The council at Ephesus
Theotokos — mother of God affirmed
The Council of Ephesus in 431 AD is one of the most chaotic in church history. It opens before all the bishops have arrived. Nestorius and his supporters are still en route from Antioch when Cyril of Alexandria pushes through the condemnation.
When the Antiochene bishops arrive four days later, they hold their own counter-council and condemn Cyril. For a moment the church has two councils meeting simultaneously in the same city, each condemning the other.
The emperor eventually imposes order. Nestorius is deposed and exiled. Cyril is technically also condemned but negotiates his way out of it. The formula that emerges — the Theotokos affirmed, the unity of Christ's person maintained — becomes orthodoxy.
But the wound is deep. The Antiochene tradition — the school of biblical interpretation and Christology centered in Antioch and Syria — never fully reconciles with Alexandria. The Church of the East, which represents this tradition, is formally declared heretical and withdraws from the imperial church.
This is the church that will carry the gospel east — into Persia, into Central Asia, eventually to China. Nestorian Christianity will reach the Tang Dynasty in the seventh century. Nestorian monks will be found in Beijing in the thirteenth century when the Mongol empire is at its height.
The church that was exiled from the council became one of the greatest missionary movements in the history of the faith.
“Mary is the Mother of God because she bore the Word who is God made flesh.”
— Cyril of Alexandria, c. 430 AD
“The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The church that was condemned at Ephesus evangelized China.
The Nestorian church, exiled and marginalized by the imperial councils, sent missionaries across the Silk Road and planted Christianity in places the official church never reached. They did this without imperial support, without official recognition, without basilicas or state funding.
The institutional church sometimes wins the council and loses the mission. The expelled church sometimes finds the mission the institution was too comfortable to attempt.
This is not an argument against institutional church. It is a reminder that God's purposes are not confined to the decisions of councils or the boundaries of official Christianity.
Where is the gospel going right now that the official structures are not going?