It is during the 6th and 7th centuries that we see additional development of the Divine Liturgy. These developments took place against a background of continuing doctrinal controversy, which was not without its effect on the Liturgy in the capital, where the population took a lively interest in both doctrine and worship. Debate focused on the doctrine of the person of Jesus Christ, to which the theological traditions of Alexandria and Antioch took differing approaches. (You will recall that this is immediately after the challenge of Arius and Nestorius and others who debated who Jesus is. You can only imagine the impact that this would have on the Liturgy).

The tradition of Alexandria tended to emphasize the divinity of Christ, at what some thought to be the cost of his full humanity. The tradition of Antioch so emphasized the completeness of Christ’s humanity that for others there was a less than perfect union of the two natures in the person of Jesus Christ. Early in the fifth century Nestorius, then Patriarch of Constantinople, doubted that it was truly appropriate to call Mary the Mother of God – Theotokos. As an Antiochene he preferred the term Christotokos, the Mother of Christ. The Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 affirmed the correctness of applying Theotokos to Mary, and the title passed into frequent liturgical use in the Byzantine tradition, always quick to reflect contemporary dogmatic definition.

The definition of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451, proclaiming the union of the divine and human natures in the one person of Jesus Christ, was an attempt to reconcile the Alexandrian and Antiochene traditions in Christology. For political as well as doctrinal reasons the definition was unacceptable to those who eventually came to be called monophysite on the one side, and Nestorian on the other. Meanwhile in the latter part of the fifth century monophysite tendencies were influential throughout the Eastern part of the Church, and found imperial support. (The Monophysite position was that Christ only had one nature and wholly divine and only subordinately human. He did not have two natures). The accession of the emperor Justin in 518 put a stop to this trend. The four ecumenical councils were included in the diptychs read at the Liturgy, and the names of the recent pro-monophysite patriarchs of the capital removed. (You will recall that the diptychs were tablets with the names of those bishops who were considered top be in union with one another and their names were mentioned during the Liturgy. If your name was removed, you were considered not in union with others).

You will recall that several prayers were introduced into the Liturgy to reinforce the true faith about Christ and Mary.