Council of Moscow (Pan-Orthodox Council)

1666-1667 - Council of Moscow (Pan-Orthodox Synod), convened by Russian Emperor Alexis, presided over by Patriarch Païsius of Alexandria, and attended by Patriarchs Macarius of Antioch and Joasaph of Moscow, Metropolitans Athanasius of Iconium (representing the Ecumenical Patriarch), Ananias of Sinai (representing the Patriarch of Jerusalem), and several bishops and fathers, condemn the Old Ritualists (who refused to comply with corrections made in order to comply with the Church's liturgical unity, such as celebrating feastdays on the same day as the rest of the Orthodox Churches, making the sign of the cross with three fingers instead of two, not kneeling on Sundays, etc); and forbids the iconographic depiction of the Holy Trinity with God the Father as an old man and the Holy Spirit as a dove, due to the fact that it transgresses the rules of Orthodox iconography as expressed by the Seventh Ecumenical Council, and because the form of this image is of unorthodox Western origin.
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