xavier, Cosme de Torres (a Jesuit priest), and Father John Fernandez were the first, who arrived toKagoshima with hopes to bring Christianity and Catholicism to Japan. Catholicism was subsequently repressed in several parts of the country and ceased to exist publicly in the 17th century.
However, there are some historians who state that there is enough archaeological evidence to suggest thatNestorian (Assyrian Church) missionaries first landed in Japan in AD 199, believing that they travelled through India, China and Korea before theTang dynasty. It has also been estimated that the first churches were fully established by the end of the 4th century especially atNara in central Japan.
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Within the body ofChristian beliefs, thedeath and resurrection of Jesus are two core events on which much of Christian doctrine and theology depend. According to TheNew Testament,Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, wascrucified, died, buried within a tomb, and resurrected three days later (John 19:30–31,Mark 16:1,Mark 16:6). The New Testament also mentions severalresurrection appearances of Jesus on different occasions to histwelve apostles and disciples, including "more than five hundred brethren at once" (1 Cor. 15:6), before Jesus'Ascension. These two events are essential doctrines of theChristian faith, and are commemorated byChristians duringGood Friday andEaster, particularly during theliturgical time ofHoly Week.
AsPaul the Apostle, an early front runner of Christianity, contended, "If Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless" (1 Cor. 15:14) The death and resurrection of Jesus are the most important events inChristian Theology, as they form the point in scripture where Jesus gives his ultimate demonstration that he has power over life and death, thus he has the ability to give peopleeternal life. According to theBible, "God raised him from the dead," heascended to heaven, to the "right hand of God," and willreturn again to fulfill the rest ofMessianic prophecy such as theResurrection of the dead, theLast Judgment and establishment of theKingdom of God, see alsoMessianism andMessianic Age.
The following passage isPaul the Apostle's apologetic (defense) of the resurrection of Christ:
| “ | For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.— 1 Corinthians 15:16-19 (KJV) | ” |
Most Christians accept the New Testament story as ahistorical account of some kind of resurrection, which is central to theirfaith. Some modern scholars use the belief of Jesus' followers in the resurrection as a point of departure for establishing the continuity of the historical Jesus and the proclamation of the early church. Someliberal Christians do not accept a literal bodily resurrection, seeing the story as richly symbolic and spiritually nourishingmyth. Also, a group known as theGnostics argued against its singular importance, as they haddiffering views as to how the passages should be interpreted, many believing Jesus wasnever a human and so could not have died (see:Docetism).
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Noah's Ark was a largevessel built atGod's command to saveNoah, his family, and a core stock of the world'sanimals from theGreat Flood. The story is told in chapters 6-9 of theBook of Genesis.
Genesis 6-9 tells how God decided to destroy the world because of the wickedness of mankind, selecting Noah, a man "righteous in his generation", instructing him to build an ark and take on board his family and representatives of all the animals and birds. God's flood then destroys all life on earth, but at the height of the deluge "God remembered Noah", and the waters abate and the dry land reappears. The story ends with God entering into a covenant with Noah and his descendants.
The story of Noah's Ark, according to chapters 6 to 9 in the Book of Genesis, begins with God observing mankind's evil behaviour and deciding to flood the earth and destroy all life. However, God found one good man, Noah, "a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time", and decided that he would carry forth the lineage of man. God told Noah to make an ark, and to bring with him his wife, and hissonsShem,Ham, andJapheth, and their wives. Additionally, he was told to bring examples of all animals and birds, male and female. In order to provide sustenance, he was told to bring and store food.
Noah and his family and the animals entered the Ark, and "the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights". The flood covered even the highest mountains to a depth of more than 6 metres (20 feet), and all creatures died; only Noah and those with him on the Ark were left alive. The Flood story is considered by many modern scholars to consist of two slightly different interwoven accounts, hence the apparent uncertainty regarding the duration of the flood (40 or 150 days) and the number of animals taken on board Noah's Ark (2 of each kind, or 7 pairs of some kinds).
Eventually, the Ark came to rest on themountains of Ararat. The waters continued to recede, and the hilltops emerged. Noah sent out araven which "went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth". Next, Noah sent adove out, but it returned having found nowhere to land. After a further seven days, Noah again sent out the dove, and it returned with anolive leaf in its beak, and he knew that the waters had subsided. Noah waited seven days more and sent out the dove once more, and this time it did not return. Then he and his family and all the animals left the Ark, and Noah made a sacrifice to God, and God resolved that he would never again curse the ground because of man, and never again would He destroy all life on it in this manner.
In order to remember this promise, God put arainbow in the clouds, saying, "Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlastingcovenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth".
(more)TheBrazilian Catholic Apostolic Church (ICAB -Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira) is anindependent Catholic church established in 1945 byBrazilianBishop DomCarlos Duarte Costa, a formerRoman Catholic bishop ofBotucatu.
The denomination has 48dioceses and claims 500,000-700,000 members. Its current head isPatriarch DomLuis Fernando Castillo Mendez, with Dom Josivaldo Pereira de Oliveira serving as President of the National Council. It is the mother church of theWorldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic National Churches (ICAN -Igrejas Católicas Apostólicas Nacionais), a loose communion of churches in 14 countries.
The Church accepts theNicene,Apostles', andAthanasian creeds, and observes sevensacraments (baptism,Eucharist,confirmation,penance,unction,ordination, andmatrimony). ICAB practicesopen communion for all Christians who acknowledge theReal Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Church acknowledges divorce as a reality of life and permitted inHoly Scripture, and will marry divorced persons and baptize the children of divorced or single parents or someone else.
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TheTen Commandments, orDecalogue, are a list of religious and moral imperatives which, according toBiblical tradition, were written byGod and given toMoses onMount Sinai in the form of twostone tablets. They feature prominently inJudaism andChristianity. The phrase "Ten Commandments" generally refers to the very similar passages inExodus20:2–17 andDeuteronomy5:6–21. Some distinguish between this "Ethical Decalogue" and a series of ten commandments in Exodus 34 that are labelled the "Ritual Decalogue".
The commandments passage in Exodus contains more than ten imperative statements, totalling 14 or 15 in all. However, the Bible itself assigns the count of "10", using the Hebrew phraseʻaseret had'varim—translated asthe 10 words,statements orthings. Various religions divide the commandments differently.
InBiblical Hebrew language, the commandments are termed עשרת הדברים (translit. Aseret ha-Dvarîm) and inRabbinical Hebrew עשרת הדברות (translit. Aseret ha-Dibrot), both translatable as "the ten statements." The name "Decalogue" is derived from theGreek name δεκάλογος or "dekalogos" ("ten statements") found in theSeptuagint (Exodus 34:28,Deuteronomy 10:4), which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name.
According to Biblical text, the commandments represent the utterances of God on Mount Sinai. There are biblical passages that also refer to ten commandments being written by God on stone, which he gave to Moses. Moses then gave them to the people of Israel in the third month after theirExodus from Egypt. After receiving the commandments and returning to Mount Sinai, Moses saw that the Israelites had "defiled themselves", and that his brother,Aaron, had made aGolden Calf and an altar in front of it. Moses, in terrible anger, broke the tablets. God later had Moses carve two other tablets, to replace the ones he smashed. God himself appears as the writer. This second set, brought down from Mount Sinai by Moses, was placed in theArk of the Covenant, hence designated as the "Ark of the Testimony."
(More)TheRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami is aparticular church of theRoman Catholic Church in the United States. Its ecclesiastic territory includesBroward,Miami-Dade andMonroe counties in Florida. Thearchdiocese is themetropolitan see for the Roman Catholic Church in the State of Florida. The currentarchbishop is John Favalora. As archbishop, Favalora also serves aspastor of the Cathedral of Saint Mary, the mother church of the archdiocese. Also serving are 428priests, 160 PermanentDeacons, 50 Religious Brothers and 300 Religious Sisters who are members of variousRoman Catholic religious orders. These priests, deacons and religious serve a Catholic population in South Florida of 1,300,000 in 118parishes and missions. Because of the vast number of immigrants,Catholic Mass is offered in at least a dozen languages in parishes throughout the archdiocese.
Several social service organizations are operated by the archdiocese which include two hospitals, nine health care centers, three homes for the aged, and two cemeteries. Charities include homeless shelters, legal services for the poor, Pro Life centers, an HIV/AIDS ministry, theMissionaries of Charity andSociety of Saint Vincent de Paul ministries to the poor.Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami, is a separate non-profit organization operated by the archdiocese. It claims to be the largest non-governmental provider of social services to the needy in South Florida.
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Thelist of Archbishops of Canterbury mentions those who have served as theArchbishop of Canterbury; acknowledged as the chief bishop and principal leader of theChurch of England, the symbolic head of the worldwideAnglican Communion and thediocesan bishop of theDiocese of Canterbury, thesee that churches must be in communion with in order to be a part of the Anglican Communion.
The current archbishop isRowan Williams. He is the 104th in a line that goes back more than 1400 years toSt Augustine of Canterbury, who founded the oldestsee in England in the year 597.
From the time ofSt. Augustine until the 16th century, the Archbishops of Canterbury were infull communion with theBishop of Rome. During theEnglish Reformation the church broke away from the authority of thePope, at first temporarily and later more permanently. Since then they have been outside of the succession of the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy and have led the independent national church.
Thelist of popes records those who have served asPope of theRoman Catholic Church. In this capacity, the Pope acts as theBishop of Rome, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, and head of state ofVatican City.
There is no official list of popes of the Roman Catholic Church, although theAnnuario Pontificio, published every year by theVatican, contains a list that is generally considered to be the most authoritative. Its list is the one used in Wikipedia. TheAnnuario Pontificio list gives the current pope,Benedict XVI as the 265thpope;Saint Peter is listed as the first.
Several changes have been made in the list during the 20th century.Antipope Christopher was considered legitimate for a long time.Pope-elect Stephen was considered legitimate under the nameStephen II until the 1961 edition and erased then. Although these changes are no longer controversial, a number of modern lists still include this "first Pope Stephen II". It is probable that this is because they are based on the 1913 edition of theCatholic Encyclopaedia, which is in the public domain.
