On the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council held in Nicaea in 325 AD, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has issued a Patriarchal and Synodal Encyclical. The letter opens with a hymn of thanksgiving to the “all-powerful, all-seeing, and all-beneficent God in Trinity,” who “has deemed His people worthy to reach the 1700th anniversary” of this historic council, “which bore witness in the Spirit to the true faith in the co-eternal and consubstantial God the Word.”
The Council of Nicaea is described as an expression of “the synodal nature of the Church,” a culmination of “primordial conciliarity” and “gathering to make unanimous decisions.” The First Ecumenical Council, though not a “permanent institution,” was an “extraordinary event” convened in response to a specific threat to the faith, restoring the “broken unity and Eucharistic communion.”
Despite the participation of Emperor Constantine, the Council was “a purely ecclesiastical event,” guided by the Holy Spirit, which dealt with matters internal to the Church. The Emperor, in turn, adhered to the principle: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
The Council formulated the essential truths of the faith in synodal consensus, affirming that the Son is “consubstantial with the Father,” “true God from true God,” who “saves humanity from bondage to the alien through His incarnation.” The Nicene Creed remains “a proclamation of the common tradition of the Catholic Church,” and the Orthodox Church honors the Fathers of the Council as “precise guardians of apostolic tradition.”
The issue of a common celebration of Pascha is also given particular emphasis, especially in the context of the 1700th anniversary. The Church prays that “Christians around the world may return to the celebration of Pascha on a common date,” as a symbol of “genuine progress in the struggle for ecumenical cooperation and unity.”
The encyclical recalls the Council’s decisive role in shaping the Church’s dogmatic identity and canonical structure, emphasizing that the 1700th anniversary is a call to “return to the original canonical ordinances of the undivided Church.”
The Ecumenical Throne of Constantinople, as the guarantor of the decrees of Nicaea, had already expressed this spirit in a similar encyclical issued for the 1600th anniversary, affirming that the Council “solidified and sealed the unity of the Church through its decision.”
Finally, the encyclical highlights the salvific message of the Council and the unity of Christology and anthropology in light of today’s anthropological confusions and challenges. It reminds the faithful that “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the full and perfect revelation of the truth about God and man.” The Church “wears the garment of Truth” and looks toward the “never-ending day” of the eternal Kingdom.
Translated by: Konstantinos Menyktas
