In later centuries, ecumenical was used in reference to church council, Nicaea and Constantinople for example, whose decisions represented the catholic church, as opposed to other councils that were permitted only regional or limited jurisdiction. Since the 19th century, ecumenism has denoted the movement of the renewal, unity, and mission of Christians and churches of different traditions “so that the world may believe.” (Crow, …show more content…
Necessitated by the three way schism within Arianism, Basil the Great and the Cappadocian Fathers further developed the Nicene Creed to attract the more moderate Arians, as well as answer the heresies of Macedonianism. The Fathers distinguished the persons of Father, Son, and Spirit, separate from the substance of the Godhead. “It sanctioned the theology of the Neo-Nicenes, confessed that the Spirit, too, was homoousios, and thus apparently enlarged the Nicene symbol…” (Margull, p.