Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew are expected to send a message of commitment to ongoing theological dialogue and the effort to reunify divided Christianity during a historic meeting Thursday in Nicaea, today’s Iznik in Turkey’s Bursa province.
The encounter marks the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council, where the two leaders will offer joint prayers for Christian unity.
In his letter “In unitate fidei,” published November 23, Pope Leo emphasized the “ecumenical value” of the Council of Nicaea and invited the faithful “to walk together to reach unity and reconciliation,” leaving behind “theological disputes,” and cultivating “an ecumenism oriented toward the future.”
Bartholomew, in an interview with Kathimerini on the same day, said the meeting brings together “the successors of the bodily brothers, the Apostles Peter and Andrew,” sending a message of “sincere fraternal relations” and demonstrating an “unwavering will” to deepen official theological dialogue. He said the goal remains “the restoration of the visible unity of the Church of Christ.”
The celebration will take place at the archaeological site of the Basilica of St Neophytos. Invitations were also sent to the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, though the latter two are expected to be absent, a development church sources connect to Moscow’s influence.
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