WMC Webinars March 3, 4 and 18, 2025: Council of Nicaea - 1700th Anniversary

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Greetings in the name of Jesus, light of the world!

Today we would like to invite you and the people whom you serve to embark on a unique ecumenical journey:

This year marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, a council of church leaders and others called by the Emperor Constantine to reflect on the being of Jesus Christ. Controversy about the exact nature of Christ - human or divine or both? - was threatening to divide the Empire, and Constantine and his imperial colleagues were concerned. Thus, there were mixed motives for this event - concern for the faith, for the unity of the church, undoubtedly, but also issues of power, ambition, control… However, out of this gathering, and a subsequent gathering at Constantinople in 381AD, emerged one of the great Creeds of the church – the Nicaean-Constantinopolitan Creed, the creed in the words of which we, together, as the people of God, affirm the Christian faith: “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty…in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God... in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.

Several ecumenical events will offer opportunities to reflect on this jubilee, leading to the Sixth World Conference of Faith and Order from October 24-28, 2025 in Egypt. That Conference is for a selected group – however, in the last few months, we have developed an opportunity for all to learn more about “NICAEA 2025” through three webinars organized by the World Methodist Council.

Under the title “A Wesleyan Response to Nicaea: Reflections on Faith, Unity and Mission”, the speakers will be invited to consider the historical complexity of the 325AD gathering at Nicaea; the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed as an agreed statement of faith by Christians of many traditions and denominations; what may be the role, if any, of creeds in the twenty-first century, all of this from a Wesleyan perspective.

Here are the dates and speakers for each of the webinars:

March 3 (Focus on Asia-Pacific) 7 am to 8:30 am GMT (3 pm Manila; 4 pm Seoul; 8 pm Auckland)

Moderator: Revd Dr Seferosa Carroll, United Theological College, North Parramatta, Australia

Speakers:

• Dr. Te Aroha Rountree, Trinity Methodist Theological College, Auckland, New Zealand

• Revd James Bhagwan, Methodist Church in Fiji, General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches

• Revd Dr Hermen Shastri, Methodist Church Malaysia, former vice moderator of the WCC Faith and Order Commission

• Revd Dr Lisette Tapia Raquel, United Methodist Church, Union Theological Seminary, Manila, Philippines

March 4 (Focus on North and South America) 8 pm to 9:30 pm GMT (3 pm EST, 9 am March 5 Auckland) – Translation to Spanish will be available

Moderator: Revd Prof. Dr. Edgardo Colon-Emeric, United Methodist Church, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC, USA

Speakers:

• Prof. Dr. Blanches de Paula, Methodist Church Brazil, Methodist University Sao Paulo, Brazil

• Revd. Dr. Pablo Rubén Andiñach, Methodist Church Argentina, Universidad del Centro Educativo Latinoamericano, Rosario, Argentina

• Prof. Dr. Sarah Lancaster, United Methodist Church, Methodist Theological School in Ohio, Columbus, USA

• Prof. Dr. Gladson Jothanna, Church of South India, Drew University, Madison, NJ, USA

March 18 (Focus on Europe and Africa) 2 pm to 3:30 pm GMT (10 am EDT, 9 am in Peru, 3 pm CEST, 5 pm in Moscow and Nairobi)

Moderator: Revd Dr Martin Mujinga, Methodist Church Zimbabwe, General Secretary of the Africa Methodist Council, based in Accra, Ghana

Speakers:

• Revd Jackline Makena, Methodist Church Kenya, St. Paul University, Limuru, Kenya, Vice Moderator of the WCC Faith and Order Commission

• Prof. Dr. Simangaliso R. Kumalo, Methodist Church Southern Africa, University of Kwazulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, SA

• Revd Dr. Jane Leach, Methodist Church Britain, Wesley House, Cambridge

• Revd Dr. Sergei Nikolaev, United Methodist Church, Moscow Theological Seminary

Please use the following Registration Link for all the meetings and indicate which of the meetings you will be able to attend (of course you are invited to attend all three of them):

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/aWYjeb0zTwuuw_akn2lbyA

You will be receiving the Zoom Link to enter the meeting itself after registration!

In addition, we wish to highlight that this year, Christians of all traditions celebrate Easter on the same date (April 20th, 2025). What an opportunity to confess our faith together and to remind ourselves of the source of our hope: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Stay tuned to receive more information on how to celebrate Easter with ecumenical partners and how to witness to Christ, life of the world, in such a time as this.

As a footnote, we are reminding you of the invitation to send in registrations for the NIFEA GEM School 2025, August 18 to 29, 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. It is a training to explore the intersectionality of theology, economy, and ecology. This year, we will be hosted in the Seminar House of Kwanlim Church, which is part of the Korean Methodist Church. Find more information and a registration link here: https://www.oikoumene.org/events/gem-school-2025-equipping-faithleaders-for-economic-and-ecological-justice

Thank you for paying attention to all these invitations and for letting others know of the opportunities to worship, discern, and learn together so that we might be enabled to be beacons of hope wherever we live and serve.

Best regards, also in the name of our General Secretary Revd Dr Reynaldo Ferreira Leão Neto, and of the leader of the planning team for the NICAEA 2025 Webinars, Ms Gillian Kingston,

Bishop Rosemarie Wenner

Geneva Secretary of the World Methodist Council

Email: rosemarie.wenner@emk.de; Phone: +4915119689531