East and West

As many of us pack away our Christmas decorations for another year, Christmas celebrations will begin in some of Birmingham’s Orthodox Churches on Monday 6/Tuesday 7 January. The Churches using the Julian Calendar to date Christmas include Birmingham’s Coptic, Serbian and Russian Orthodox Churches. In this way, they will celebrate ‘Christmas 2025’ almost 12 months before Western Churches, who use the Gregorian Calendar to date Christmas, Easter and other significant events in the ecclesiastical calendar. We wish our Orthodox brothers and sisters a holy and happy Christmas.

The summer of 2025 will mark the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, which took place from June to August 325AD. Between 250 and 300 bishops attended the gathering, which considered issues such as the dating of Easter, the location of Diocesan boundaries and the nature of Jesus. This latter issue needed to be addressed because Arius of Alexandria was teaching at the time that, as a created being, Jesus was neither coeternal nor consubstantial with God the Father.

After ten weeks of Bible study and debate, the Council of Nicaea produced a series of 20 Canons to order Church life and a statement opposing the teaching of Arius, and adopting the Greek phrase homoousios to Patri to affirm that Jesus is ‘of one essence (or substance) with the Father.’ This original ‘Nicene Creed’ concerning the Church’s belief about Jesus remains in use to this day:

‘We believe in one God, the Father almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages.

Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made,

of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made;

who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven

and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary

and became man.

And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,

and suffered and was buried.

And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;

and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father;

and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead;

whose Kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit.’

The 1700^th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea provides the basis for the resource material made available by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland for use during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (18 – 25 January). Reflecting on the First Council of Nicaea, the scripture readings for this year’s WPCU focus on belief. Resources are available to download and/or order HERE.

The Focolare Community will focus on the 1700^th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea at a special ecumenical conference at the Focolare Centre in Welwyn Garden City from Thursday 27 to Sunday 30 March. ‘Called to Hope‘ will be a chance for Christians from different denominations to celebrate moments of hope together. The programme will include time for prayer and reflection, for listening to each other and for dialogue. There will be opportunities to visit local churches and to pray in St Alban’s Abbey, home of the shrine of England’s first Christian martyr. For further information and booking, follow THIS LINK.

Interestingly and unusually, ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ Churches will alike celebrate Easter Sunday on 20 April 2025. And 7 December 2025 will be the 60^th anniversary of the abolition of the mutual excommunications that had existed between the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople since the 11^th Century AD.

It is our prayer that events surrounding these anniversaries in 2025 will provide an opportunity for greater understanding, appreciation and fellowship between ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ Churches. For, as the opening verse of John Oxenham’s 1908 hymn puts it,

‘In Christ there is no east or west

In him no south or north

But one great fellowship of love

Throughout the whole wide earth.’