The last ecumenical Council was Nicaea II in 787. The schisms that divided Christianity in the second millennium have made it impossible to arrange for another ecumenical council. As a result, the Orthodox can only convene a pan-Orthodox Council. Many factors have hampered organizing such a Council.
With the fall of the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman occupation of the Balkans, gathering a Pan-Orthodox Council became practically impossible. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe became enthralled with the nationalist ideals that accompanied the formation of independent states, so their commitments ran counter to pan-Orthodoxy. The early twentieth century marked the beginning of Communist persecution. Militant atheistic regimes considered the churches of Constantinople and Greece as instruments of Western propaganda, forcing Orthodox churches into a divide along the Iron Curtain.
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