WCC news: International Review of Mission explores women and the Council of Nicaea

The latest issue of the World Council of Churches (WCC) journal, International Review of Mission, focuses on the role and place of women at the Council of Nicaea, a foundational event for Christianity whose 1700th anniversary is being commemorated in 2025.  Empress Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, under whose patronage the Council of Nicaea gathered: Detail from a Greek manuscript dated 879-883 CE. Photo: Public domain 6 August 2025 The council, as guest editor Dr Mutale Mulenga Kaunda writes in the editorial, was a gathering of male bishops, but women's influence, though indirect and largely inaudible in historical records, was nonetheless significant. “While women were not formal participants, and their contributions remain undocumented at the Nicaea council, it is important to acknowledge that they were present in early Christian communities as vital supporters, educators, and patrons,” writes Kaunda, a research tutor at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and a research associate at the Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa. However, “if this was the case, it means that men then appropriated, without acknowledgement, the ideas of women.” The issue is a contribution to the WCC’s Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order to take place at Wadi El Natrun in Egypt in October 2025 and which will mark the Nicaea anniversary. Articles in the issue explore the presence of women at the council, understood not only as physical proximity but as the expansive influence, relational engagement, and enduring memory of a person or group of persons. “This issue of IRM further explores the historical exclusion of women from significant theological events and the historical legacies of ecclesiological exclusion of women,” writes Kaunda. “This has implications for the various ways in which women continue to be excluded from religious doctrines and leadership roles.” The initiative for this thematic issue came from IRM editor, Rev. Dr Peter Cruchley, the director of the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, and Rev. Nicole Ashwood, WCC programme executive for a Just Community of Women and Men. Kaunda, active in the Ecumenical Network of Global Actors for Gender Justice, and who participated at the WCC 11th assembly in Karlsruhe in 2022 with the Just Community of Women and Men in an advisory capacity, was then asked to serve as guest editor.  Dr Andrej Jeftić, director of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order, took part in the review of abstracts and selection of articles. Kaunda said: “While women's perspectives maybe have inspired some of the discussions at Nicaea, women cannot and should not continue to be heard through men who do not often acknowledge that the ideas they are sharing are from women. “We hope this issue will contribute to making women's presence and voice fully included in  conversations about equality and equity.” Ashwood said: “One of the joys of this project was the intentional cross-disciplined focus that fostered inclusivity in spaces of academic rigour that often feels often feels exclusive to males.”  She added: “Including women’s perspectives through this volume affirms the WCC’s commitment toward our visible unity in the Just Community of Women and Men.” International Review of Mission is published twice a year for the WCC by Wiley. More information about Nicaea 2025 and the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order Read Mutale Mulenga Kaunda ‘s  Guest Editorial  Table of Contents Information about subscriptions See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

WCC News: Recalling Council of Nicaea can inspire today’s call for unity, says WCC’s Pillay

Commemorating the 1700th anniversary in 2025 of the Council of Nicaea is an inspiration to Christians today to work for the unity of the church, according to Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC). Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC 09 February 2024 At the Council of Nicaea, bishops representing the whole of Christendom gathered together for the first time to discuss the faith and witness of the church. “Recalling the significance of the Council of Nicaea renews our call for full visible unity, the cornerstone of the ecumenical movement,” Pillay said in a greeting to an 8 February webinar, “From Nicaea, Walking Together to Unity: The Beginning of a New Beginning.” “This journey, which we believe to be a vital part of the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity on which we have embarked, reminds us that our goal is not just increasing theological agreement but a unity that is visible and tangible, reflecting the oneness of the body of Christ,” he said. The WCC’s activities to commemorate Nicaea in 2025 will culminate in the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, to be held near Alexandra, Egypt, in October 2025, Pillay said.  Pillay’s greetings were presented by the webinar’s moderator, Nausikaa Haupt, ecumenical officer of the Catholic Diocese of Stockholm, Sweden, alongside those of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew; Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity; and Bishop Dr Thomas Schirrmacher, general secretary of the World Evangelical Alliance. Speakers coming from different church traditions offered reflections on different aspects of Nicaea and its significance today.  The event was supported by Pasqua Together 2025 (Easter Together 2025), which is calling for all churches to celebrate Easter on the same date, as was agreed at the Council of Nicaea. Over time, however, Eastern and Western Christianity developed different ways of calculating when Easter should fall, but in 2025 their calendars coincide and they will celebrate Easter on the same day. “The quest for a common day to celebrate Easter is a symbol of our desire for unity,” said Pillay. “Aligning our Easter celebrations would not only be a remarkable expression of unity but also a powerful witness to the world of our shared faith in the resurrection of Christ.” "The Council of Nicaea and its meaning for the today’s world", message by Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay Programme of the webinar “From Nicaea, Walking Together to Unity: The Beginning of a New Beginning” More information on Nicaea 2025 See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland