From ASIA NEWS http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Bart...-the-first-synod-of-Nicaea-in-2025-31213.html » 05/29/2014 13:27 ORTHODOX-VATICAN Bartholomew: With Francis, we invite all Christians to celebrate the first synod of Nicaea in 2025 by NAT da Polis In an interview with AsiaNews , the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople reveals the future steps to strengthen unity between Catholics and Orthodox. In addition to the appointment of Nicaea, the first truly ecumenical council , in the autumn the next meeting of the Catholic-Orthodox Joint Commission will be held in Jerusalem, where everyone "must commit themselves without hypocrisy". Istanbul (AsiaNews) - On his return from Jerusalem , where he met with Pope Francis at the Holy Sepulchre, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, has revealed an important appointment for unity between Catholics and Orthodox: a gathering at Nicaea in 2025, where the first real ecumenical council of the undivided Church was celebrated. Speaking exclusively with AsiaNews, Bartholomew says that together with Pope Francis "we agreed to leave as a legacy to ourselves and our successors a gathering in Nicaea in 2025, to celebrate together, after 17 centuries , the first truly ecumenical synod, where the Creed was first promulgated". The Council of Nicaea (now Iznik, 130 km south- east of Istanbul) , brought together more than 300 bishops from East and West in 325 and is considered the first true ecumenical council. It was there that the formula of the Creed was decided, similar to the one recited during the liturgy today, saying that Jesus "is co-substantial to the Father,"to counter the Aryan ideology. Francis and Bartolomew met to mark 50 years since the embrace between Paul VI and Athenagoras. The 1964 meeting broke a centuries old silence between the Christian East and the West, with all the socio-political consequences that have arisen, and from which Europe still suffers. The meeting at the Holy Sepulchre has revitalized dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox , two Christian visions that despite their differences, have a common vision of the sacraments and apostolic tradition. "The dialogue for unity between Catholics and Orthodox - Bartholomew tellsAsiaNews - will start again from Jerusalem. In this city, in the autumn , a meeting of the Catholic-Orthodox Joint Commission will be held hosted by the Greek -Orthodox patriarch Theophilos III . It is a long journey in which we all must be committed without hypocrisy". "Jerusalem - continues Bartholomew - is the place, the land of the dialogue between God and man, the place where the Logos of God was incarnated. Our predecessors Paul VI and Athenagoras have chosen this place to break a silence that lasted centuries between the two sister Churches". "I walked with my brother Francis in the Holy Land not with the fears of Luke and Cleopas on their way to Emmaus (cf. Luke 24: 13-35), but inspired by a living hope which we learn from our Lord".
And a good little comment on the Announcement:https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/nicea-iii-2025 Nicea III in 2025? Michael PeppardMay 30, 2014 - 1:13pm With the unpredictability of Pope Francis, some Catholics have wondered if he would call another council -- a Vatican III. It appears not. Something that big won't do for Francis. He's thinking even bigger: the church universal will be getting a Nicea III. According to reporting from AsiaNews, His All Holiness Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, has announced that an ecumenical "gathering" will be held in Nicea in 2025. Speaking exclusively with AsiaNews, Bartholomew says that together with Pope Francis "we agreed to leave as a legacy to ourselves and our successors a gathering in Nicaea in 2025, to celebrate together, after 17 centuries, the first truly ecumenical synod, where the Creed was first promulgated." The exact nature of the planned meeting at Nicea (now Iznik, Turkey) is not known. But how could it be, over a decade in the future? The ongoing Catholic-Orthodox dialogue will be intensified in preparation for the event. What began in Jerusalem in 1964 and was celebrated last week at the Holy Sepulchre will continue in the holy city this fall, when, in Bartholomew's words, "a meeting of the Catholic-Orthodox Joint Commission will be held hosted by the Greek Orthodox patriarch Theophilos III. It is a long journey in which we all must be committed without hypocrisy." In all the attention to the Pope's gestures toward political peace in the Holy Land last week, the joint event with the Orthodox got a bit lost in the mix. But Francis and Bartholomew didn't lose focus. And they've got a date on the calendar to prove it.
Let's begin our homework preparation for that most important even in the (future) History of the Church http://www.christian-history.org/council-of-nicea-3.html The Council of Nicea: Part III Homoousios It's amazing how important one word can be. At the Council of Nicea, that word was homoousios. Seven centuries later one word, filioque, would create the biggest church split in history. What a famous word homoousios would become. I heard one pastor, who shares my avid interest in the Pre-Nicene church, say that in Alexandria there were bar fights over the word homoousios. That's quite likely to be true, what with Arius having jingles sung in the marketplace. What in the World is Homoousios? Icon of the Council of Nicea Homoousios means "one substance" or "same substance." This is really important. Please bear with me while I explain why. To the Greeks, substance was everything. All matter, to them, was made up of earth, wind, fire, or air. God, however, was none of those things. Everything—no, really: everything— else was. Even angels and the spirits of men were matter by Greek thinking. In a sense, there are only two substances in the universe. One is God—whatever the substance is that constitutes God—and the other is matter. Athenagoras, a Christian apologist writing in A.D. 168, tells us: We employ language that makes a distinction between God and matter and the natures of both. (A Plea for the Christians 24) The question being asked at the Council of Nicea was … Is Christ of the substance of God, or is he made of matter like us and the angels? That may seem strange to us modern Christians who are not used to the question at all, but at the Council of Nicea, it was everything (thus the two references to God's substance in the Nicene Creed). Athenagoras goes on to answer that question immediately: We acknowledge a God, and a Son his Logos, and a Holy Spirit, united in substance. (ibid.) Justin Martyr, a couple decades earlier, adds his testimony to that of Athenagoras: I asserted that this Power [i.e., Christ] was begotten from the Father, but not by abscission [i.e., cutting off], as if the substance of the Father were divided. (Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew 128) Many more such quotes could be found. The unity of substance between the Father and the Son, and the distinction between the Son and matter, from which all else was made, is often discussed by Pre-Nicene Christian writers. How Homoousios Affected Nicea All of this applied to Arius' theology at the Council of Nicea. If the Son had a beginning, as Arius was asserting, then he must be made of matter. After all, the substance of God can have no beginning. On the other hand, if Christ is of God's substance, then he always existed. It seems Arius was confused by the fact that the Church taught that Jesus was begotten of the Father, not just here on earth as a man, but in the beginning as the Son of God. Proverbs 8:22, in the Greek Septuagint version used by the early churches, says, "The Lord made me the beginning of his ways for his works." The early churches universally understood this to refer to the begetting of Christ from the Father in eternity past. Arius mistakenly thought and argued that the begetting of the Son constitutes a beginning. He could not have existed before then. The Church, however, taught that before Jesus was begotten by the Father, he already existed inside the Father as the Word, Wisdom, and Reason of the Father. The Father had always had Logos inside himself, so Jesus had always existed inside of him. (This is described thoroughly in Tertullian's Against Praxeas, ch. 5.) Not only is this what they taught, but they claimed to have received it from the apostles. Thus, the idea that the Son has always existed qualified as apostolic tradition, which carried as much—or perhaps almost as much—authority as Scripture (Irenaeus, ibid. III:2:2). This is the tradition that Arius was disagreeing with, and this is the reason that Constantine wanted homoousios inserted in the Creed of Nicea.
What is impossible to man will be possible to God. After the Lutheran and Catholics agreed an understanding on Justification I could believe anything was possible. We just have to love each other and everything else just blows away in the wind. I am watching a wonderful CBS 60 minute special on Mount Athos at the moment and loving it. How I would love to wander around Mount Athos...heaven -on-Earth.
