What does it mean to profess Christ in our time and place? Our secular society treats faith as a private matter not to be discussed in public. While charitable activities motivated by faith are commended, other intrusions of faith into public discourse are widely dismissed. The public dimensions of Christian society are long gone, especially the influence of churches and church leaders. How are we called to profess Christ in a secular world?

Also, how does our profession of faith strengthen our bonds of communion as Christians? Church history is replete with examples of creeds and other statements of faith used to exclude or divide the community. These documents tend to be used more often in theological debate or inquisition than in catechesis or liturgy, thus easily becoming weaponized. Not just as an end goal, could a common profession of faith contribute to reconciling the divisions within the Christian community?

The theme for our annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (WPCU) is framed around this question, “Do you believe this?” posed by Jesus to Martha. When the ecumenical monastery at Bose in northern Italy was invited to prepare the reflections for the 2025 octave of prayer, they were conscious that 2025 marks the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea (325 CE). This was the first council of the post-apostolic era and is most famous for its Creed, which we now know as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

The centrepiece of the Week of Prayer is the “Ecumenical Celebration of the Word of God,” a service of prayer built around the biblical text for the week, John 11:17-27, with the question “Do you believe this?” Throughout the service, a dialogue occurs between three readers and the assembly based upon the encounter of Jesus with Martha in Bethany. The prayers of intercession are drawn from patristic writings from the 2nd to the 8th centuries, in which we hear a call to grow in faith and to bear witness in the world to the triune God. “This commemoration [of Nicaea] provides a unique opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the common faith of Christians, as expressed in the Creed formulated during this Council; a faith that remains alive and fruitful in our days” (WPCU 2025, “Introduction to the Theme”).

The Council of Nicaea, 325 CE

The Council was convened by the emperor, Constantine, who had issued an edict of toleration a few years earlier, allowing Christianity to flourish throughout the empire. Concerned about divisions within the church and that these would ultimately divide the empire, he charged the assembled bishops with determining the orthodox faith. The word “orthodox” comes from the Greek “ortho” and “doxa,” meaning right or true belief. To be orthodox is to be a true believer.

Numerous issues were addressed by the Council, most prominently the dispute between Arius and Athanasius, both of Alexandria. The dispute, rooted in different philosophical traditions, centred on the divinity of Jesus, beginning with their understanding of the Gospel of John. In the first verses of John, the Greek concept of the logos, the Word, is employed.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people (1:1-4).

Mirroring the first verses of Genesis, John identifies the logos as a divine figure present at Creation at the beginning of time. This was not a completely new idea. A century earlier, Philo, a Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, had identified the Greek logos with the Hebrew notion of sophia, or Wisdom. For Arius, trained in Stoicism, the logos was a created being, the demiurge of Greek philosophy. Stoics rejected the cosmology of Greek mythology, insisting that the divine and the material worlds are completely separate and cannot truly interact. If Jesus was the logos, then the divinity of Jesus was not eternal, he was created in time, a semi-divine figure.

According to Arius, Jesus was divine but not equal to God the Father in essence or status. In contrast, Athanasius defended the idea that Jesus is co-eternal and co-equal with the Father. For Athanasius, a created divinity was not sufficient, because all created beings are subject to entropy and decay. If Jesus is not eternal, then salvation given by Jesus’ death on the cross would not be eternal, because there would be a time “when Jesus was not.” Jesus’ divinity is essential for salvation – only someone fully divine could reconcile humanity with God. The mystery of the Incarnation is precisely that the divine could reach into the material world to be born a human child. The dispute between Arius and Athanasius grew and erupted into violent mobs. My own patron saint, Nicholas, was reportedly present at the Council of Nicaea, where tradition records that he slapped or punched Arius. This was not particularly laudable behaviour by the saint we now call Santa Claus!

Despite the wide popularity of Arianism, in what should be understood as a triumph of orthodoxy, the Council of Nicaea confirmed the teaching of Athanasius and condemned Arianism as heresy. The Council adopted a biological analogy proposed by Athanasius that the Son is “eternally begotten of the Father,” not created, allowing the Council to affirm that Jesus is “of the same substance” (homoousios) as the Father. Arius had been willing to accept “of similar substance” (homoiousios). The difference between these two terms comes down to just one letter: an iota (the Greek letter ‘i’) added in homoiousios. Yet, this small distinction represented a profound theological divide. The phrase “It makes not one iota of difference” ironically stems from this theological dispute. In this case, it made a monumental difference.

The Council presented these teachings in a Creed that was further elaborated at the Council of Constantinople in 381 CE. Together the two Councils presented the Church with the fully developed orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. Further disputes over Christ’s humanity continued in later Councils ending at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 CE. However, by 381 the Creed was final. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is professed by many churches and affirmed by most. Some churches consider themselves “non-credal,” by which they mean that they do not consider creeds to be binding upon the faith or conscience of the individual believer. Thus, they do not use this Creed; however, they can affirm the teaching of the Council. The trinitarian faith taught at Nicaea is universally understood as the cornerstone of Christian orthodoxy. Those groups that reject the trinitarian dogma of Nicaea are therefore not considered Christian.

An ecumenical translation of the Creed into English was developed by the World Council of Churches. It is as follows:

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made;
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us all, and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,
and was made human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried.
On the third day he rose from the dead
in accordance with the scriptures.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father.
Who, with the Father and the Son, is worshipped and glorified,
who has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
We confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look forward to the resurrection of the dead,
and to life in the age to come.

Amen.

The Apostolic Faith Study

In the early 1980s, the WCC’s Commission on Faith and Order began a process to explain in an ecumenical way the apostolic faith that Christians share, in order to move towards confessing that one faith together. The process resulted in a book titled Confessing the One Faith (1991) as well as a companion workbook titled Towards Sharing the One Faith (1996).

The Apostolic Faith Study took the Nicene Creed as a starting point for their study to help separated Christians discover together their unity in the one faith. They identified three stages to recovering unity in faith: explication, recognition, and common confession. The first stage of explicating the faith involved a careful study of the history of the Council of Nicaea and its teaching, a renewed translation of the Creed, and an understanding of the ways that it has been used in catechesis as well as to resolve theological disputes. This stage required study and dialogue over controverted issues such as the filioque, a Latin phrase meaning “and the Son” inserted into the Creed at the Third Council of Toledo in 589 to teach that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and Son.” The filioque was intended to counter resurgent Arianism in parts of the Western church but was rejected by the Eastern churches because it was not approved by a council of the whole church. Although still retained in Roman Catholic liturgical texts, it is not included in Eastern Catholic liturgies and is generally excluded at papal liturgies when Orthodox guests are present.

The second stage towards recovering unity in faith is to help churches recognize how their own lives of faith are expressions of the apostolic faith of the one Church of Christ. As they do so, the churches are also led to recognize the same apostolic faith in other Christian communities. In this way, separated churches are challenged to remove obstacles to confessing together. As obstacles are removed, this then leads to the third stage, common confession. “If, with confidence, we are able to recognize in the life and witness of others the one faith as we believe it is faithfully confessed in our own life and witness, then we can move from separate confession to a common confession” (Towards Sharing the One Faith, p. 1).

Recognition of a Common Baptism

Although agreement on baptism is not an achievement of the Council of Nicaea, agreement on a common confession of faith is closely tied to the recognition of baptism between separated churches. Ecumenical consensus on baptism depends on the use of the trinitarian formula: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” As churches come to recognize the apostolic faith professed in other churches, particularly the Nicene dogma of the Trinity, recognition of baptism becomes easier. Of course, the Nicene Creed is more than a doctrinal statement. It has a close association with Christian initiation. At times, a question-and-answer format is used for baptism. The Creed is also used for the profession of faith at Confirmation and at the reception of Eastern Christians into the Roman rite. Roman Catholic parishes in Canada regularly use the Apostles’ Creed on Sundays, but at Easter, the Nicene Creed is to be used.

A Common Date of Easter

In the One Body blog in April 2023, Sr. Donna Geernaert described the search for a common date for Easter. As she explained then, the date of Easter was one of the great accomplishments of the Council of Nicaea. Until the Council, there was wide variation in determining the date to celebrate the resurrection. The Council was able to reconcile the two traditions based on the Judaic lunar calendar and the Roman solar calendar. Easter was to be the first Sunday after the full moon following the spring equinox. Sadly, the Gregorian revision of the calendar in the 16th century resulted in a difference in the date of the spring equinox, thus Easter would be different between the two calendars. This became particularly obvious as migration led to neighbouring churches that followed the different liturgical calendars.

In 1997, the WCC convened a consultation in Aleppo, Syria which developed a proposal to set the date of the spring equinox using scientific observations. This would reaffirm the Nicene formula and result in a common date of Easter if all churches agree to implement it. Although many churches have endorsed the Aleppo proposal, there are some significant holdouts. In 2025, Easter in the two calendars happens to coincide, which has encouraged further discussion about resolving this matter.

The 6th World Conference on Faith and Order

As part of the observances of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the WCC’s Commission on Faith and Order will be holding a world conference at the St. Bishoy Monastery at Wadi El Natrun, near Alexandria, Egypt from 24 to 28 October 2025. The theme of the conference is “Where now for visible unity?” Canadian church historian and ecumenist, Rev. Dr. Sandra Beardsall is guiding the plans for the world conference and related events.

World Conferences on Faith and Order have occurred at key moments in ecumenical history. The first conference in 1927, in Lausanne, Switzerland, was the beginning of the “Faith and Order” movement, the modern ecumenical search for unity. Subsequent world conferences were held in Edinburgh, Scotland (1937), Lund, Sweden (1952), Montreal (1963), and Santiago de Compostela, Spain (1993). Each of these conferences has been an opportunity to refocus the Commission’s work on Christian unity. Important developments at these conferences have continued to guide the work of theologians and church leaders in dialogue and research, as well as helping to connect the goal of full visible unity with the work of the other Commissions and working groups in the ecumenical movement.

As well as church leaders and theologians of different traditions, a major emphasis of the 6th World Conference will be to involve a new generation of younger and emerging theologians, especially through a Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) organized in conjunction with the world conference. GETI is a program in ecumenical study and formation connected with the Bossey Institute in Geneva.

As the WCC explains,

the times in which we are now living represent a significant ‘moment’ in the life of the world and of the ecumenical movement. There are compelling reasons to bring the churches together in our times for a world conference. A world of climate catastrophe, pandemic, war, and economic concern requires a fresh engagement of the churches with one another on the core issues of faith, unity, and mission that both unite and continue to divide them (Nicaea 2025 website).

Concluding Prayer

Let us conclude these reflections with a prayer from the Bose Community included in the Week of Prayer “Ecumenical Celebration of the Word of God”:

God our Father, accept our praise and thanksgiving for what already unites Christians in the confession of and witness to Jesus the Lord. Hasten the hour when all churches will recognise each other in the one communion you willed and for which your Son prayed to you in the power of the Holy Spirit. Hear us, you who live and reign now and forever.

Nicholas Jesson is the ecumenical officer for the Archdiocese of Regina. He is currently a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue in Canada and of the Canadian Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith & Witness, editor of the Margaret O’Gara Ecumenical Dialogues Collection, and editor of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue archive IARCCUM.org. He was ecumenical officer for the Diocese of Saskatoon (1994-99 & 2008-17), executive director of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism (1994-99), and member of the Roman Catholic-United Church of Canada Dialogue (2012-20).