Nicaea Council’s 1700th Anniversary: Catholic Priest in Kenya Proposes Workshops, Seminars on Nicene Creed

On April 3, the Vatican released a press statement announcing plans to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325–2025) on May 20  and the publication of a document titled, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, and Savior: 1700th Anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea.”

In the interview published June 16, the Superior of the SVD in the Kenya-Tanzania Province reflected on the document that Paulines Publications Africa (PPA) has published. He said that the symbol of Nicaea is a celebration of faith, and therefore, a liturgical principle that should manifest in the daily lives of Christians.

“It is a creed—it is what we believe—and then what we believe, we have to celebrate it through prayer, through liturgy, and then the liturgy has to influence our lives,” he said about the document that the International Theological Commission published.

Fr. Owire added, “Being a veritable hymn, being a prayer, being a living faith is that the reception of this particular Council on the 1,700th anniversary has to be accompanied with prayer—that we celebrate what we believe through prayer and allow it also to influence our lives.”

To help the people of God in the contemporary world better understand the Council and the Nicene Creed, he recommended incorporating the symbol of Nicaea into homilies just like the Patristic, and Cappadocian Fathers did.

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The Fathers, he said, “did not write theological treatises on the symbol of Nicaea; rather, they preached, they used sermons, and they proclaimed, basically, this particular Council in homilies, in preaching, in catechesis.”

“This could also be one of the best ways to receive this particular anniversary: that we can actually proclaim, preach, and catechize the truth,” Fr. Owire said. 

He also proposed the proclamation of Jesus Christ as the truth in the efforts to popularize the Council and the Nicene Creed.

“The Church has a mandate to proclaim this particular truth, and these truths need to be preached not only to contexts, which are even very challenging in today's context,” said the Kenyan SVD Provincial Superior, who is also lectures Dogmatic Theology at the Nairobi-based Tangaza University (TU).

He identified the secular and postmodern contexts as environments marked by “upheavals,” including widespread evil and conflict, and emphasized the urgent need for the message of truth to “transform the human heart.”

In the interview, Fr. Owire said that the commemoration of the Nicaea Council and the Nicene Creed is an opportune moment not only to teach the common faith that Christians profess, but also “the oneness of the Church and the unity of Christians.”

The anniversary, he said, “should invite us to revisit and to relook our own ecumenical efforts and sensitivities in the context in which we live.”

“We can already begin with simpler initiatives from around, with the churches around us, and see how we can work towards this greater Christian communion,” Fr. Owire said in the interview with Sr. Olga published on June 16.

Silas Mwale Isenjia is a Kenyan journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communication from Moi University in Kenya. Silas has vast experience in the Media production industry. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.