The Confession of Dositheus

The synod met under Dositheus II, patriarch of Jerusalem, in March 1672, when the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem was rededicated; for that reason it is also called the Synod of Bethlehem. Its purpose was to condemn the Eastern Confession of the Christian Faith, published under the name of Cyril Lucaris, a former patriarch of Constantinople, which taught several doctrines of the Reformed churches. See the Synod of Jerusalem and the Confession of Dositheus.

The eighteen decrees and four questions follow the order of that confession and answer it point by point. They are a primary source for what Orthodox bishops of the seventeenth century taught on Scripture and tradition, predestination, the fall, justification, the church and the sacraments. It is the statement of one regional synod, written for a controversy, and is read as such.