In the message of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of June 30, 1902 to the Russian Holy Synod, it is firmly and clearly stated that "the holy cathedral and apostolic church, created on the basis of the apostles and approved by the most divine God-bearing fathers at ecumenical councils, having as its Head the Shepherd of Christ, who acquired it by his blood, being, according to the inspired and heavenly admiring Apostle, the pillar and affirmation of truth and the body of Christ, holy, we say, the church is in reality one in the identity of faith and in the likeness of customs, according to the decrees of the seven ecumenical councils, and there must be unity, and not many churches, differing from each other in dogma and basic tenets of church administration."