In a powerful demonstration of Christian unity, Pope Leo XIV traveled to Turkey this week, where he joined Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Theodore II, the Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, in a joint commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council, the Council of Nicaea.
That council formulated the Nicene Creed, which most Christians to this day regard as the most compact and comprehensive statement of the faith and duly recite every Sunday. Accordingly, the meeting this week of the earthly leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches was a singular step in healing ancient divisions and restoring a unity to Christianity that it has not known since its earliest centuries.
The pope traveled not only to Nicaea, but to the Patriarchal Church of St. George in the Phanar, the modest headquarters of Ecumenical Patriarchate, the first see of the Orthodox Church. There, he and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew joined in a solemn recitation of the Doxology, an ancient prayer of thanksgiving to God, and the signing of a Joint Declaration that reiterated their commitment, on behalf of both Churches, to the ultimate restoration of full communion, and their common rejection of using religion to justify violence.
The part about rejecting the sanctification of violence was a bit tangential, as people today aren’t committing acts of violence in the name of either Orthodox Christianity or Roman Catholicism. Nor was any Islamic authority on hand to repudiate the real source of religious violence today. The statement did, however, contain a great deal about the unification of the Church that should be of immense interest to all the followers of the One who prayed “that they all may be one” (John 17:21).
“The commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, celebrated on the eve of our meeting,” said the Joint Declaration, “was an extraordinary moment of grace. The Council of Nicaea held in 325 AD was a providential event of unity. The purpose for commemorating this event, however, is not simply to call to mind the historical importance of the Council, but to spur us on to be continuously open to the same Holy Spirit who spoke through Nicaea, as we wrestle with the many challenges of our time.” In a time when all too many clergy appear to derive their inspiration more from CNN or MSNBC than from the Faith of the apostles, that would be refreshing.
The declaration pledged that work would continue on the issues that divide the two ancient Churches, notably, the date of Easter. “It is our shared desire,” said the pope and the patriarch, “to continue the process of exploring a possible solution for celebrating together the Feast of Feasts every year.” They hailed the removal in 1965 of the mutual excommunications of the leaders of each Church, which had remained in place since 1054, and stated: “We give thanks to God that this prophetic gesture prompted our Churches to pursue ‘in a spirit of trust, esteem and mutual charity the dialogue which, with God’s help, will lead to living together again, for the greater good of souls and the coming of the kingdom of God, in that full communion of faith, fraternal accord and sacramental life which existed among them during the first thousand years of the life of the Church.’”
The Joint Declaration also notes that “the goal of Christian unity includes the objective of contributing in a fundamental and life-giving manner to peace among all peoples.” This was the springboard for the Declaration’s rejection of religious violence, which concluded with this: “While we are deeply alarmed by the current international situation, we do not lose hope. God will not abandon humanity.”
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Indeed. And in these days when the free world, which is essentially coterminous with what used to be known as Christendom, faces so very many threats, it is a welcome reminder. Were these two ancient apostolic Churches to reunite, the positive impact would be immense, and global. Still, the goal seems unattainable and the quest quixotic; for one thing, the Orthodox Church is not centralized like the Roman Catholic Church. Even if an ecumenical patriarch restored communion with Roman, other Orthodox patriarchates, notably that of Moscow, would almost certainly not go along.
Still, it is heartening to know that in a world that is rent with divisions of all kinds, some people are working seriously to overcome at least some of them. The historic meeting of pope and patriarchs in Nicaea was an important step.
