| The year 2025 will mark the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325, which inspired the modern ecumenical movement to work on issues on Faith and Order for the unity of the church and humankind. Additionally, 2025 will also mark the 100th anniversary of the first Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work, held in Stockholm in 1925. |
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 | | Students gather for the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) in Karlsruhe, 2022. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC |
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The year 2025 will mark the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325, which inspired the modern ecumenical movement to work on issues on Faith and Order for the unity of the church and humankind. Additionally, 2025 will also mark the 100th anniversary of the first Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work, held in Stockholm in 1925. This conference, which emerged in the aftermath of the First World War, established the ecumenical agenda for justice, peace, reconciliation, and diakonia. Its legacy resonates today as we reflect on its contribution to global ecumenical social thought and action. |
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 | | Stockholm, Conference on Life and Work, 1925. Photo: WCC |
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There are other anniversaries and commemorations as well, sparking planning for many events in 2025, from conferences to special prayers, from a Global Ecumenical Theological Institute to special publications and exhibitions. A Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order will be held from 24 -28 October 2025 at the Logos Papal Center at Wadi El Natrun, near Alexandria, in Egypt at the invitation of the Coptic Orthodox Church, around the theme “Where now for visible unity?” |
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 | | The Logos Papal Center at Wadi El Natrun, near Alexandria, in Egypt. Photo: Bishop Anba Suriel/WCC |
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The conference, said Dr Andrej Jeftić, director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order Commission, said, will “invite us to rethink how we live our apostolic faith together today and to seek ways for visible unity among the churches.” A WCC team has already visited Egypt at the invitation of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and the WCC and the Middle East Council of Churches have been meeting online to plan the conference, which will be one of many activities during the year 2025, a year the WCC is commemorating as an Ecumenical Year on the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity. Praying togetherThe year 2025 will begin on a foundation of praying together: The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2025 has been inspired by the text of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. It’s an invitation to draw on this shared heritage and to enter more deeply into the faith that unites all Christians. As they prepared the materials, the brothers and sisters of the monastic community of Bose in northern Italy stated: “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…” The Sixth World Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, which will draw a few hundred participants, will be a culminating event of Nicaea commemorations within the 2025 ecumenical year with its focus on what it means to confess the apostolic faith today. Commemorating Stockholm 1925 and Life and Work In August 2025, the WCC leadership will gather in Stockholm in August 2025 with partners in Sweden and representatives of churches worldwide to commemorate the Stockholm conference of 1925 as a “Time for God’s Peace,” exploring the meaning of ecumenical peace-building today. |
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 | | The King and Queen of Sweden welcome the delegates to the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work, Stockholm, Sweden, 1925. Photo: WCC |
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The commemoration will include a service at Stockholm Cathedral on 23 August as well as other events including a School of Theology for younger theologians. Rev. Dr Sofia Camnerin, general secretary of the Christian Council of Sweden, expressed excitement and anticipation about celebrating the Ecumenical Year in Stockholm in 2025 with the theme “Time for God´s peace.” “We are planning for a joint Pentecostal celebration in 2025, locally, in hopefully all places,” said Camnerin. “We inspire each other to take a step forward for unity and peace in local communities.” WCC member churches and the public will be invited throughout 2025 to attend webinars that introduce themes associated with the Ecumenical Year on the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity. A year of opportunities for young theologiansThe Ecumenical Institute at Bossey in collaboration with Faith and Order will host an international hybrid conference themed “Nicaea and its meaning for today” from 4-8 November 2024. Nearly 100 abstracts were received, and the planning committee selected 60, amongst them six keynote presentations. The 2024-2025 cohort of Bossey students will take part. The participation of 70 people in person is expected with between 50 and 100 joining online each day. A Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) held alongside the Sixth World Conference will offer space for a new generation of younger and emerging ecumenical theologians to accompany and enrich the conference with their participation. The application process is already open. |
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 | | Students gathered for the latest Global Ecumenical Theological Institute, held in connection with the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, 2022. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC |
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For Rev. Dr Kuzipa Nalwamba, WCC programme director for Unity, Mission, and Ecumenical Formation, “GETI 2025 is strategic for contributing to nurturing an ethos of continual learning in theologically accountable, and contextually relevant ways.” Nalwamba added: “Young and emerging ecumenical theologians are central to keeping the ecumenical vision alive as the ecumenical family continues on the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity.” Regional Ecumenical Theological Institutes are planned in 2025 and 2026, in the Nordic region, Pacific, and North America against the backdrop of ecumenical year themes. Common EasterThe year 2025 will mark a common celebration of Easter and Pentecost by Eastern and Western Christianity, reinforcing the aspiration of the Council of Nicaea to find a common date to celebrate the risen Lord. |
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 | | Christians pictured during Easter celebrations in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC |
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His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has noted that Easter celebration in 2025 “will not merely be a fortuitous occurrence, but rather the beginning of a unified date for its observance by both Eastern and Western Christianity.” The Ecumenical Patriarch said that this aspiration is particularly significant in light of the upcoming 1700th anniversary in 2025, marking the convening of the First Ecumenical Synod in Nicaea. “Among its pivotal discussions was the matter of establishing a common timeframe for the Easter festivities,” said the Ecumenical Patriarch in a homily. “We are optimistic, as there is goodwill and willingness on both sides. Because, indeed, it is a scandal to celebrate separately the unique event of the one Resurrection of the One Lord!” Marking a Berlin Conference anniversaryThe WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism will host two events in Berlin in 2024 and 2025 to highlight work on decolonizing mission and framing mission as reparative justice. In May 2025, the WCC and partners in Germany will mark the 140th anniversary of the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, where European imperial powers, often supported by missionary endeavours, partitioned the continent of Africa. South Africa Kairos ConferenceA conference has been planned by the WCC Public Witness and Diakonia programme in collaboration with the Fellowship of Council of Churches in Southern Africa in the context of the WCC central committee meeting in South Africa in June 2025, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the South African Kairos Document, which denounced apartheid from the standpoint of a prophetic theology will be commemorated. The conference will bring together theologians, civil society, and diaconal actors from southern Africa to reflect on the role of the church is society today, inspired by the Kairos document. Special publications, exhibitions |
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 | | Sample of WCC publications produced in preparation for the year of 2025. Photo: WCC |
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October 2024. A special issue of The Ecumenical Review will focus on the significance of 100 years of Ecumenical Social Thought and Action. November 2024. The International Review of Mission will have the theme “Mission in the context of Empire,” and contributions will address decolonial mission perspectives on Nicaea and the treaty of Berlin. April 2025. A thematic issue of The Ecumenical Review centered around the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order will be published. May 2025. The International Review of Mission will carry womanist perspectives on Nicaea and the theme of “Living the Apostolic Faith today.” In 2025, the global community will mark the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which outlined 12 critical areas of concern, including poverty, health, violence against women, power and decision making, to realize all human rights and fundamental freedoms for women. Plans for an exhibition with the working title “Women Inspiring Justice: Ecumenical Responses to the 12 Critical Areas of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action” are underway, sparking creative ideas and input into how we lift up women within the WCC who have been trailblazers in many ways. |
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 | | Dr Agnes Abuom, former WCC Central Committee moderator, who passed away in May 2023 is an example of "women inspiring justice". Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC |
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