In 2025, the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea will be commemorated. For the main celebration, Pope Leo XIV will visit Türkiye and travel by helicopter on Friday, November 28, from Istanbul to Iznik. In ancient times, this city with a population of 40 thousand people was called Nicaea.
An important church meeting within the Roman Empire took place there in 325 during the reign of Emperor Constantine. This summit is considered a decisive stage in the development of the Church, which determined basic aspects of the current Christian faith. 1,700 years later, Christians around the world still recite the Creed drafted by about 200 bishops.
Council before the splits
In Nicaea, the Christians were united. Various schisms within the churches occurred later, at different stages of church history. “The Council of Nicaea was the only council, that is, the only council, that brought together practically all the relevant authorities in the ancient church of that time, under the leadership of the emperor,” Christian Stoll, a Catholic theologian from Paderborn and the Vatican’s advisor on ecumenical affairs, told DW.
The Council of Nicaea made two basic points of contention clear. First, after a long discussion, the participants agreed on a common date for Easter, so that all Christians in the world celebrate this holiday on the same days.
Who is Jesus of Nazareth?
Moreover, the council participants reached agreement on how to understand the person of Jesus of Nazareth. “Even the New Testament offers different views on this,” says Stoll, so there were “several theological disagreements” in the ancient world on this point.
“At Nicaea,” Stoll continues, “it was agreed that Christ could be called God.” This is still held by all Christian denominations today. The Nicene Creed states that Jesus Christ is “true God from true God, begotten, not made, of the same nature as the Father…”
“The anniversary has had a surprisingly strong impact in academia and churches,” Stoll says. Conferences and discussions were held in most German dioceses, as well as internationally, on the importance of the Council of Nicaea.
Stoll emphasizes that it has been “moving” to note that at several ecumenical events this year “Christians from very different traditions acknowledge this common faith.” Stoll sees this as “a sign of unity and togetherness,” something that “societies shaken by polarization and conflict certainly need.”
At the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis worked for many years to commemorate the events of the year 325. Christian unity was the Pope’s main concern, and Pope Leo XVI addressed this topic. In May, he met with Patriarch Bartholomew I and will meet him again several times during his three-day visit to Türkiye, in both Iznik and Istanbul.
Theologian Stoll claims that Pope Leo “The pope carries this message with him as he travels to the Council of Nicaea,” Stoll says. There is no doubt that he will renew it there.
Leo It emphasizes the common witness of Christians. “What unites us is in fact much more than what divides us,” says the Pope.
He goes on to say that the Nicene Creed of 325 can be a basis for achieving unity and reconciliation among all Christians, because it “proposes a model of true unity in legitimate diversity.” According to Leo XIV, what today is about is achieving “a future ecumenism of reconciliation through dialogue.”
Reflections on the papacy
Shortly before the papal visit, Cardinal Kurt Koch, who is in charge of the ecumenical movement in the Curia, commented in an interview with the Catholic News Agency that Leo
However, despite all the praise for the meeting of the Orthodox Patriarch in Iznik with Bartholomew I and the presence of representatives of other churches, the dialogue between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church, if not interrupted, has ceased to exist, at least for years.
As a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian Patriarch Kirill strongly approves of Putin’s war in Ukraine. Currently, the Moscow Patriarch shows little interest in ecumenism.
(ms/m)