In the Bible, drought is seen as a sign of disfavor, a consequence of disobedience to God's law. Ancient peoples (and modern ones) feel deeply our reliance on rain and the harvests the moisture brings. So surely the drought that has caused the receding waters of Lake Iznik in Turkey can't be considered something positive. And yet, as history was made this afternoon on those shores, one could say that for a few hours, the drought was a gift from Above.
That's because the receding waters have in the last months and years slowly revealed the remains of the basilica -- only discovered in 2014 -- which rest on the site where more than 300 bishops gathered in 325, just a dozen years after Constantine had stopped the persecution of Christians.
There, those early bishops formulated the expression of their common faith, our faith -- the Nicene Creed.
Down through the centuries, the same Creed has been recited in East and in West, surviving on both sides of the Great Schism that split Catholic from Orthodox, and even surviving in many of the communities born of the Reformation.
And today, this November 28, in the 1,700th year after that momentous gathering of Christendom at Nicaea, the successors of those bishops, in the persons of Pope Leo and Patriarch Bartholomew, stood on a footbridge constructed on now dry lands of Lake Iznik, with the uncovered remains of the basilica before them, and they said the Creed together.
Not for them alone
The sun reflecting on the water behind them, the brisk late-November breeze blowing their ornate vestments -- it all added to the solemnity of the moment, as the voices of some 30 representatives of the Churches of the first millennium (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem) and various delegations from communities that emerged from the Reformation or other separations (Anglicans, Old Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Mennonites, Pentecostals, Evangelicals, etc.), who also recognize Nicaea, all solemnly and with unity said the ancient words.
Both Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Leo gave an address about the need to forge ahead in seeking unity. Kyrie eleison -- Lord have mercy -- was chanted over and over, a phrase in Greek still in the Catholic Mass, just one concrete sign that "Truly, what unites us is much greater than what divides us!" And the Gospel was read, from John's account of the Last Supper, Jesus' words to the Father:
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Pope Leo's address
Patriarch Bartholomew's address
Watch the full recording from Vatican News
Learn more about Nicaea, the Creed, the history, and this event at our dedicated Nicaea page
