Patriarchal Response To the Toast of the Archbishop of York at the Luncheon Hosted by The Nikæan Club Oxford and Cambridge Club London, England (June 24, 2025)
Your Grace, Most Reverend Brother, Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York,
Dear Members of the Nikæan Club,
Distinguished Guests and Friends,
With every prayer for the health and prosperity of His Majesty King Charles III, we thank you for this warmest of welcomes, and the sentiments expressed to our humble person by Your Grace.
Our presence in this Island Kingdom, during the Seventeen Hundredth Anniversary Year of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea is – to a degree – a σημεῖον ἀντιλεγόμενον [1] that challenges all of us to a deeper faith and trust, in the Lord Whom we glory.
This σημεῖον ἀντιλεγόμενον, “sign of contradiction,” is invested with all manner of subtle and plain meanings, which leads us to the sacred space of dialogue, where our traditions can discover our profound commonalities, which count for much more than the differences between us that have spawned over the centuries.
We say again, a “sign of contradiction” because despite those epochs and our ever-diverging traditions, our vocation to unity remains timeless. The Nikæan Club itself bears witness to this, as it was founded on the occasion of the Sixteen Hundredth Anniversary of Nicaea, and in the intervening century, our ecumenical endeavor has made tremendous strides. Our presence among you is a sign that, grounded in the Faith of Nicaea, we are willing, able, and ready to overcome our differences. Our presence is itself a sign that contradicts those who would have us believe that the fragmentation of Christianity cannot be overcome.
We came to “this precious stone set in the silver sea,” [2] that the Greeks called, Ἀλβιών – Albion in your own magnificent language, so that we might rediscover ways to substantiate our Faith. And we have found willing and devoted partners who share the homoousion of our mutual humanity with the incarnated Son of God, and with one another.
We thank you for your generous reception of our humble person and our honourable entourage and for your kind and charitable words. We hope that this gracious and memorable gathering shall be as present in your own lives, as it shall surely be for us.
May God bless you all! Many Years to all!
_________
1. Luke 2:34.
2. Richard II: Act II, Scene 1.
ADDRESS By His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew At the Consecration of the Church of St. Sophrony (Tolleshunt Knights, Essex, June 22, 2025)
Τιμιώτατοι ἀδελφοί Ἱεράρχαι,
Ἐξοχώτατοι,
Εὐλαβέστατοι πατέρες, τέκνα ἐν Κυρίῳ λίαν ἀγαπητά,
Ἑορτήν καί πανήγυριν ἄγομεν σήμερα, καθώς καθαγιάσαμεν καί παρεδώκαμεν εἰς τήν λατρείαν τοῦ μόνου ἀληθινοῦ Θεοῦ τόν περίτεχνον τοῦτον Ναόν τοῦ Ὁσίου Σωφρονίου τοῦ Ἀθωνίτου, τοῦ γενομένου Πατρός, Κτίτορος καί τώρα ἐπουρανίου προστάτου τῆς Ἱερᾶς ταύτης Μονῆς.
Χαίρει ὁ Ὅσιος Σωφρόνιος καί ὁ Ἅγιος Σιλουανός καί οἱ Ἄγγελοι τοῦ Θεοῦ καί τῶν μοναστῶν τά πλήθη, καί ἡ Μήτηρ Ἐκκλησία τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως καί σεῖς ὅλοι οἱ πολυπληθεῖς εὐλαβεῖς προσκυνηταί—ὅλοι χαίρομεν καί πανηγυρίζομεν καί δοξάζομεν τόν Θεόν τῶν Πατέρων ἡμῶν, διότι ἕνα ὄνειρον τοῦ Πατρός ἡμῶν Σωφρονίου πραγματοποιεῖται, ἕνας καινούργιος ναός προσφέρεται εἰς τόν λαόν τοῦ Θεοῦ διά νά ἁγιάζεται μέ τά μυστήρια τῆς Ἐκκλησίας καί νά ἁγιάζῃ καί τήν κτίσιν ὅλην.
Συγχαίρομεν ἀπό τῆς Μητρός Ἐκκλησίας τήν προσφιλῆ Ἀδελφότητα τοῦ Μοναστηριοῦ μας μέ ἐπί κεφαλῆς τόν ἄξιον κατά πάντα ἅγιον Καθηγούμενον πατέρα Πέτρον, καθώς καί ὅλους τούς ποικιλοτρόπως συντελέσαντας εἰς τήν ἔναρξιν καί τήν ὁλοκλήρωσιν τοῦ ἱεροῦ ἔργου, διά τό ὁποῖον καυχώμεθα ἐν Κυρίῳ καί εὐχόμεθα πατρικῶς δι᾽ αὐτοῦ καί ἐν αὐτῷ νά σώζωνται ψυχαί, ὑπέρ τῶν ὁποίων ὁ Κύριος τοῦ ἔργου ἐσαρκώθη, ἔπαθεν, ἐσταυρώθη καί τήν τρίτην ἡμέραν ἐνδόξως ἀνέστη ἐκ νεκρῶν.
Οὕτως ἐγκαινίζεται ἄνθρωπος,
οὕτω τιμᾶται ἡ τῶν ἐγκαινίων ἡμέρα.
“This is how a human being is consecrated,
this is how we celebrate the consecration of a church”
(Vesperal Sticheron for the Consecration of a Church)
Venerable Hierarchs and devout clergy,
Pious brothers and sisters,
Beloved pilgrims and faithful visitors,
This day of consecration is truly a day of joyous commemoration and historic celebration. It is a day that brings to completion and fruition a circle of aspiration and expectation by the holy founder of this Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist.
Almost sixty years ago, Fr. Sophrony recorded his dream about performing the Divine Liturgy as a genuine form of “art” that combines the precious silence of the desert that he had experienced on Mount Athos with the beauty of the worship through which we are able to approach the eternal love of the Holy Trinity. Fr. Sophrony even imagined and conceived a fitting space for such an occasion, a magnificent temple that would provide the appropriate “circumstances” for a liturgy that would bring heaven on earth and unite God with all of creation.
From the very inception of this monastic community, Saint Sophrony anticipated building such a temple in honor of the Holy Trinity. Nevertheless, the intervening canonization of his own spiritual father, “Silouan the Athonite” (as the original monograph by Fr. Sophrony was titled), made him to change his initial plan. Staretz Silouan was canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1988, during the tenure of our own immediate predecessor His All-Holiness Demetrios, of blessed memory. And this ultimately led to the naming of the community church after the “Monk of Mount Athos” (as his biography is titled), whose scattered spiritual counsel has been transmitted to us through Fr. Sophrony in the form of “Wisdom from Mount Athos” (as his teachings are titled). Fr. Sophrony felt certain that the Holy Trinity would not be offended by the change in name. The next church, he liked to say, will be dedicated to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
But history has a way of repeating itself, and today we are consecrating that church in honor of St. Sophrony, who was canonized in 2019, six years ago, during the Patriarchal tenure of our Modesty. Surely the Holy Trinity will once again be sympathetic to our intentions. It is a rare occasion for a church to be dedicated to its own saintly designer. This construction was envisaged as early as 1992, when Fr. Sophrony assembled the monks and nuns of this respected community to announce that the moment had arrived for a new church to be conceived as a way of paying tribute to their own “homecoming,” now that their monastery was well established.
The community was indeed settled, catering to the spiritual and pastoral needs of numerous visitors from all around the world, and it was time for a larger church to be constructed to suit and meet the needs of the multitudes. He envisaged a circular design for the new building, much like the Round Church in Cambridge or the Rotonda Monument in Thessaloniki, in order to foster a notion of the infinite and eternal communion with the Holy Trinity. He even prepared a paper model of his blueprint, meticulously contemplating the various dimensions and addressing the specific details. It was a privilege and pleasure for us to lay the foundation stone for this church in a momentous and memorable service just three years ago, in the context of our Patriarchal visit on the occasion of the 100th anniversary since the establishment of our Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.
Nevertheless, beloved brothers and sisters, this day of consecration is not simply about brick and mortar. As we chant in the Vespers Service, “this is how a human being is renewed—or consecrated—(ἐγκαινίζεται), this is how we celebrate the consecration of a church.” It is above all a commemoration of the communion of saints. In other words, it is a celebration of the succession of holiness. For just as we speak of an “apostolic succession” in the canonical order and ordination of bishops, there is also a “charismatic succession” in the spiritual and mystical experience of the saints.
The third Vision of the Shepherd of Hermas describes the tower of the church that is comprised of numerous stones. All of them are precious, but some are polished while others are unpolished. The polished stones are the apostles and saints, while all of the faithful are the unpolished stones. Together, they constitute the church. We are—all of us—the living stones that make up the structure of the church. We are—all of us—the living cells that make up the body of Christ.
Therefore, here today, before our very eyes, we are gathered all-together to witness a unique and wondrous miracle. Because, beyond Christ who is the cornerstone of our faith and our life, the living stones that support and decorate this splendid building include, first and foremost, the pedigree of holiness that we have all been blessed to experience in the contemporary saintly elders Silouan and Sophrony, who continue to inspire and sustain us through their intercession. And after the two saints, the living stones include the many monks and nuns—both those living and those deceased—who have for decades invoked the distinctive form of the Jesus Prayer on a daily basis, collectively as one body. And finally they include all of you, faithful friends and pilgrims, who visit this sanctified space in order to pay your respects to the tomb of its founder, Saint Sophrony Sakharov, in order to attend the sacred offices of the monastic community, and in order to benefit from the teachings of its talented brothers and sisters.
However, it was not too long ago that crowds of believers would congregate to participate in the Divine Liturgy over which the Elder Sophrony would preside with his exceptional manner. He had a “godly passion” for the services, but especially for the sacrament of sacraments. He would stand before the holy of holies with unparalleled sensitivity and receptiveness to heavenly grace, fully attuned and responsive to the voice of God. He would lift up his adoration and supplication with fervent devotion and reverence. He would himself become an integral part of the liturgy, captivating and embracing everyone as part of the liturgy. He would render the petitions and litanies his own personal pain and prayer. He would offer his very own invocations and benedictions. It was as if he was right there, right beside Christ, sharing the Lord’s tears and anguish during those intense moments in the Garden of Gethsemane. His prayer was—again, to adopt the titles of his books—that “his life should be mine,” that “we shall see Him as He is.”
Of course, both Saints Silouan and Sophrony, as the Apostle Paul assures us, now are “able to understand fully, even as they are fully understood.” But we too have been granted the opportunity and the grace to see “in a mirror dimly . . . We can know in part” (1 Cor. 13.12), because we have been blessed to know Fr. Sophrony. “We have seen him with our eyes, we have looked upon and touched him with our hands . . . His life was made manifest; we saw it and testify to it . . . And that which we have seen and heard, we are able to proclaim also to others, so that they may have fellowship with us . . . [And just as for St. Sophrony,] our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ [and with the Holy Spirit] . . . so that our joy is complete” (1 Jn 1.1–4).
Most reverend brothers and beloved children in the Lord,
Every time that the Divine Liturgy is celebrated at this sacred temple of Saint Sophrony, the entire Church is present and feasts along with all the Saints and the Most Holy Theotokos; the eschatological dimension of the ecclesial life is revealed; the world is filled with the light of the Resurrection. “Standing in your glorious church, we think we are standing in heaven” («Ἐν τῷ ἑστῶτες τῆς δόξης σου, ἐν οὐρανῷ ἑστάναι νομίζομεν»).
As the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (Crete, June 2016) declared, the foretaste of the “new creation” (2 Cor. 5.17) is experienced in the Divine Eucharist and in “the countenance of the Saints,” who “have already revealed the image of the Kingdom of God in this life” (The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today’s World, Preamble).
We beseech the Lord of all and the God of love to bless and strengthen the monastic community of the Sacred Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist and all the spiritual children of the Mother Church of Constantinople here in the Sacred Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain and across the world and, through the intercessions of our Father among the Saints Sophrony, who eternally radiates the unsetting light of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to protect and preserve this sacred temple of God’s glory that we consecrated today.
“The Church appears to us to be like heaven full of light, guiding with light all the faithful. And we who stand in it cry: Lord, preserve this holy house” («Οὐρανός πολύφωτος ἡ Ἐκκλησία, ἀνεδείχθη ἅπαντας, φωταγωγοῦσα τούς πιστούς· ἐν ᾧ ἐστῶτες κραυγάζομεν· τοῦτον τόν οἶκον στερέωσον Κύριε»).
Γένοιτο!
Keynote Address By His All-Holiness ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW at the 2025 Conference of the Ecclesiastical Law Society (Chichester, June 21st, 2025)
The Canons of Nicaea
as Part of the Living Canonical Tradition
of the Orthodox Church
Your Grace,
Your Eminences,
Your Excellencies,
Honourable Guests,
Dear friends,
0. Introduction. It is a great joy and honour for our Modesty to address this esteemed audience on the topic of the First Ecumenical Council, the Council in Nicaea, during the seventeen-hundred-year anniversary of the convening of this momentous event in the history of the Church. We take the opportunity to thank the organizers of this Conference of the Ecclesiastical Law Society for their gracious invitation. That most Christian Churches continue to follow the faith of Nicaea is well known. That there are Churches who still observe and adhere to the twenty canons that this council promulgated is less known. Further, if it is known that there are Churches who use these canons to guide and direct their internal life, the method of applying these canons is usually poorly understood or completely misunderstood. For the Eastern Orthodox Church, however, these canons make up part of the canonical corpus that is still studied, considered, and applied in the Church by bishops and synods. An exploration of the continued use of the Nicene canons forms part of a story about how and why the entire corpus, which dates from the first millennium, remains vital to the life of the contemporary Orthodox Church. In what follows in our presentation, we will speak first about the presuppositions behind the entire corpus, and then turn to the Nicene canons themselves. From within the canons of Nicaea, we will offer an example of how just one of these canons has been used and continues to be used in the Church. Along the way, we will argue that the application of these canons in every age of the Church follows from both the faith of the Church and the intent of the quasi-legal system that lies behind the canonical tradition. Namely, the drafters of these canons intended that the canons, anchored in the faith, should be used by the Church in every generation to confront new problems that the Church might face. In this way, as we hope to show, the application of canons reveals a tradition vitally alive in the life of the Church.
1. The Corpus of Canons. The corpus of canons in the Orthodox Church, that is to say the collection of canons, contains around 770 ancient texts. As is known, these texts are the products of conciliar deliberation, but also have come from the hands of individual church fathers. These fathers, serving as bishops and pastors, have had their letters first collected and then divided up into canons before being included in the corpus. These texts, the canonical corpus, are almost exclusively written in Greek (all were eventually translated into Greek when they found their way into the corpus), and come from the heart of the East Roman Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean basin, which provides for them both a linguistic and an imperial context. As we shall see, at a certain point early on in the formation of the canonical corpus, these canons also took on another characteristic: adherence to and veneration of the council of Nicaea, both its canonical work and also the definition of faith from this council. All told, the date for the creation of these texts ranges from the middle of the third century until the ninth century, which means that we reflect on texts that can be as many as seventeen-hundred years old, but also not less than twelve hundred years old. Neither the details of the formation nor the particular character of the corpus in no way limit its use. In both instances, conciliar canons as well as the patristic ones, the fathers of the Church who wrote these canons had specific and temporal issues that they were confronted with. Their concern that led them to draft these texts was not an abstract creation of an absolute or static code, but the drafting of canons that addressed concrete problems by providing directions, models, and guides towards the solutions to these problems. To this day, we in the Eastern Orthodox Church continue to reflect on both these canons and the models provided in them for solutions to those problems of a thousand or more years ago. We do so in order that we might find authentic and God-pleasing solutions to the problems we face in our own experience.
1.1 Implications. The implication of describing the canonical corpus as a collection of rules drawn from the ecclesial experience of the first millennium is this: for these rules to be used, they must be interpreted. Interpretation of the canons with an eye towards their use is not only a feature of our own modern engagement with them, it was a feature of their use from the beginning. Our corpus is a relatively small collection, only about 770 canons, and limited in scope. Additionally, the texts of the canons themselves tend to be responses to specific problems, as we have said, and not general statements of law as we might expect legal texts to provide now. The question of interpretation for us is really a three-part process. First, since these texts are at least 1,200-1,500 years old, the basic approach of coming to understand what exactly texts from late-Antiquity are saying is fundamental. This textual approach is entirely akin to what is done with texts in the study of patristics, spirituality, history, etc. The only difference here would be that readers need to be attuned to the particular quasi-legal discourse that the canons use. The appearance of liturgical, biblical, or patristic words or arguments are, as we will see a regular and necessary part of the canonical tradition. We would add also that the canonical texts share the same world view, hold the same theological philosophical, rhetorical, pedagogical presuppositions, as the Church Fathers we are all familiar with, since they were written by the same Fathers. Secondly, because, the canons were composed in a high rhetorical style, comparable to the Hellenistic-Roman legal tradition, the rule has to be found, it has to be drawn out of the text of a given canon. Sometimes a rule or rules are made explicitly, other times they are implicit. The final step in interpretation is this: once the rule is found, in order to apply the canon, the interpretation, or understanding of how to do so, is bound up in the larger discourse of Church life. The canons do have, as we have said, a legal nature – they are rules to be followed – but they find their full meaning when considered in the full life of the Church. Their only goal, in other words, is to lead believers to salvation in the way every other aspect of Church life is to do.
2. Theological Presuppositions. Before we return to this point more fully, we think it is important to clarify one fundamental point that lies behind the entire canonical tradition. That is to say, the entire corpus, indeed, the entire canonical tradition is undergirded by the faith given over to us by the Apostles. This faith is, of course, what has been revealed to us by the Prophets and the Apostolic preaching. This point can be discovered through careful study of the entire canonical corpus, but it is also made explicit in diverse canons.
2.1 II Nicaea 1. Consider, a canon from the Second Council of Nicaea, for example, which took place in 787. In its first canon, the council Fathers say, “…the guidelines contained in the canonical regulations are testimonies and directives, which we accept gladly and sing out to the Lord God with David, the revealer of God: ‘In the path of your testimonies I have taken delight, as with all manner of wealth (Ps 118.14).’” This canon quotes further texts from the divine Scriptures and uses language culled from the Old and New Testament to underscore the close connection between the faith of the Church as revealed in them and the canonical texts themselves. The Fathers of the Council are given voice in this canon and continue to proclaim, “We joyfully embrace the divine canons and we maintain complete and unshaken their regulation, both those expounded by those trumpets of the Spirit, the apostles worthy of all praise, and those from the six holy universal synods and from the synods assembled locally for the promulgation of such decrees, and from our holy fathers.” What has just been referred to in this canon is a neat description of the canonical corpus, the Canons of the Apostles, the Canons of the Ecumenical and Local Councils, and the patristic texts. The canon identifies the content of the corpus and then indicates its ultimate authority, by saying, all of these canons were “enlightened by one and the same Spirit,” and decreed what is expedient. The canon asserts and even insists on the divine inspiration for the canonical tradition for reasons that we will discuss shortly. At first, such an assertion might prompt confusion in a modern reader. How can what this canon maintains be true? Can it and the entire corpus have an authority in the life of the Church akin to sacred scriptures? The canonical tradition provides a clear and unambiguously affirmative answer.
2.2 II Nicaea 2. In fact, the very next canon makes this point even more explicit. The second canon from the Second Council of Nicaea addresses the qualifications for a candidate for episcopal ordination. This canon insists that such a candidate “should have a thorough knowledge of the Psalter, in order that he may instruct all the clergy subordinate to him.” His knowledge should be “searching and not superficial – of the sacred canons, the holy gospel, the book of the divine apostle, and all divine scripture.” Again, the canons are placed right alongside the sacred scripture. The canon goes on to quote a great Father of the Church, Dionysios the Areopagite, when he said, “The substance of our hierarchy are the words handed down from God (Dionysius, Hier. eccl. I 4 (= PG 3.389).” The substance of everything in the life of the Church are the words given to us by God, namely the sacred scripture. Now, if we are scandalized by the text of these canons in any way, we would put forward the following assertion (one that can and should be true for any and all texts in the Church): if the canons are to be of any use for the Church, then they must be of the Church. These texts must emerge from the very faith and life of the Church if they are to bring people to faith, which alone offers true and authentic life. And even further, by connecting the text of canons with sacred scripture, and as we will see, with definitions of faith, we can insist that any interpretation or application of the canons, any use of them must be consistent with the authentic faith of the church.
2.3. Orthodox faith. Now to state a basic thesis for our address, the true and authentic faith in the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, simply must be present, anchoring, guiding the canonical tradition, if the tradition is to be of service to the Church. If not, then the tradition, no matter how well intentioned, would remain alien to the Church, which means it would be of no use for the Church, and even be destructive to the God’s holy people. Only when the canons are read in light of faith, can they fulfill their purpose. To this point, the canons are abundantly clear, in fact. Consider, for example, the first canon from the Council in Trullo, dating from AD 691/2. This canon, at the outset of this collection of its canons says, “It is the best rule, when beginning any speech or action, to begin with God and to end with God, in accordance with the words of the Theologian.” For this canon, beginning and ending with God, has to do with matters of true theology and faith. The canon, however, is more specific and insists that it is not “faith” in general, but the faith handed down: 1. by the eyewitnesses and servants of the Word, the Apostles who themselves followed the prophetic witness; 2. the definitions of faith from the ecumenical councils. A careful reader of this would observe quotations from Gregory the Theologian, but also the various scriptural citations and allusions. Again, our assertion, but also our observation from an examination of the canonical texts themselves is that they are only understood in the theological reflection of the Church, because they are written according to the same theological process. The scriptural allusions and quotes also connect these texts to other texts from the patristic period. Not only were they written by the same men, but also they were written with the same intent, exegeting, understanding, and applying scripture and the faith of the church in the life of the faithful.
3. Nicaea. With Trullo canon 1, we are able to arrive at the subject of the canons of Nicaea and their continued use in the life of the Church. After anchoring the activity of the Council in Trullo with the scriptural faith, the same canon makes reference above all to the faith of Nicaea. We would be remiss if we neglected the opportunity to consider this Council during the seventeen-hundred-year anniversary of this momentous event. The importance of this council warrants our attention at any moment, but now in this anniversary year especially so.
3.1 Witness from Trullo. The first canon from Trullo references Nicaea and its faith in a primary place not merely for chronological reasons, that is to say, because it is the first council, but because of the esteem that the Church had for the Nicene council and for the faith it proclaimed. The council also stands at the very head of the canonical corpus. In the second canon from Trullo, the extent corpus of canons from the end of the seventh century is listed. Following the Apostolic Canons, the canons from First Nicaea are provided. Just as the faith of Nicaea, these canons from Nicaea hold a priority within the Corpus. Just as the faith of Nicaea is the faith that all canons are to be anchored to, the canons of Nicaea are those canons the rest of the canons are to be affixed to and be in conformity with. Indeed, the authority, the unquestionable authority of the canons from First Nicaea gives authority to the remainder of the canonical corpus.
3.2 Carthagenian Witness. An important witness to the development of the authority of both the council of Nicaea and its canons comes from AD 419. In that year, at a council in Carthage, North Africa, the fathers gathered there heard the exhortation of its president, Bishop Aurelius, who said, in what has become the first canon of the so-called African Code,
Such are the decisions of the Nicene Council, which our fathers at that time brought back with them: and preserving this form, let these things which follow, adopted and confirmed by us, be kept firm.
To which, the bishops responded, in what has become the second canon of this collection:
As God wills, the ecclesiastical faith, which is handed down through us, must be confessed in this glorious assembly before anything else with a similar confession; then the ecclesiastical order, with the consent of each and of all together, must be guarded. That the minds of our brothers and fellow bishops just now ordained may be confirmed, it is necessary to add these things, which we have received from the fathers in confirmed regulation.
Only after confessing the faith of Nicaea and committing to the maintenance of what was decided there did these Fathers and this council in Carthage move forward in addressing the issues in front of them. They did so, in their own words, by guarding the “ecclesiastical order.” For them, their activity, “guarding” meant working in continuity with the activity of the great Council at Nicaea. In other words, within a hundred years, the activity of the Fathers gathered at Nicaea was considered a pattern and a rule to follow in the Church, or at least for Church Fathers gathered at the other end of the Mediterranean basin.
3.3 Priority of Nicaea. The authority, prestige, and stature of the faith and the canons of the council in Nicaea would only continue to grow over the centuries, even down to our present day. To this point, modern scholars will even call the eventual compilation of canonical texts in the Byzantine Empire the “official Nicene imperial canon law book,” and recognize that the Greek compilation of canonical texts that served as the basis for most canonical compilations throughout the Christian world is the same “official Nicene imperial canon law book.” These canons, the canons from the Council in Nicaea, have a preeminent place in the canonical tradition, and thus loom large in the life of the Church. Similar to reading the book of Genesis first, and using it to understand the whole Bible, or even the opening chapter of a book, the canons from this council provide the terms, the vocabulary, the definitions that subsequent councils will follow. Furthermore, numerous canons referred back to these canons, confirming or explaining the decisions found in them.
4. A tradition that is alive. In what follows our presentation, we want to gather up the different strands of thoughts within our presentation so far. In order to do this, we want to consider what it means to have twenty canons written 1700 years ago still in use in the church today. A shortcut to our presentation could be as follows: only if the Holy Spirit formed and inspired these texts, could they remain active, alive, and vital for the Church today. The answer to the question we have just posed requires not only a theological reflection, but also a methodological one. By this, we mean, how can these texts, written in response to very real and particular problems of the early fourth-century Church, have any application, or affect the solution to our problems in the Church today? The methodological answer is found through proper understanding of the texts themselves, both their function as pieces of theological literature, and their function that can be located in the Roman Hellenistic legal tradition, from which they are also inspired. In these legal traditions, the jurist would examine a law and discern principles, models, or types from the law in its original context, and apply it in a similar manner to the issue before him. To this legal process, the theological tradition remains an anchor and a guide, so that the application of the canon remains consistent with the Church and its faith. In other words, the use of the canons from Nicaea (or the entire corpus) is a living tradition, one that seeks to apply the wisdom, the principles, the models of a canon that was written for particular problems from a particular age to the problems of every age. That the tradition can be considered living, alive in the Church, is only possible if it is “inspired by one and the same Spirit,” and has as its essence “the words handed down by God.”
5. I Nicaea 8. As with many things, we think of our comments will be better understood with a concrete example. For this, we have selected one of the most famous canons from the Council of Nicaea, I Nicea 8. This canon deals at length with the reconciliation of the Cathars into the Church. In particular, the canon strives to detail how to reconcile Cathar clergy into the extent hierarchy of clergy in a given territory. Even if someone does not know this canon well, most Orthodox Christians are aware of the principle enumerated at the end of it: “not two bishops in the city,” or one Bishop – one city. That is to say, Cathar deacons and presbyters can be reconciled rather easily. Cathar bishops require more discernment, because there can only be one bishop in one city. Now if this canon were not interpreted, if it were not considered alive, part of a living tradition, it would pose enormous challenges in application. Above all, who are the Cathars? The canon also describes a Church oriented around a city modeled along the ancient geographical presuppositions of the ancient world, which is, of course, not exactly similar to the structure that we find in our Church. In other words, a superficial reading of this canon would seem to suggest that it has little to do with the modern Church. Such a reading would be mistaken and is not born out in the canonical tradition. For example, long after Cathars had disappeared, the Council in Trullo, in its canon 95, followed what it calls the “established order and custom” from I Nicaea 8 and other canons and grouped Cathars with other heretical groups “who come to Orthodoxy and the portion of the saved” and detailed how they are to be received into the Church without baptizing them. In AD 787, at the Second Council of Nicaea, our predecessor, the great Tarasios, Patriarch of Constantinople, used this same canon from Nicaea and its directions on how to receive Cathar clergy, as a model on the correct way to reconcile iconoclast heretics to the Orthodox Church. Finally, this principle, one bishop-one city, fits neatly within the compelling presentations of ecclesiology that have become known in the last century as Eucharistic Ecclesiology. In it, its chief proponent, the renowned 20th century canonist Fr. Nicholai Afanasiev, sees the bishop in his territory, one bishop in his city, as expressing the fullness of the Church. According to Afanasiev and others who also considered this ecclesiological presentation, a bishop in his city is neither a building block, nor a simple part of the Church, but the Church itself.
5.1 Reflection. We suspect that most of us reading or hearing this canon would in fact, interpret it in our heads and think of ways to apply it immediately in our own context. If so, we must be conscious of the methodology we use, otherwise we risk aberration and depriving the canon of its force. Maintaining the theological orientation in our interpretative work allows us to keep the canon as part of the living tradition of the Church. In so doing, we recognize that the canon, properly understood, speaks with the authority of the Church. In our example, this authority directs the proper way to receive converts into the Church, or provides guidance on the role of the bishop in his city or territory.
6. Conclusion. We reiterate here a fundamental point of our address: the canonical tradition is part – it must be part of the theological reflection of the church. If it were otherwise, the canon could be read as a tool of ecclesiastical violence, one that splits and divides the Church, walling it off, punishing groups outside of the Church. The tradition would not be alive. But when this canon is understood as speaking about reconciling the Cathars into the church, something fundamental emerges about the canonical tradition. Reconciliation, the ultimate point of this canon, is the mission of the Church. The great Apostle Paul says as much in his epistle to the Ephesians, “Christ is our peace, he has made us both one, and broken down the dividing wall of hostility… (Eph 2.14).” This principle is how we are to read this canon and all others. Further, we can mistakenly understand I Nicaea 8 as a canon that grants great authority to a bishop. Divorced from the proper theological orientation of the canons and reflection on the mission of the Church, which provides the context for this canon, we would arrive at something that the Lord spoke against, “you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you (Mt 20.25-26).” To this point if we do not read this Nicene canon, and then all of them in light of the scriptures and the faith of the Church, we would simply substitute false adherence to the canons for false trust in the Mosaic law, and fail to see the “one and the same Spirit,” the Spirit that lies behind both, the Spirit that gives life. The canonical tradition is a living tradition, alive in every age and even in our very day. The texts of the great Council in Nicaea stand at the head of this living tradition, and it has been our honour to discuss them with you.
Thank you for your attention! May God bless you all!
Patriarchal Homily Choral Evensong at Chichester Cathedral During the Conference of the Ecclesiastical Law Society on the Council of Nicaea (June 21, 2025)
Your Grace, Most Reverend Brother in the Lord, Stephen Cottrell,Archbishop of York,
Your Excellency, Right Reverend Brother in the Lord, Martin Warner, Bishop of Chichester,
Dear Ecumenical Brothers and Sisters from the Church of England,
Beloved Brethren in Christ,
Standing here in this magnificent Cathedral, celebrating its own anniversary of nine hundred and fifty years, we are moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit to give thanks for this ecumenical gathering, which accords the highest honor to the Most Holy and Great First Ecumenical Council of the Three Hundred and Eighteen Fathers gathered in Nicaea. We stand together in this Evensong, from the East and from the West, to pause and reflect upon the Seventeen Hundred years since this sacred Καιρός, that established the Faith of the Apostles once and for all.
From our current day in Twenty-twenty-five, to the year Three-twenty-five and the days of the Council. From the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, nearly two thousand miles from the Church of England’s Diocese of Chichester – and farther on south to Selsey, where Saint Wilfrid founded this Episcopal See for the Kingdom of Sussex over thirteen hundred years ago.
The span of these distances, both of time and of space, are great indeed, and they reflect the innumerable changes and the historical gulfs that have separated Christians around the globe to this day. But overcoming these distances is the very reason why we are here, gathered in this House of Prayer; because we are filled with hope for the unity we seek.
Despite all the exigencies of the march of history – the ever-widening cultural, linguistic, and political chasms – and the imperfections that we humans bring to our meager attempts in the exercise of holiness – despite all these difficulties and hindrances, we each still hold to the shared Teaching of Nicaea. We maintain the Nicene Confession which, in all likelihood, emerged on the banks of rivers and lakes, where countless souls gave their confessions of faith in the Lord Jesus, and were baptized in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity.
Nicaea forever declares the truth of that Name – Trinity; for it opens the mind of the human being to as much of that Divine Truth as can be expressed in human, and even angelic, language.
For Nicaea gives a definitive answer to a most simple request, heard in our reading for this evening, when Phillip asks of the Lord Jesus, on the night in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world:
Κύριε, δεῖξον ἡμῖν τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἀρκεῖ ἡμῖν.
Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.[1]
What a remarkable petition! At once innocent and naive, and yet at the same time, almost dismissive and even demanding. Yet the Lord answers Phillip with patience, mercy, and longsuffering, with the same answer that Nicaea will give:
Τοσοῦτον χρόνον μεθ ̓ ὑμῶν εἰμι, καὶ οὐκ ἔγνωκάς με, Φίλιππε; ὁ ἑωρακὼς ἐμὲ ἑώρακε τὸν πατέρα· καὶ πῶς σὺ λέγεις, δεῖξον ἡμῖν τὸν πατέρα;
So much time I am with you, Phillip, and still you do not know Me? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father, so how can you say, “Show us the Father?” [2]
This is nothing less than the Lord’s invitation to His Disciples to enter into the mystery of the inter-dwelling Trinity, a mystery that eventually receives a rational, linguistic context at Nicaea.
This is the genius of the First Ecumenical Council. With a single, simple word – the homoousion – the Fathers of Nicaea found a way to express in a formula that which would forever express the truth of the Lord’s words which followed:
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The sayings that I speak to you, I do not speak of Myself, but the Father Who abides in Me, He accomplishes the works. Believe Me, that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. If not, then believe Me for the sake of these deeds.[3]
The Three Hundred and Eighteen Fathers encapsulated the experience of the Trinity into language, so as to open us to that experience in our own lives. Thus, the Lord goes on to say:
Amen, amen, I say to you, the one who believes in Me – the deeds that I accomplish – that one shall also do them and even greater ones, because I am going to My Father. Whatever you ask in My Name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. [4]
Therefore, dear Brethren in the Lord, what shall we ask in His Name?
We stand on the cusp of the Third Millennium of the faith of Jesus Christ, and the course of His Holy Church – for all the sinfulness of Her members, has never deviated from the path set forth at Nicaea.
So then, let us ask to renew this Faith of the Apostles, and for it to be revealed to all of us as the foundation for the unity that evades us, the unity we seek, the unity that it has always been available, if only we open our eyes to it.
Nicaea opens the door of experience of the Most Holy Trinity to every believer – to the wise and the foolish, to the intelligent and to the unthinking, to those of the First Hour, as well as to those of the Eleventh. [5]
Let us truly embrace the Nicene Confession of Faith, even as we embrace one another in love and compassion. Perhaps then, we shall behold with our eyes the ‘deeds that are even greater,’ by His grace, mercy, and love for humankind.
So be it.
Γένοιτο.
Ἀμήν.
__________
1. John 14:8.
2. John 14:9.
3. John 14:10-11.
4. John 14:12-14.
5. Cf. Matthew 20:1-16 and the Paschal Homily of Saint John Chrysostom.
