Online Webinar with the theme of 1700 years since the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea
From Nicaea walking together to Unity
The beignning of a new beginning.
An online Theological Scientific Conference (webinar) is scheduled to take place, with the subject of the 1700 years since the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325 AD) and its importance in church history, but also reflecting on the role it can play in our modern days. The purpose of the Conference is to highlight the First Ecumenical Council in the common course of Christianity, while at the same time it is also an opportunity for a contemporary reading of the events, its teaching and the role it may play today.
The Conference is co-organised in a joint action by different ecclesiastical bodies such as the Orthodox Academy of Crete, CEMES – The Centre of Ecumenical, Missiological, and Environmental Studies, SOPHIA University, Haute École de Théologie en Suisse Protestante (HET – PRO) and CENTRO UNO and will take place online on 8 February 2024 (14:30-17:30 Greece time). There will be a live translation in French, Italian, German and Arabic.
The event will be addressed by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Cardinal Kurt Koch, Jerry Pillay, Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, Thomas Schirrmacher, Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance, while papers will be presented by: Dimitrios Moschos, Professor of the Theological School of Athens (A single prayer-house divinely enlarged), Mervat Kelli, Professor at the Eastern Pontifical Institute of Rome (The Council of Nicaea is a new Pentecost), Peter Miscik , Professor at the Pedagogical College of Eisenstadt, Austria (A legacy of Nicaea: a Church that gives itself to Humanity), Piero Coda, Professor at the “Sophia” University of Ecumenical Theology (A New Light upon Reality), Fr. Augustinos Bairachtaris , Professor of Dogmatic Theology (Understanding together the Nicene Creed), Dr. Konstantinos Zorbas, General Director of Orthodox Academy of Crete (Nicaea and the Challenges of the Church’s Global Mission Today) and Martin Hoegger, Professor at the Protestant Theological School of Switzerland (A Protestant perspective on Nicaea).
The first articles of the Nicene Creed of the First Ecumenical Council (325 AD), or the Symbol of Faith or simply the “I / we believe” has a very great importance in the life of the Christian. 2024 is an opportunity for the Christian churches to reflect on their journey through history, regarding the mistakes of the past, as well as the present, as noted by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and to pursue a more decisive common course, drawing on the lessons of over a century of modern ecumenical experience and offering a unique opportunity to strengthen our common spiritual heritage of the first millennium, where we find our common roots.
