All are invited to a statewide ecumenical prayer gathering May 3 to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
Catholic bishops of New Jersey, including Bishop Joseph Williams, will join members of the Western and Eastern Rite Churches on common purpose: to pray together the Creed establishing the beliefs of Christianity.
Beginning at 11 a.m. at Saint Robert Bellarmine Co-Cathedral, Freehold, the “We Believe in One God” gathering will include Morning Prayer and two homilies – one each from the Western and Eastern Rite – and the praying of the Nicene Creed in both Greek and English by the assembly. A reception will follow in the parish’s spiritual center.
“This anniversary invites reflection on unity, justice and shared faith amidst all of our modern problems,” said Father Joseph Wallace, director of Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs for the Diocese of Camden and pastor of Christ the Redeemer Parish in Atco. He is among the religious leaders who have been meeting throughout the year to plan the prayer service.
The 1,700th anniversary falls during the 2025 Jubilee Year, a time of spiritual reflection and renewal. Saying that the Creed that evolved from the Nicene Council is the foundational statement of the Christian faith, he explained that the faith expressed at Nicaea helped to clarify the Christian understanding of the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Said Msgr. Sam Sirianni, the rector of Freehold’s Co-Cathedral, “We will be using Morning Prayer as presented by the Anglican Church Rite 3, with some additions.” He noted that all churches that pray the Creed have some type of Morning Prayer.
Christians who pray the Nicene Creed have all been invited to participate – Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Eastern Rite churches in communion with Rome, as well as Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Reform and Methodist.
Called by Emperor Constantine in 325 C.E., the purpose of the Council of Nicaea was to settle “the controversy on the nature of Christ in relationship to God, which was causing riots,” Msgr. Sirianni said.
“It is the first time that the universal Church came together to discuss what was going on in the life of the Church,” he continued, “and to discuss it, debate, argue about it, then pronounce the faith that we all profess in the statement called the Creed. It was also the time when East and West saw themselves as one Church; even though one side spoke Greek and the other Latin, and had their own ways of celebrating Sacraments, there was a communion between the two spheres. From that perspective, it’s a major moment in the Church.”
To say that Jesus is the Son of God today, 1,700 years after the Council, Msgr. Sirianni noted, “it would seem nobody would argue – although some in the Christian world would claim He is not equal to God.”
To this day, some aspect of the Arian controversy – the theological dispute that Jesus was actually a created being – remains alive in spite of the Creed’s clarifications. Other disputes over the inclusion of the “filioque” – the phrase in the Creed declaring that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son” – is still a sticking point for Orthodox Christians, and that line will be omitted from the ecumenical prayer event, he said.
“I’m hoping people will recognize that while there are different ways of understanding and expressing our faith, that we have a lot of common ground,” Msgr. Sirianni said of his desire for the Nicene Creed gathering. He wants those assembled to work on that so “we can show a united face or a more perfect face of Christ to the world … hopefully it’s a step in the right direction between healing the rift – the Great Schism – between the East and the West.”
As both Churches will both be celebrating Easter on April 20, Msgr. Sirianni has been jokingly telling people, “Listen for the trumpets and hold your head up – look to the East!”
EmmaLee Italia is a contributing editor for The Monitor Magazine, the Catholic publication for the Diocese of Trenton. Jennifer Mauro, managing editor of the Catholic Star Herald, contributed to this report.
If You Go
What: Ecumenical prayer gathering to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea
When: 11 a.m., May 3
Where: Co-Cathedral of Saint Robert Bellarmine, 61 Georgia Road, Freehold, 07728
More Online
• Father Joseph Wallace stopped by the Talking Catholic podcast earlier this year to talk about the Council of Nicaea and the May 3 event titled, “We Believe in One God.” Listen to the Jan. 12 episode at talking.catholicstarherald.org/podcast.
• And check out Domestic Church Media’s “Better Together” show as Msgr. Sam Sirianni, rector of the Co-Cathedral of Saint Robert Bellarmine in Freehold, discusses the May 3 service. Go to youtube.com/DomesticChurchMedia.
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