Back Ekumeniese konsilie Afrikaans مجمع مسكوني Arabic مجمع مسكونى ARZ Conceyu ecuménicu AST Ekumenik Kilsə Məclisləri Azerbaijani Сусветны сабор Byelorussian Сусьветны сабор BE-X-OLD Вселенски събор Bulgarian সর্বজনীন পরিষদ Bengali/Bangla Sened-Iliz Breton
An Ecumenical Council (also sometimes Oecumenical Council) or general council is a meeting of the bishops of the church of the whole world who have come together to discuss matters of Church doctrine and practice.
The word is from the Greek language "Οικουμένη", which means "inhabited", and was originally an other name for the territory of the Roman Empire, because the earliest councils were all called in by Roman Emperors. In later times it was used in the sense of "world-wide" or "general."