With One Voice and One Heart - Easter 2025

The Presidents of Churches Together in England have issued a pastoral letter to mark the joint celebration of Easter 2025 and the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea.

The Acts of the Apostles records that in the earliest days, as the message of Jesus was preached and it spread across the Mediterranean lands and beyond, questions arose and there were tensions and divisions among those who came to the faith. In response to this, the apostles and elders were gathered together in Jerusalem to address these pressing matters. This was a prelude and guide as to how the universal Church would guard and defend the Truth of God, Who is none other than Christ Himself - the way, the truth and the life of the world.

Over the years, new controversies and challenges arose and in the year 325 Emperor Constantine convened a gathering of Christian elders in Nicaea (situated in modern day Türkiye), from across the Roman Empire to discuss and clarify certain issues, especially that of the Person of Jesus Christ. He did so also in response to threats to the cohesion and stability in society, recognising that harmony in society drew on stability in religious belief.

The critical challenge centred on how the Church should understand the relationship between the Father and the Son. Guided by the Holy Spirit, the 318 church leaders who attended the gathering stated that the Son is, in fact, "homoousios to Patri", of the same essence or nature as the Father, and in one voice of unity proclaimed this to the world. The second Person of the Holy Trinity is not created, and is not of a different essence or nature from the Father, but is "true God from true God". In time, this gathering that offered the first definition of the Christian Church's faith would come to be known as the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. This model, later named a synod, would also become a means of setting the boundaries of the faith.

As inheritors of the proclamation and the statement of faith that came from this important event, Christian leaders throughout the world gather this year 2025 to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. We come together to participate in the Lord's unity to proclaim and affirm that - "We believe in one God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; He is, as we affirm, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not created, of the same and one essence as the Father".In a world suffering because of our fallen nature and our desire for each of us to define Truth according to our own understanding, we are given a breath of hope when we reflect on the sacred words of the confession of our common Christian faith and recall that we still share our belief in the Son of God, Jesus the Christ. Often divided by our sins and arrogance, we now come together in unity, with one voice and one heart, as did those divinely-guided individuals seventeen hundred years ago to defend the Truth that has been entrusted to us. We come together to reiterate the message and truth of Nicaea.

It is a special blessing from God that this year all Christians will celebrate Easter - Pascha - on the same Sunday. We are empowered by this and we draw strength to face the realities of our divisions with a new hope of reconciliation. For it seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us that we should all be one and that the people of God should come to one accord, as did the early Church. It is in this spirit, with humility and in Christian love, that together we proclaim and dedicate this year to the Council of Nicaea and we pledge to look to the unity of the faith, as did those elders seventeen hundred years ago.

We call on all our members gathered in the name of Christ, and to all Christian people, to celebrate this important anniversary and to proclaim to a world the oneness that we seek to be more fully manifest. We proclaim that in the person of Jesus, humanity finds its fullest truth, its sure guide and the bringer of peace.

• Cardinal Vincent Nichols, The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster

• Rev Canon Helen Cameron, Moderator of the Free Churches Group

• Bishop Paulina Hławiczka-Trotman, CTE President for the Fourth Presidency Group and Head of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain

• His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas, CTE President for the Orthodox Churches, and Archbishop of the Oecumenical Patriarchate (Diocese of Thyateira and Great Britain)

• Bishop Tedroy Powell, CTE Pentecostal and Charismatic President, and National Overseer of the Church of God of Prophecy UK

• The Archbishop of Canterbury (position vacant)