Patriarchal Homily Choral Evensong at Chichester Cathedral During the Conference of the Ecclesiastical Law Society on the Council of Nicaea (June 21, 2025)

Your Grace, Most Reverend Brother in the Lord, Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York,

Your Excellency, Right Reverend Brother in the Lord, Martin Warner, Bishop of Chichester,

Dear Ecumenical Brothers and Sisters from the Church of England,

Beloved Brethren in Christ,

Standing here in this magnificent Cathedral, celebrating its own anniversary of nine hundred and fifty years, we are moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit to give thanks for this ecumenical gathering, which accords the highest honor to the Most Holy and Great First Ecumenical Council of the Three Hundred and Eighteen Fathers gathered in Nicaea. We stand together in this Evensong, from the East and from the West, to pause and reflect upon the Seventeen Hundred years since this sacred Καιρός, that established the Faith of the Apostles once and for all.

From our current day in Twenty-twenty-five, to the year Three-twenty-five and the days of the Council. From the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, nearly two thousand miles from the Church of England’s Diocese of Chichester – and farther on south to Selsey, where Saint Wilfrid founded this Episcopal See for the Kingdom of Sussex over thirteen hundred years ago.

The span of these distances, both of time and of space, are great indeed, and they reflect the innumerable changes and the historical gulfs that have separated Christians around the globe to this day. But overcoming these distances is the very reason why we are here, gathered in this House of Prayer; because we are filled with hope for the unity we seek.

Despite all the exigencies of the march of history – the ever-widening cultural, linguistic, and political chasms – and the imperfections that we humans bring to our meager attempts in the exercise of holiness – despite all these difficulties and hindrances, we each still hold to the shared Teaching of Nicaea. We maintain the Nicene Confession which, in all likelihood, emerged on the banks of rivers and lakes, where countless souls gave their confessions of faith in the Lord Jesus, and were baptized in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity.

Nicaea forever declares the truth of that Name – Trinity; for it opens the mind of the human being to as much of that Divine Truth as can be expressed in human, and even angelic, language.

For Nicaea gives a definitive answer to a most simple request, heard in our reading for this evening, when Phillip asks of the Lord Jesus, on the night in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world:

Κύριε, δεῖξον ἡμῖν τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἀρκεῖ ἡμῖν.

Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.[1]

What a remarkable petition! At once innocent and naive, and yet at the same time, almost dismissive and even demanding. Yet the Lord answers Phillip with patience, mercy, and longsuffering, with the same answer that Nicaea will give:

Τοσοῦτον χρόνον μεθ ̓ ὑμῶν εἰμι, καὶ οὐκ ἔγνωκάς με, Φίλιππε; ὁ ἑωρακὼς ἐμὲ ἑώρακε τὸν πατέρα· καὶ πῶς σὺ λέγεις, δεῖξον ἡμῖν τὸν πατέρα; 

So much time I am with you, Phillip, and still you do not know Me? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father, so how can you say, “Show us the Father?” [2]

This is nothing less than the Lord’s invitation to His Disciples to enter into the mystery of the inter-dwelling Trinity, a mystery that eventually receives a rational, linguistic context at Nicaea.

This is the genius of the First Ecumenical Council. With a single, simple word – the homoousion – the Fathers of Nicaea found a way to express in a formula that which would forever express the truth of the Lord’s words which followed:

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The sayings that I speak to you, I do not speak of Myself, but the Father Who abides in Me, He accomplishes the works. Believe Me, that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. If not, then believe Me for the sake of these deeds.[3]

The Three Hundred and Eighteen Fathers encapsulated the experience of the Trinity into language, so as to open us to that experience in our own lives. Thus, the Lord goes on to say:

Amen, amen, I say to you, the one who believes in Me – the deeds that I accomplish – that one shall also do them and even greater ones, because I am going to My Father. Whatever you ask in My Name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. [4]

Therefore, dear Brethren in the Lord, what shall we ask in His Name?

We stand on the cusp of the Third Millennium of the faith of Jesus Christ, and the course of His Holy Church – for all the sinfulness of Her members, has never deviated from the path set forth at Nicaea.

So then, let us ask to renew this Faith of the Apostles, and for it to be revealed to all of us as the foundation for the unity that evades us, the unity we seek, the unity that it has always been available, if only we open our eyes to it.

Nicaea opens the door of experience of the Most Holy Trinity to every believer – to the wise and the foolish, to the intelligent and to the unthinking, to those of the First Hour, as well as to those of the Eleventh. [5]

Let us truly embrace the Nicene Confession of Faith, even as we embrace one another in love and compassion. Perhaps then, we shall behold with our eyes the ‘deeds that are even greater,’ by His grace, mercy, and love for humankind.

So be it.

Γένοιτο.

Ἀμήν.

 

__________

1. John 14:8.

2. John 14:9.

3. John 14:10-11.

4. John 14:12-14.

5. Cf. Matthew 20:1-16 and the Paschal Homily of Saint John Chrysostom.