Editors’ note: This year the church worldwide observes the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, held in the Roman city of Nicaea in present-day northwestern Turkey. CNEWA underlined this anniversary with an essay by Father Elias D. Mallon, S.A., “Nicaea and the Evolution of Ecumenism,” published in the March 2025 issue of ONE magazine.
Just a month short of the actual anniversary of the start of the council, in May 325, Father Mallon interviewed Nicaea scholar Lewis Ayres for “ONE: In Conversation.” Professor Ayres is currently both McDonald Agape Distinguished Chair in Early Christian Theology at the Angelicum and professor of Catholic and historical theology at Durham University in the United Kingdom. He was just off the heels of an international conference on the council he organized in Rome, 2-5 April.
Read an excerpt of their conversation below and then listen to the entire episode
“When the Fathers of the Council of Nicaea met, they didn’t know that they were meeting in what we would call the “first ecumenical council.” Nobody said that. … What they knew was, this was probably the largest meeting of bishops and some others that had ever happened because the Emperor Constantine made it possible. And the word ecumenical to begin with simply meant it had representatives of the whole of the oikumene, of the empire. But what they did was to produce a creed, which after some decades of argument, would become the standard foundation for virtually all Christian traditions.
“And I think it’s important to recognize just how universal that Creed is. So, within a Catholic context, within an Orthodox context, it’s obvious because of the sort of formal subscription to the Creed and often its liturgical usage. But even when you look to traditions that don’t use creeds, say the Methodists or the Baptists, you’ll often find that they subscribe to a whole bunch of statements of faith in which the language of Nicaea is sort of interwoven. So, it really is the foundation for statements of Christian belief.
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“In terms of the ecumenical potential, I think you are right. There is increasing recognition during this year and leading up to this year and hopefully afterwards that the common faith of Nicaea is really a sort of multi-dimensional point from which we can begin to have all sorts of useful discussions, both between the Orthodox, Chalcedonian Orthodox and the West, and with the Oriental Orthodox churches for whom Nicaea is all important, you know, in part because of their veneration of a father like Athanasius, who is so important in defending Nicaea.
“And I think that there is great potential there, and what we need perhaps is more ecumenical study between East and West of theology of Nicaea, and it’s good in fact to see so many events happening. We’ve just had a big event in Rome. Another event in Rome that’s really shared between the Angelicum and the International Orthodox Theological Association.
“And there’s a conference in two weeks, three weeks in Istanbul sponsored by the patriarch, so… at which both Catholic and Orthodox and others are speaking. So, I think that you have an ecumenical moment where we are not just talking about matters around the periphery, but we’re talking about the fundamental questions of faith that we share.
“And I think that’s a really good way to move forward. It’s very easy for ecumenical discussions. It’s an easy topic to talk about. If you really want to understand each other, you need to understand the role of the basic Nicene faith among us all, I think, as a point of departure. So, there’s something really positive that’s happening there.”