Webinar “From Nicaea, Walking Together to Unity: the beginning of a new beginning

Webinar “From Nicaea, Walking Together to Unity: the beginning of a new beginning

A webinar on 8 February, “From Nicaea, Walking Together to Unity: the beginning of a new beginning,” will offer deep reflections on the Council of Nicaea and its enduring legacy for Christians today. The Nicaean Council had highlighted the values of Christianity. We too are called today to light the Cross and Resurrection: hope in a time of anguish and conflicts.

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, will join His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in offering opening greetings to the event, alongside Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and Bishop Dr Thomas Schirrmacher, general secretary of the World Evangelical Alliance.

The webinar comes as the Christian world is preparing to celebrate in 2025 the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which brought together for the first time bishops representing the whole of Christendom.

The event is being supported by the Pasqua Together 2025 (Easter Together 2025) initiative, which is calling for all churches to celebrate Easter on the same date, as currently Eastern and Western Christianity have different ways of calculating when Easter should fall.

As well as marking the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, 2025 is one of the years when all churches celebrate Easter on the same date.

Other speakers at the webinar will reflect on the Council of Nicaea as a new Pentecost, understanding the Nicene Creed, Nicaea and the challenges of the churches’ global mission today, and many other topics.

Interpretation is being offered into Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Italian.

Event starts: 08 February 2024 – 13:03
Event ends: 08 February 2024 – 16:30
Location: Online

13:30 OPENING GREETINGS: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew; HE Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Vatican Dicastery for Unity; Dr. Jerry Pillay,
General Secretary of the World Council of Churches; Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher, General Secretary of the World Evangelical Alliance

13:45 Keynote Speeches

A single prayer-house divinely enlarged Dimitrios Moschos, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
The Council of Nicaea is a new Pentecost Mervat Kelli, Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome, Italy
A legacy of Nicaea: a Church that gives itself to Humanity Peter Miscik, Pedagogical College Eisenstadt, Austria
A New Light upon Reality Piero Coda, Sophia University Institute Ecumenical Chair, Loppiano, Firenze, Italy
Understanding together the Nicene Creed Augustinos Bairactaris, Center of Ecumenical, Missiological and Environmental Studies, Greece
Nicaea and the Challenges of the Church’s Global Mission Today Konstantinos Zormpas, Orthodox Academy of Crete, Greece
A Protestant perspective on Nicaea Martin Hoegger, Theological Hight School of the French part of Switzerland

15:15 BREAK
15:30 DIALOGUE BETWEEN SPEAKERS AND PARTICIPANTS given the complex translations, questions from participants should be posted in the chat
16:20 CONCLUSIONS
WEBINAR MODERATOR: Nausikaa Haupt, Ecumenical officer, Sweden