Nicaea anniversary to witness ‘growing communion’ of Catholic and Orthodox

The Tablet

C Messier / Public Domai

The first ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325AD, conducted under the patronage of the Emperor Constantine, is recognised by both Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

Pope Francis affirmed his intention to attend next year’s celebration marking 1,700 years since the first Council of Nicaea, in Iznik in north-west Turkey.

“I am thinking of going there,” the Pope told participants at the Vatican’s International Theological Commission last week. 

In a letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, he voiced his support for dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church occasioned by the anniversary.

“The now imminent 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea will be another opportunity to bear witness to the growing communion that already exists among all who are baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” he said. This would “strengthen existing bonds and encourage all Churches to offer renewed testimony in today’s world.”

A delegation led by Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, delivered the letter to Patriarch Bartholomew on 30 November, the Feast of St Andrew whom the patriarchate celebrates as its founder.

The first ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325AD, conducted under the patronage of the Emperor Constantine, is recognised by both Catholics and Orthodox Christians.  

Its deliberations led to the later adoption of the Nicene Creed. It also saw debate over the possibility of a joint date for all churches to celebrate Easter, and its anniversary comes in a year when both Eastern and Roman calendars mark Easter on 20 April.  

This has gradually given the 1,700th anniversary momentum as a significant ecumenical event to advance the possibility of a common date for Easter. During a homily on 31 March this year, when Easter Sunday fell in the Roman calendar, Patriarch Bartholomew said there was “goodwill and willingness on both sides” to find a joint date. 

“It is a scandal to celebrate separately the unique event of the one Resurrection of the One Lord,” he said. 

In May, Bartholomew established a commission of Catholic and Orthodox representatives to work out the details of the possible papal visit – which would be Francis’ second to Turkey – saying that his relations with the Pope were “more than brotherly”.