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The conference will be a way to engage the many issues that challenge and excite churches today, with the goal of rekindling the desire to search for visible unity of the church in the midst of deep diversity and changing contexts.
The Commission on Faith and Order was born with a world conference, held in 1927 in Lausanne, Switzerland. In the past, Faith and Order has continued to hold “world conferences” at key moments in its life and work.
There has not been a conference launched by Faith and Order since that held at Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 1993. In November 2017, the WCC executive committee endorsed a proposal that Faith and Order hold a world conference in 2025.
The commission is offering a proposal to commemorate Nicaea 2025 in ways that reflect shifting realities in the church and the world, including ecological, technological, and financial concerns.
Nicaea 2025 will permit Faith and Order to promote its work and to invite engagement with it, by those who are familiar with it, and with groups and generations who do not know of it, or do not see its relevance to the burning concerns facing us all.
Linking the conference to the anniversary of Nicaea offers us not only a time for reckoning, but an opportunity for celebration, as we reflect on what the churches have said and done together, and where those hopeful accomplishments might lead us.
“Nicaea 2025” is envisioned as a series of gatherings held during 2025, in person and virtually, including a main conference, provisionally planned to take place in June 2025, prayers for Christian unity at the location of Nicaea, and sessions at other groups’ meetings or at the request of academic institutions or churches, spread over the regions of the world.
Other events throughout the year would include webinars on theme-related topics; addresses by younger scholars and students; and inviting local churches to gather in-person or online to participate.
