The Return to Nicaea

1700th Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea Vatican City, 2025 This past Friday, on the second day of his pilgrimage visit to Türkiye, Pope Leo XIV was part of remarkable ceremony in Iznik at the site of the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church, the Council of Nicaea. It marked a full-circle return to where the Church first codified some of the essential tenets of the faith. Along the banks of Lake Iztik, a small footbridge leads out to the remains of the ancient site of the Council of Nicaea, which was held in 325 AD. The ruins of the site have only recently been exposed in 2014 as the result of the receding of the waters of the lake. This is the site where, 1700 years ago, around 300 bishops from across the Christian world gathered at the behest of the Emperor Constantine, who had stopped the persecution of Christians just 12 years earlier with the promulgation of the Edict of Milan. The Council took up important issues such as the confirmation of the consubstantial nature of Jesus Christ (and the condemnation of the heresy of Arianism), setting a common date for the celebration on Easter, and the establishment of the statement of Christian faith, the Nicene Creed. 1700th Anniversary of the Edict of Milan Scott 1535 (2013) At Friday’s event, the leaders of the Latin and Eastern Churches, Pope Leo and Patriarch Bartholomew, along with representatives of numerous Christian denominations, held a simple but powerful service of Christian unity, and in unison recited the Creed. Despite the schism that has separated the Catholic and Orthodox Churches for close to 1000 years, the Creed continues to be recited at the services of the founding Christian Churches, as well as many of those formed in the wake of the Reformation in the 16th century. Continuing to bring focus to the goal of a unified Church, later in his trip Pope Leo XIV met with other Church leaders and set a goal for the year 2033, when the Catholic Church will hold a Jubilee Year of Redemption to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He expressed his desire that all Christians will "walk together on the spiritual path that leads to the Jubilee of Redemption in 2033, with a view to returning to Jerusalem." REFERENCES: Kathleen N. Hattrup, Aleteia.org, November 28, 2025, At Nicaea again, Churches unite in one Creed I.Media, Aleteia.org, November 29, 2025, Pope proposes 2033 as next goal for Christian unity work Vatican Philatelic Society website, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search