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Speaking before heads of churches and Christian world communions, Pillay spoke on “What Nicaea means to us today: Sharing reflections and proposals.”
"Without question, the Nicene Creed is the most widely used and therefore the most important common Christian creed,” said Pillay. “This became very clear at the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, which in its meeting at Wadi El Natrun in Egypt in October commemorated the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea.”
Today, the call for a common witness of the churches is made even more urgent by the challenges of our time, Pillay noted.
“To confess the Nicene faith is to accept a vocation: a calling to embody the truth we proclaim in our deeds,” he said. “Throughout history, the Nicene confession has bound Christians together across cultures and centuries.”
Nicaea reminds us that the call for justice and unity is particularly urgent in the context of today’s world, Pillay added. “How does the Nicene faith inspire movements for peace and reconciliation in such settings?” he asked. “To live the Nicene faith is therefore to translate doctrine into discipleship.”
The faith of Nicaea is not an abstract formula but a lived reality, Pillay added.
“The Council of Nicaea also provides a profound lens for reflecting on the relationship between faith and power,” he said. “We are obliged to expose how doctrines and traditions have been used to justify oppression.”
Pillay urged those gathered to address and embrace the changing dynamics of Christian growth and development.
“In our Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity, the WCC seeks to unite our worldwide fellowship of churches not only around our shared Christian faith, which remains our vital centre, but also in the specific interests of justice, love, peace, and hope,” he said.
On 30 November, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, during the Divine Liturgy on the Feast Day of St Andrew in the Venerable Patriarchal Church of St George, offered a homily.
“Fidelity to the apostolic faith is precisely the meaning of this year’s celebration of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, with which your visit also coincides,” said the Ecumenical Patriarch. “Divinely inspired by the action of the Holy Spirit, the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea strengthened ecclesiastical unity.”
Vatican News: Ecumenical meeting at the Mor Ephrem Syrian Orthodox Church in Istanbul (in Italian)
