Celebrations commemorating the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council will occur on November 28 in Nicaea. Pope Leo XIV, along with the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, has been invited to participate in the festivities.
As reported by Orthodoxtimes, on October 22, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew presided over the Vespers service at St. George's Church in Neochori, Bosporus, on the occasion of the Thronal Feast of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, commemorating Saint James the Apostle, the Brother of the Lord and first Bishop of Jerusalem.
During the service, the Ecumenical Patriarch addressed Archbishop Nektarios of Anthidona, Representative of the Holy Sepulchre in Constantinople. He reflected on the long-standing bonds between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Jerusalem Patriarchate.
"The prayerful communion of our two Churches today adds yet another link to the long chain of our fraternal relations — both in times of glory and honor and in more difficult days. The attention and respect shown by the First-Throned Church of Orthodoxy toward the Holy Sepulchre Brotherhood, successor of the ‘Order of the Venerable Monks’ and vigilant guardian of the holy sites of our immaculate faith, have remained unwavering through the centuries."
While visiting the courtyard of the Metochion of the Holy Sepulchre, the Ecumenical Patriarch reiterated his fraternal invitation to the Patriarch of Jerusalem to join the celebrations in Nicaea, Bithynia, marking the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council.
On this occasion, Patriarch Bartholomew stated:
"We would take this opportunity to repeat our fraternal invitation, which we have already sent in writing to His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to celebrate together on the 28th of November in Nicaea the 1700th anniversary of the convocation of the First Ecumenical Council, along with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV of Rome and our most blessed and beloved brother Patriarchs Theodore of Alexandria and John of Antioch. We shall also honor on November 30, at the Phanar.
This historic event, a tangible manifestation of the unity of Eastern and Western Christianity — of the four Patriarchs of the East and the Patriarch of the West, the Pentarchy of the Patriarchates — cannot be imagined without the presence of the successor of Saint James, the Brother of the Lord. We pray and hope for the positive response of our beloved brother, His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos, in fulfillment of his sacred responsibility ‘for the unity of all.’”