On the 27-29th of January 2025, the Nordic-Baltic ecumenical councils gathered in Höör in Sweden. Our council’s express gratitude for the fellowship amongst Christians in our region at the door-step to the 1700 anniversary of the council of Nicaea, which we all celebrate. This year will be marked by services, publications, seminars and gatherings of Christians, highlighting our deep roots in Christian history and obligation to keep our common Nicene creed alive.
The Nicene council was a visible sign of Christian unity. The meeting was an attempt to make the churches coming together in common worship amongst other thing in one calendar for our great feasts, the Easter and Pentecost. Due to the Nicene legacy, the many Christian calendars will coincide in 2025 and churches across various traditions will celebrate Easter and Pentecost at the same days.
We, the Nordic-Baltic councils, call on our member churches across the region to use this as an opportunity for bringing us all together in joint worship. Such a joint worship will come at the ecumenical week in Stockholm, which also mark the 100 years anniversary of one of the first modern gatherings of Christians at the Stockholm meeting.
We call on churches to use the anniversary to mark the Nicene creed and use it in their services on Pentecost in 2025. The creed provides a point of departure to preach and live unity in a polarized world. The creed underlines the divine nature of the son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and how all was created “through him”. It is a Christological vision with implications for our created world.
There are differences in the way we serve the Lord but that should not stop us finding common ground in the Nicene creed. We therefore call upon our Christian sisters and brothers to remember this and mark this on Pentecost 2025.
Signed by (in the photo from left to right):
Emil Hilton Saggau, General Secretary, Danish National Council of Churches
Vilver Oras, General Secretary, Estonian Council of Churches
Mayvor Wärn-Rancken, General Secretary, The Ecumenical Council of Finland
Sofia Camnerin, General Secretary, The Swedish Council of Churches
Henrik Erhard Hermansen, General Secretary, Christian Council of Norway
Photo: Esther Flores Sedman, Sveriges Kristna Råd