Introduction to the Theme for the 2025 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
from the Website of the World Council of Churches
“Do you believe this?” [John 11.26]
For this year, 2025, the prayers and reflections for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - January 18-25 - were prepared by the brothers and sisters of the monastic community of Bose in
northern Italy. This year marks the 1,700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical
Council, held in Nicaea, near Constantinople, in 325 AD. This commemoration
provides a unique opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the common faith of Christians, as expressed in the Creed formulated
during this Council; a faith that remains alive and fruitful in our days.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2025 offers an invitation to draw on this shared heritage and to enter more
deeply into the faith that unites all Christians.
The Council of Nicaea
Convoked by the Emperor Constantine, the
Council of Nicaea was attended, according to tradition, by 318 Fathers, mostly from the East.
The Church, having just emerged from hiding and persecution, was beginning to experience how difficult it was to share
the same faith in the different cultural and political contexts of the time.
Agreement on the text of the Creed was a matter of defining
the essential common foundations on which to build local communities that recognized each other as sister churches,
each respecting the diversity of the other.
Disagreements had arisen among Christians in the previous decades, which sometimes
degenerated into serious conflicts. These disputes were on matters as diverse
as: the nature of Christ in relation to the Father; the question of a single
date to celebrate Easter and its relationship with the Jewish Passover; opposition to theological opinions considered heretical;
and how to re-integrate believers who had abandoned the faith during the persecution in earlier years.
The approved text of the Creed used the
first person-plural, “We believe…” This form emphasized
the expression of a common belonging. The Creed was divided into three parts
dedicated to the three Persons of the Trinity, followed by a conclusion condemning affirmatios that were considered heretical. The text of this Creed was revised and expanded at the Council of Constantinople
in 381 AD, where the condemnations were removed. This is the form of the
Profession of Faith that Christian Churches today recognize as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, often referred to simply as the Nicene Creed.
From 323 to 2025
Although the Council of Nicaea decreed how the date of Easter should be calculated, subsequent divergences of interpretation
led to the feast frequently being marked on different dates in East and West. Though
we are still awaiting the day when we will again have a common celebration of Easter yearly, by happy coincidence, in this
anniversary year of 2025, this great feast will be celebrated on the same date by the Eastern and Western Churches.
The meaning of the saving events which all Christians will celebrate on Easter Sunday, 20 April 2025, has not changed
with the passage of seventeen centuries. The Week of Prayer for Christian
Unity is an opportunity for Christians to explore afresh this living heritage and re-appropriate it in ways that are in keeping
with contemporary cultures, which are even more diverse today than those of the Christian world at the time of Nicaea. Living the Apostolic Faith together today does not imply
re-opening the theological controversies of that time, which have continued down the centuries, but rather a prayerful
re-reading of the scriptural foundations and ecclesial experiences that led to that Council and its decisions.
The Biblical Text for the Week of Prayer
It is with this in mind that the guiding biblical text was chosen – John
11.17-27. The theme for the week, “Do you believe this?” [v
6], takes its cue from the dialogue between Jesus and Martha when Jesus visited the home of Martha and Mary in Bethany following
the death of their brother Lazarus, as narrated by the Evangelist John,
At the start of the chapter, the Gospel
says that Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus [v 5], yet when informed that Lazarus was gravely ill, Jesus declared that
his illness would “not lead to death” but that the Son of God would be “”glorified through it”
[v 4], and remained where he was for two days longer.
When Jesus eventually arrived in Bethany, despite being warned of the risk of being stoned there [v 8], Lazarus “had
already been in the tomb for four days” [v 17].
Martha’s words to Jesus express her disappointment with his late arrival, perhaps containing also a note of
reproach: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”
[v 21]. However, this exclamation is followed immediately by a profession
of confidence in Jesus’ saving power: “But
even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him: [v 22].
When Jesus assures her that her brother will rise again [v 23], she responds by affirming
her religious belief: “I know that he will rise again in the
resurrection on the last day” [v 24]. Jesus leads her a step further,
declaring his power over life and death and revealing his identity as the Messiah.
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me,
even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me
will never die” [vv 25-25]. Following this astonishing declaration, Jesus challenges Martha with a very direct and personal
question: “Do you believe this?” [v 26].
Like Martha, the first generation of Christians
could not remain indifferent or passive when the words of Jesus touched and searched their hearts.
They earnestly sought to give a comprehensible answer to Jesus’s question “Do you believe this?” The Fathers of Nicaea strove to find words that would embrace the entire mystery
of the Incarnation and the Passion, Death and Resurrection of their Lord. While
awaiting his return, Christians around the world are called to witness together to this faith in the Resurrection, which is
for them the source of hope and joy, to be shared with all peoples.
