“Although there had previously been meetings of councils and synods, the gathering in June 325 in Nicaea was the first to gather so many bishops to discuss and take decisions about religious matters,” according to the dean of the Institute of Protestant Theology (IPT) in Paris, Prof. Dr Anna Van den Kerchove, in her opening address at the 20-21 March colloquium. The Council of Nicaea met in Nicaea, now İznik in present-day Türkiye, under the patronage of the Roman Emperor Constantine. It affirmed the Christian faith in the triune God, and produced the first version of the Nicene Creed, the statement of faith that Christians still recite today. The gathering marked the transition from Christians being a persecuted minority to becoming a church recognized by the Roman State. The colloquium at the Catholic University of Paris was organized by the Institute of Advanced Ecumenical Studies, which is supported by the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox faculties of theology in Paris, in association with the faculty of Evangelical theology in nearby Vaux-sur-Seine. More than 400 people registered to take part in the colloquium in person or online. Speakers discussed issues such as the role of Emperor Constantine in promoting ecclesial unity, and the reception of Nicaea in Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Evangelical, and Lutheran and Reformed traditions. Rev. Prof. Dr Marc Boss from the IPT and a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee and its Commission on Faith and Order, discussed how 20th-century theological and philosophical insights can help overcome objections heard from Protestants to the Nicene Creed. Such objections claim that the creed lacks a scriptural basis and is the result of a power struggle at the Council of Nicaea. Two speakers shared their experiences of present-day church councils and synods. Rev. Dr Anne-Cathy Graber, a Mennonite theologian and former member of the WCC’s Faith and Order Commission, spoke of being a fraternal delegate at the Vatican’s recent Synod on Synodality. Orthodox theologian Prof. Dr Julija Naett-Vidovic, a member of the WCC central committee, drew on her experiences of the WCC to discuss the creative tension between the catholicity of the church as confessed in the creed, and the catholicity of the churches that participate in the ecumenical movement. More information about the colloquium in Paris More information about WCC activities to mark the Nicaea anniversary | 
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