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synodic period
synodic period , in astronomy, length of time during which a body in the solar system makes one orbit of the sun relative to the earth, i.e., returns to the same elongation . Because the earth moves in its own orbit, the synodic period differs from the sidereal period, which is measured relative ...
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Synod of Whitby
Synod of Whitby called by King Oswy of Northumbria in 663 at Whitby, England. Its purpose was to choose between the usages of the Celtic and Roman churches, primarily in the matter of reckoning the date of Easter (see calendar ; Celtic Church ). Among those involved in the synod were Cædmon...
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Ebenezer Erskine
Ebenezer Erskine , 1680-1754, founder of the Secession Church in Scotland, minister of Portmoak, Kinross-shire (1703) and of Stirling (1731). He upheld the right of the people to make their own choice of pastors, for which he was censured, suspended, and deposed (1733). With three other ministers he...
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Saint Maximus
Saint Maximus c.580-662, Greek theologian. He was secretary to Emperor Heraclius and subsequently abbot at the monastery of Chrysopolis. To curb Monotheletism he went to Rome and persuaded Pope St. Martin I to convene the synod of 649, which denounced as heretical the Typus of Emperor Const...
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Third Council of Constantinople
Third Council of Constantinople 680, regarded by Roman Catholic and Orthodox Eastern churches as the sixth ecumenical council. It was convoked by Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV to deal with Monotheletism . The council was attended by more than 150 bishops from all over the world, and it was pres...
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Evangelical and Reformed Church
Evangelical and Reformed Church Protestant denomination formed by the merger (1934) of the Reformed Church in the United States and the Evangelical Synod of North America. Both of these bodies had originated in the Reformation in Europe. Their churches in America were established by immigrants from...
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Burghers
Burghers , in the 18th cent., a party of the Secession Church of Scotland, resulting from one of the "breaches" in the history of Presbyterianism. To qualify as a burgess in certain burghs one was required to take an oath accepting the "true religion presently professed within this realm." O...
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Saint Wilfrid
Saint Wilfrid 634-709?, English churchman, b. Northumbria, of noble parentage. He was educated at Lindisfarne and Canterbury. With Benedict Biscop he traveled to Lyons and Rome in 654; Wilfrid remained to study in each city. In 661 he returned to England and became abbot of Ripon. Moved by Wilfrid'...
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Cambridge Platform
Cambridge Platform declaration of principles of church government and discipline, forming in fact a constitution of the Congregational churches. It was adopted (1648) by a church synod at Cambridge, Mass., and remains the basis of the temporal government of the churches. It had little to do with ma...
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Eutyches
Eutyches , c.378-c.452, archimandrite in Constantinople, sponsor of Eutychianism, the first phase of Monophysitism . He was the leader in Constantinople of the most violent opponents of Nestorianism , among whom was Dioscurus, successor to St. Cyril (d. 444) as patriarch of Alexandria. Whereas C...
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