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Council of Nicaea -1700th Anniversary
Celebration in 2025

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is planning a year of activities in 2025 to mark the 1700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325.

The Council was a key moment in the history of Christian faith and for the ecumenical journey today.

The anniversary offers an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the outpouring mission of God’s triune love and the implications this has for the common witness and service of the churches. 

"It gives us the opportunity to ask afresh with others what Nicaea means for us today.” said WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay.

The first Ecumenical Council--a gathering of Christian bishops in Nicaea, now İznik in present-day Türkiye--was the first attempt to reach consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom. 

“Then, as now, the call to unity was heard within the context of a troubled, unequal, and divided world,” recalled Pillay.

At the centre of the WCC’s activities in 2025 will be the holding of the 6th World Conference on Faith and Order. 

In its commemoration to mark the Nicaea anniversary, the WCC is planning to focus on 3 main issues: faith, unity, and mission.

It is planned to organize webinars on theme-related topics, encourage contributions by younger scholars and students, and invite local churches to mark the anniversary in-person or online. 

“The Nicaea 2025 celebration will ... an opportunity to foster the idea that the churches are called to nurture an ecumenical theological vision ...  dialogical, mutually enriching, and resourceful for the Pilgrimage for Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity ... mandated by the WCC’s 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe in 2022,” said Pillay

The Anglican Church of Canada is a member-church of the World Council of Churches.

Adapted from:  WCC news

 

Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC
In a spirit of vibrant hospitality, the Christ Church Cathedral of Mount Kilimanjaro Diocese, Arusha, Tanzania celebrates mass inviting fellow Christians from around the world currently participating in the WCC Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, 11 March 2018.