The Council of Nicaea is 1,700 years old in May. Susan Durber looks back on the most momentous Church Meeting of all

I’m confident that many readers of Reform have been to church meetings of all sorts; a few Elders gathered in the vestry to seek wisdom on some pressing matter, a congregation’s AGM, a synod meeting or a General Assembly, perhaps a larger conference with hundreds gathered at The Hayes in Derbyshire, or even Vatican II in Rome.

Let me take you to another meeting, in a way the first of its kind. Imagine about 250 delegates from all over North Africa, the Middle East and other parts of Asia and Europe. They came to Nicaea in modern-day Turkey from a dazzling variety of churches and situations. Some of them were highly educated, others barely literate, many bore wounds and disabilities from the vicious persecution of Christians that had ended little more than a decade before. All of them were called ‘episkopos’, bishop, but they didn’t wear mitres or have university degrees. Some of them cared for a small number of Christians from backwater towns and others were from cities where Christianity had flourished. Most of them could probably get by in Greek, the street language of the empire, and some would have Latin, but between them they had many different mother tongues. Some were educated, urbane and experienced in the ways of the Roman world, some might have been freed slaves who had done the work of reading and writing for their former masters, and many would have been simple artisans, tentmakers like Paul, or fishermen like Peter. Their clothes, their music, their ethnicities, showcased the diversity of the world. They each came with an entourage, with deacons and priests, many travelling for weeks to get to Nicaea and perhaps never having ventured far from home before…

Susan Durber is a member of the Landsker Pastorate in Pembrokeshire, and the World Council of Churches President from Europe

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This is an extract from an article published in the Issue 3 – 2025 edition of Reform

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