The conciliar church
The spine · 431 · Roman Empire
The body of churches that received the Council of Ephesus. Rendering note: the continuing trunk is a drawing convenience under the council_reception grammar, not a verdict on which body is the true continuation.
The conciliar church was formed in 431. The conciliar church is a segment of the spine, a drawing convenience rather than a body that ended. The conciliar church's institutional line runs back to the post-apostolic church. No body on this tree is the assembly of Acts 2; where a body claims that, the claim appears in the claimed-lineage layer.
The conciliar church stands at the institutional root of the tree.
At a glance
- Formed
- In 431
- Family
- The spine
- Region
- Roman Empire
- Ended
- It ended as a separate body in 451, entering The Chalcedonian church.
- Key figures
- Cyril of Alexandria
- Also known as
- The imperial church
What it separated from
- Divided at Council of Ephesus (431), the body shared until then being The post-apostolic church.
Bodies organized out of it or separated from it: Oriental Orthodoxy, The Chalcedonian church.
On the tree
Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2.
The event
Council of Ephesus, 431
Third ecumenical council; condemned and deposed Nestorius over the Theotokos dispute. The Church of the East did not receive its judgment.
The other body from this event: Church of the East.
- 1994: Common Christological Declaration, John Paul II and Mar Dinkha IV, Nov 11, 1994 — joint confession of the same faith in the Incarnation.
Sources
Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-10.