"Gather" Bible Study is held on the FOURTH Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. in the church library. Please feel free to join us!
APRIL 2025 Submitted by June Torrison
On various Sundays of the church year we use either the Apostle’s Creed or the Nicene Creed, found on page 104 in our ELW red hymnals.
If you are like me, you may not have given much thought to how either of these was created. Well, the most recent issue of LIVING LUTHERAN answers that question for us.
This is the first paragraph in the article:
“Throughout 2025, Christians around the globe will have the opportunity to reflect on the significance of the ecumenical council that met in Nicaea (in present day Turkey) in 325 and on the creed that bears its name. The council articulated a particular description of the relationship between Jesus and God, leaving an enduring mark on how a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith is proclaimed up to this very day.”
That means that this is the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed. I can’t imagine calling a meeting in the year 325 to come up with an agreement of faith. Emperor Constantine used his political authority to convene an ecumenical (universal) council in May-June 325. Because this was an ecumenical council, all the bishops within the empire were expected to attend. He chose the lakeside city of Nicaea, which was near the then capital, Nicomedia, and centrally located with the empire.
How did they communicate all this to the delegates without telephones, telegraph, e-mail or messaging? How did they all get there without cars, airplanes or trains? Where did they all stay? How did they feed them all?
In summer 325 Emperor Constantine welcomed 250 to 300 bishops (and about a thousand other clergy, theologians and staff). A bishop chaired most of the council’s day-to-day proceedings. They worked for about THREE MONTHS. And we think some of our meetings are long?
There is some evidence of Christians being persecuted. In 313 Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan which ordered that Christianity be tolerated throughout the Roman Empire. Theological debate began to bubble. This was a work in progress. Fifty-six years later, the Council of Constantinople (381) affirmed the creed and expanded part of it.
So the next time we recite/profess the creed, let us think of those people long ago who collaborated to write it. And also those who translated it from the original Greek into the languages of the world.