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This recurring division is what makes the Council of Nicea – a meeting of bishops 1,700 years ago in present-day Türkiye – so important today. And why Pope Leo XIV On November 28, he will travel to the site of this founding moment of Christian unity as part of his first major foreign trip as pope.
In 325, the Council issued the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still recite every Sunday.
“The occasion is very, very important — the first global ecumenical council in history and the first form of doctrine recognized by all Christians,” said church historian Giovanni Maria Vian, co-author of “Constantine’s Gamble,” published in Italy to coincide with the anniversary.
Nicaea, called by the Roman Emperor, was the first—but not the last—time that a powerful political leader assumed a leadership role in shaping long-term church policy. It was an early collaboration between church and state.
Leo will celebrate its 1,700th anniversary Patriarch Bartholomewspiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians.
Catholic, Orthodox, and most historic Protestant groups accept the doctrine. Despite subsequent divisions over doctrine and other factors, Nicene remains a point of agreement—the most widely accepted doctrine in Christendom.
Other events have been held to commemorate the Council, from global to local. The World Council of Churches, which includes Orthodox and Protestant groups, celebrated the anniversary in Egypt in October. At an ecumenical celebration in the Pittsburgh area in November, the quip was “Party like 325.”
The Council of Nicaea is important for what was done and how it was done.
It included an unprecedented gathering of at least 250 bishops from across the Roman Empire. Emperor Constantine consolidated his control over the empire after years of civil war and political intrigue.
Constantine did not officially convert to Christianity until the end of his life. But by 325, he had already shown tolerance and favor toward the Christian sect that had emerged from the last great wave of Roman persecution.
Constantine wanted a unified church to support his unified empire. But the church was tearing itself apart.
It is sometimes called the “Trinity controversy,” although the debate was not about whether there was a Trinity—God as Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit—but about how the Son relates to the Father.
Historians debate exactly who taught what, but an Egyptian priest named Arius gave his name to the influential Arian doctrine.
It portrayed Jesus as the highest being, but not equal to God. The opposing opinion, which was defended by an Egyptian bishop, says that Jesus was equal to the Father forever.
Constantine called a council to settle matters. It is called the first “ecumenical” or world council, in contrast to the regional councils.
The bishops almost unanimously supported the doctrine approved by the emperor. It is an abbreviated version of the Nicene Creed that is recited in the church today. It declared that Jesus was the “true God” and condemned those who professed Arian ideas.
The Creed described Jesus as equal to the Father, of “one essence” – “homosios,” a term from Greek philosophy rather than from the Bible.
The council also adopted a formula to determine the date of Easter, which was controversial. The council approved the calendar favored by Arian sympathizers, setting Easter for the Sunday after the first full moon in the spring. That gave each side a win, said David Potter, author of “Constantine the Emperor” and professor of Greek and Roman history at the University of Michigan.
“The Council of Nicaea was an extraordinary diplomatic success for Constantine, because it brought the two sides to an agreement,” he said.
As a result, the emperor’s theological legacy lives on.
“I have often thought it a good thing to have a portion of Imperial legislation read every Sunday,” Potter said.
When the Council established its formula for determining Passover, it was careful to distance the celebration from the Jewish Passover. You used very derogatory language towards Jews.
“Institutional anti-Semitism has always been a feature of the church,” Potter said.
He noted that such harsh language was common on all sides of ancient religious disputes between early Christians, Jews, and pagans. But it helped set a precedent for centuries of persecution of Jewish minorities in Christian lands.
Despite agreement on doctrine, matters were not resolved. In fact, Arius returned to the political arena.
The doctrinal debate raged for two more generations, even in the streets of the new capital, Constantinople.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa wrote in the late fourth century: “The old men of clothing, the money-changers, and the sellers of food, are all occupied with discussion.” “If you ask someone to give you change, he is philosophizing about the born and the unborn. If you inquire about the price of a loaf, you will be told… The Father is greater and the Son is inferior.”
In 381, another emperor held a council in Constantinople. It emphasized the expanded Nicene Creed, adding lines describing the Church and the Holy Spirit. The final version became the standard text used today. It is sometimes called the Nicene-Constantinople Creed.
This matter largely concerned the Arians, but new disagreements arose in subsequent centuries.
Some churches in Asia and Africa, including Eastern Orthodox bodies, accepted the Nicene Creed but rejected later councils amid disagreements over how to talk about Jesus being both human and divine. While in Türkiye, Pope Leo plans to meet with representatives of two Eastern Orthodox groups, the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church.
The Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches had their own schism in the 11th century. They were already diverging on things like papal authority, but the big controversy was that the Western churches had added a clause in the Nicene Creed that the Eastern churches had not agreed to. Specifically, the original Creed said that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father,” but Catholics added “and from the Son.”
Protestant churches later divided over other issues, although most adhered to the Nicene Creed. Historic churches such as Lutherans, Anglicans, and Presbyterians affirm the doctrine explicitly. Many modern evangelical churches that do not formally affirm the Creed, such as many Baptists, have their own statements of faith that largely agree with it.
Some notable exceptions, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do not accept the Nicene Formula.
The Catholic and Protestant churches also began celebrating Easter differently from the Orthodox churches a few centuries ago, using an updated solar calendar – opening another crack in Nicene unity.
Still, Nicea offers hope to a divided church, said the Rev. John Burgess, a professor of systematic theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a Presbyterian minister and scholar of Eastern Orthodoxy.
“An event like the 1,700th anniversary of Nicaea is really a celebration not of reality but of hope — of what Christians should be at their best, which is that there is a deep call for unity,” he said.
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