On 28 November, Leo and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will join hands at the site of the Ecumenical Council, Iznik of modern Turkey
The primates of many of the world’s Christian Churches will gather in Iznik, northwest Turkey – where the ancient city of Nicaea in the Bithynia province stood – on Friday in a symbolic gesture recalling one of the most defining moments in Christian history: the era of undivided Christianity of the first millennium.
It is a reminder of the time before the separation of the Church, before the Great Schism of 1054 between East and West, and long before the emergence of Protestantism following the Martin Luther-inspired Reformation, beginning in 1517.
This historic meeting will also mark a first: never before has a Pope of Rome visited Nicaea. When the First Ecumenical Council convened there 1,700 years ago, the Bishop of Rome was represented by two senior deacons.
A Meeting With a Message of Unity
Seventeen centuries later, the Christian world returns to Nicaea. The Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew of Constantinople, envisions the gathering as a powerful call for unity. His efforts began in 2014, during the papacy of Francis, working closely with the Sant’Egidio Community — long committed to dialogue and reconciliation — and with Professor Meloni, a leading Roman Catholic intellectual.
Early plans developed step by step by representatives of the two Churches, aimed for commemorative and theological events to take place immediately after Easter. But Pope Francis’s declining health forced a postponement.
A new chapter opened in May of this year with the election of Pope Leo, the 267th Bishop of Rome. Patriarch Bartholomew quickly renewed discussions to mark the anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council.
Pope Leo is expected to arrive in Turkey on November 27. As head of Vatican City State, he will first travel to Ankara for a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Meanwhile, preparations are already underway in Nicaea, where a large platform is being constructed to host the representatives of all Christian Churches and confessions. At its center will stand Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Leo, the spiritual leaders of Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.
Following his visit to Ankara, Pope Leo will travel to Istanbul for meetings with Catholic bishops and clergy serving in the region, as well as with Armenian and Syriac Orthodox communities. On Friday, November 28, he will make his way to Nicaea.
On Saturday evening, the pope will visit the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Phanar to attend Vespers for the Feast of St. Andrew, the founder of the Church of Constantinople. He will also participate in the festive Divine Liturgy the following day.
Immediately after the service, the two primates will step out onto the Patriarchate’s balcony, join hands, and deliver a shared message — a message of unity, of love, and of solidarity.
A message intended to reach Christians across the world.
The historic commemoration of the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council harkened back to a time of Christian unity, but the burden of the past weighs heavily in efforts to restore it.
This is Leo’s first papal pilgrimage abroad, and that it is to visit Bartholomew carries the weighty symbolism of his determination to push forward the dialogue between the two Churches
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