{"id":410860,"date":"2025-11-28T15:47:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T15:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/410860\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T15:47:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T15:47:16","slug":"pope-nicaea-invites-christians-to-unity-in-face-of-violence-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/410860\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope: Nicaea invites Christians to unity in face of violence, conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV prays with leaders of various Christian Churches in Nicaea, modern-day Iznik, T\u00fcrkiye, and invites all Christians to follow the paths of fraternal encounter, dialogue, and cooperation.<\/p>\n

By Devin Watkins<\/b><\/p>\n

At the site of ancient Nicaea, Pope Leo XIV joined around 27 other leaders of Christian Churches to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council in the Church\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The ecumenical prayer service took place on the second day of the Pope\u2019s Apostolic Journey to T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n

In his address, the Pope thanked Patriarch Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, for his \u201cgreat wisdom and foresight\u201d in calling for Church leaders to celebrate this important anniversary together.<\/p>\n

He also expressed appreciation to the Heads of Churches and Representatives of Christian World Communions for attending the event.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo recalled that the Council of Nicaea was held in 325, saying it invites all Christians, even today, to ask ourselves who Jesus Christ is for us personally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis question is especially important for Christians,\u201d he said, \u201cwho risk reducing Jesus Christ to a kind of charismatic leader or superman, a misrepresentation that ultimately leads to sadness and confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Council was held to respond to the Alexandrian priest Arius\u2019 claim that Jesus was only an intermediary between God and humanity, saying He was not fully divine and ignoring the reality of the Incarnation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n As Pope Leo XIV visits the site of the Council of Nicaea, held in 325, we recall the importance of the first Ecumenical Council’s proclamation of the Church\u2019s faith in the divinity …\n <\/p>\n

\u201cBut if God did not become man, how can mortal creatures participate in His immortal life?\u201d asked Pope Leo. \u201cWhat was at stake at Nicaea, and is at stake today, is our faith in the God who, in Jesus Christ, became like us to make us \u2018partakers of the divine nature\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Council of Nicaea, he said, agreed upon the Christological confession we now call the Nicene Creed, which is professed by all Christian Churches and Communities.<\/p>\n

The Symbol of Faith, as it is known, was of \u201cfundamental importance in the journey that Christians are making towards full communion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFaith \u2018in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages… consubstantial with the Father\u2019 (Nicene Creed),\u201d he said, \u201cis a profound bond already uniting all Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pope invited Christians to embrace that existing bond of unity and journey ever deeper in \u201cadherence to the Word of God revealed in Jesus Christ, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in mutual love and dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

By overcoming divisions and reconciling with one another, Christians can bear more credible witness to Jesus Christ and His proclamation of hope for all, he said.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo XIV went on to say Christian unity is greatly needed in our world filled with violence and conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe desire for full communion among all believers in Jesus Christ is always accompanied by the search for fraternity among all human beings,\u201d he said, calling for recognition of the rights and dignity of all people, no matter their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or personal perspectives.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Rt. Revd. Anthony Poggo, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion\n <\/p>\n

He upheld the role of religions in serving truth and encouraging individuals to seek dialogue and respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must strongly reject the use of religion for justifying war, violence, or any form of fundamentalism or fanaticism,\u201d the Pope said. \u201cInstead, the paths to follow are those of fraternal encounter, dialogue and cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Pope Leo prayed that God the Father may help the commemoration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea bear \u201cthe abundant fruits of reconciliation, unity and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the prayer service concluded, the leaders of Christian Churches and Communions prayed the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed together, omitting the Filioque.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Iznik, T\u00fcrkiye, Ecumenical Prayer Meeting\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV prays with leaders of various Christian Churches in Nicaea, modern-day Iznik, T\u00fcrkiye, and invites all…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":410861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18485,146374,193268,39495,96900,51,50,3417,90692,52,24922],"class_list":{"0":"post-410860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-anniversary","9":"tag-apostolic-journey","10":"tag-bartholomew-i","11":"tag-christians","12":"tag-ecumenism","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","16":"tag-prayer","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-turkey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}