Services in London and Jerusalem mark 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea

By Catherine Pepinster

Two Catholic cardinals, a Greek Orthodox patriarch, an Armenian Orthodox bishop, an Anglican archbishop and a retired Bishop of London came together via technology in London and Jerusalem on Tuesday to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the formation of the Nicene Creed, the Christian equivalent of a manifesto of faith.

The service, which marked the start of the Great Council of Nicaea 1700 years ago on 20 May in the year 325, was also organised by the Friends of the Holy Land, to witness to the faith shared by Christians in the region, who are suffering in the ongoing conflict.

In a particularly poignant moment, the ecumenical service, simultaneously held in the Temple Church in London and the Catholic Co-Cathedral of the Most Holy Name of Jesus in Jerusalem, listened to a message from Pope Francis, written just four days before he died in April.  

In his letter, read by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Pope Francis praised what he called the “commendable initiative” of the service which “bears eloquent witness to the rich religious tapestry that characterises the land of our saviour’s birth”, and called for “an immediate cessation to the current conflict”.

The importance of witness was also referred to by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, in his sermon. Speaking in Jerusalem, the Cardinal said that in shaping the Creed which articulates Christian faith, the Council of Nicaea “has remained an indispensable source of reference”.

But he went on to say that there had to be more than a declaration of belief for Christianity to be a living faith. “The church today is called not only to pronounce the profession of faith but to make it alive and credible through the witness of its members”, he said.

“When modern man encounters communities that are not perfect but in which life flows, and in which he can find himself when he sees Christians who are happy despite the difficulties of life, when he meets pastors ready to lay down their life for their flock, when in short the Church still knows how to distinguish itself from the life and standard of the world, then the questions arise: Why are you like this? Where do you get this strength from? Our answer will that of the church of 1700 years ago.”

1700 years ago, 318 bishops gathered at Nicaea, summoned by the new convert to Christianity, Emperor Constantine, to articulate Christian belief. He was keen to create unity in a church divided over the nature of Jesus, with Arius, a priest from Alexandria denounced as a heretic, saying Jesus was not eternal, but a created being – the highest of creatures, but still not equal to God the Father. He was opposed by Athanasius who said Jesus was eternally begotten, not created, and of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father.

Arius lost the argument and the Council of Nicaea agreed the expression of the Christian idea of the Trinity, of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Council affirmed that Jesus was not subordinate to the Father and “had always been”.

The Creed was revised in Constantinople in 381, including a change about the Holy Spirit to say: “And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father…”. But later still, some churches in the West added words to read “….proceeds from the Father and the Son”. These three additional words led to the so-called “filioque” dispute between the West and the Orthodox, over the place of the Holy Spirit and the Son in the Trinity.

At Tuesday’s service, the early version of the Nicene Creed was used, thus avoiding the contentious line.

The Rev Robin Griffith-Jones, Master of the Temple Church who devised the liturgy, said: “I took the view that there were some people who would have liked to have the “filioque” but they would not have been offended by not having it. Instead we had something that united us when we are so fractured and divided”.

In an interview with the Religion Media Centre, he explained that the church had been taken aback by the interest shown in the Creed and the service, which seemed to have fired the imagination. He had received dozens of emails from ordinary church members who said the event was extremely important.

He said that in a world where everything is fluid, fractured and ephemeral, the Nicene Creed “seems to be unbreakable and unshakable. The whole church can gather round this one document and say it together”.  It was like “digging back into the foundations and in the service, they asked everyone to say the Nicene Creed together in a language of their choice.

He was asked whether the significance of the Nicaea Council was that it refused to settle for Biblical fundamentalism or anti-intellectualism.

He agreed that the bishops in 365 acknowledged that the “language, the conceptualities, the images of Scripture, weren’t enough”. The church had decided the canon of scripture, “so to give scripture an authority above that of the church is already slightly odd, because it’s the church that defines scripture”.

Among others participating in the service in London were Lord (Richard) Chartres, former Bishop of London and the Bishop of Southwark, Christopher Chessun. In Jerusalem, the congregation included Theophilus III, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem; Bishop Hovakim Manukyan, of the Armenian Orthodox Church; and Archbishop Hosam Naoum, the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem.

The Nicene Creed from 325AD
“We believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; whose Kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit. But as for those who say, There was when He was not, and, before being born He was not, and that He came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the Son of God is of a different hypostasis or substance, or created, or is subject to alteration or change – these the Catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes.”