The Council of Nicaea: June 23, 2025

“I Believe in one God…” are the opening words of the Profession of Faith or Nicene Creed.   June 19, 2025 marked the 1700^th anniversary of the opening of the Council of Nicaea which produced the Creed in 325 AD.  The history of this council is a mixture of political and religious concerns.

   Arius, a presbyter from Alexandria, believed that there was a time when Jesus did not exist. Arius taught that Jesus was God’s greatest creation, like God but not fully God (Arianism).  This caused great division within the Catholic Church.  The emperor Constantine saw this religious division as a potential threat to the unity of the Roman empire.  Constantine called for a council to decide the question of Jesus’ divinity.  This was common during the early centuries when a separation between religion and state was inconceivable.  Pope Sylvester convened the council, but did not attend (nor did Constantine). This also was common, and papal absence from active council deliberations persists to this day.

The bishops adopted the term homoousios  (of the same substance: consubstantial) for the relationship between the Father and the Son.  Arius and his followers had argued for homoiousios (similar in substance).  Adopting homoiousios would have meant there was not one God but two; God the Father and the lesser god the Son.  Nicaea upheld that the one nature of God (Divinity) is mysteriously in three persons; affirming the doctrine of the Trinity over Arianism.

The Council declared 20 additional canons (laws), including setting the date for Easter and standardizing posture during the Mass.  “Since there are some who kneel on Sunday and during the season of Pentecost, this holy synod decrees that, so that the same observances may be maintained in every diocese, one should offer one’s prayers to the Lord standing.” (Nicaea c.20)