‘An icon in words’: Christians celebrate 1,700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicea

What could fourth-century Christians and modern-day Catholics possibly have in common? Quite a lot, as it happens, in particular the Nicene Creed. This 1,700-year-old document astoundingly still remains the symbol of the Christian faith, linking today’s Catholics not only with their fourth-century brethren, but with nearly every other Christian denomination.

To celebrate this anniversary is to wonder at the symbolism ‘and at the beauty of the gift offered in Jesus Christ, of which [the Nicene Creed] is like an icon in words,’ according to a publication released by the Vatican in April, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. It calls the Creed—which emerged from the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea—a ‘priceless treasure of faith’ for all Christian churches, one that ‘continues to show itself in ever more beautiful and fresh ways’.

‘One of the most significant, striking things about Christianity as a religion from very early on is this drive to unity,’ says Professor of Early Christian Studies Matthew Crawford of the Australian Catholic University. ‘You see it already in the New Testament text itself or earliest documents, where you have people from one side of the Mediterranean writing to people on the other side of the Mediterranean about their common faith and this common identity that they have.

‘It requires constant negotiation on what things do we agree on, what things can we agree to disagree [about] essentially, but still maintain our commonality and our common identity. This most important significance of Nicea to today is a way of re-calling the various churches to that original impulse and to find a way to live that out in the present world in our modern age.’

In AD 325, as the early Christian church was coming through one of its worst periods of sustained and bloody persecution, a theological tussle caught the attention of Roman emperor Constantine. Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and a priest, Arius, were at odds over the nature of the divinity of Jesus, and their heated disagreement was spreading across the Mediterranean. Constantine called a meeting of all the bishops in Nicea, close to what is now Istanbul in Turkey.

‘The upshot is that they form a creed, a statement of faith, the Nicene creed, which is carefully designed to win as much acceptance as possible but also to rule out of bounds certain ideas, namely those of Arius,’ Prof Crawford explains.

The Nicene creed is in essence a statement of belief in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, he says. ‘But then after that you have a series of anathemas, [which] specifically rule out of bounds the theology that Arius had been espousing.’ Debate on the wording and the universal significance of the Nicean Council of AD 325 continued for several decades, but by the time of the follow-up Nicea-Constantinople Council of 381, there was ‘harmony on Nicea as a common statement of faith, a symbol of practices, ideas and beliefs.’

That harmony persisted—albeit with constant tweaks and changes in interpretation—until 1054. That was the year of the Great Schism, the at-times seemingly irreparable split between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Prof Crawford says one of the major issues contributing to the split was over whether it was permissible to add a phrase to the Nicene Creed.

‘In the West in the early Middle Ages, there’s an addition that gets made called the Filioque Clause because the Latin word filioque means, “and the son”,’ he says. The new version of that line says that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and then the critical part is “and from the Son”. Now, that may strike us as not hugely significant, but the split, even to this day between Catholics and Orthodox, turns on a phrase that was not originally in the Nicene Creed but was added in the West and at a later period.’

What resulted can only be attributed, at least from a theological perspective, to the unifying role of the Holy Spirit.

The shock of that split is still felt hundreds of years later, but Greek Orthodox theologian at St Andrew’s Theological College in Sydney, Philip Kariatlis, says it is vital to remember that the two churches had more than a thousand years together, and the Nicene Creed is still the document that connects them.

‘It was a creed that proclaimed the divinity of the person of Christ, which is important,’ Dr Kariatlis says. ‘But also it was a proclamation that emerged because all different churches, all different bishops of the time, came together to declare with a united voice. I think what resulted can only be attributed, at least from a theological perspective, to the unifying role of the Holy Spirit.’

Dr Kariatlis describes how the Orthodox and Catholic leaders barely spoke for centuries until during the Second Vatican Council, when the then-Patriarch Athenagoras met Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem in 1965. Talks have continued ever since, he says, first on matters the two churches have in common, and then on their points of difference.

‘The dialogue now in its latter stage is discussing such issues and finding a way forward and seeing that a lot of things that were thought about the Filioque [were] not as divisive as we first thought it was,’ Dr Kariatlis says.

‘But beyond that, both leaders—the current patriarch and the popes, Pope Francis, Pope Benedict—they actually had a very strong friendship, and they really see each other as sort of Christian brothers. Let’s hope that this third Christian millennium is one of reconciliation, unity and hope that our churches will come together.’

Fr Denis Stanley, the Melbourne Archdiocese Episcopal Vicar for Interfaith Relations, also sees the Nicene Creed as a ‘touchstone’ of Christianity, ‘something that binds us together in faith.’ He says Catholics are generally unaware of how fundamental the Creed is in unity with other Christians.

‘Many Catholics are very surprised when they go to another church and they stand up and say the Creed. They say, “oh, that’s interesting. That’s what we pray”,’ Fr Stanley says. ‘On the pew level, Catholics are aware of the Creed because we pray it every Sunday. But its historical implications, connecting us with other Christian communities, that’s part of the whole work of ecumenical dialogue, making people more aware of that.’

Fr Stanley says this year’s shared Easter date was a reminder that Christians love sharing their faith. ‘Everyone was celebrating together on Easter Sunday. The whole world was saying “Christ has risen. He’s risen, indeed.” That was a very powerful.’ He says the joint Easter celebrations and the Nicene Creed anniversary were significant rallying points this Jubilee year ‘to remind Christians of their unity and ask us to reflect more deeply on that, drawing from our past, [on] what does it mean for us now.’

The Council of Nicea is clearly not a relic of the past, but a living model for the Church today, Dr Kariatlis says. It is a blueprint for a synodal approach where the Church confronts challenges in communion, he says, giving the example of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ encyclical and ecumenical statements on the environment signed by Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican leaders. ‘That’s a more persuasive voice when it comes across in a united way than one that’s just being expressed by one church,’ he says. ‘We’re seeing mainstream Christian churches giving a common witness, and that can only be a sign of hope.’