Members of the Chemin Neuf Community in Spain took part in an ecumenical celebration in honour of the anniversary of the first universal ecumenical council.
In 325, at the instigation of Emperor Constantine, this council brought together around 300 bishops from all the provinces of the Roman Empire in Nicaea.
The result of this gathering was the formulation of the Creed, known as the Nicene Creed.
On 28 November last year, Pope Leo XIV travelled to Turkey to commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in prayer. In the city of Iznik – formerly Nicaea – the Holy Father was accompanied by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, several patriarchs and representatives of Protestant churches.
In unison, the representatives of the different Churches recited the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, without pronouncing the Filioque.
A few days before this ecumenical gathering, the Bishop of Rome published an apostolic letter, ‘In unitate fidei’, retracing the history of the Council and emphasising the value of unity. The Pope invites us to return to the shared foundation of the Council of Nicaea in order to revive a fragile ecumenical path.
„Representatives and faithful from different Churches in Aragon (Spain) celebrated with joy, in an atmosphere of intimacy and reflection, the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council in Christian history. We realised once again that there are more things that unite us than divide us,“ explains Lidia Matute-Pardos, a member of the Chemin Neuf community.
