Reflection text
This week’s service was prepared by brothers and sisters from Germany.
Extract from a letter from the Ecumenical Council of Berlin – May 2025
In 2025, Christians around the world will commemorate the first Ecumenical Council, held 1,700 years ago. In 325, decisive events took place in Nicaea (now Turkey), where bishops from all over the the Christianised world (i.e. the oikoumene, the whole inhabited earth) met together at the invitation the invitation of the emperor Constantine to discuss and decide together the foundations of the young Christian faith.
To this day, the decisions made at this Council are still the anchor points of Christian theology – and which transcend all denominational boundaries.
The Council Fathers discussed issues such as a common date for Easter and the divinity of Christ. This may sound complicated, but it lays the foundations for today’s understanding of the Trinity. The fact that today we honour God in three persons has much to do with the decisions taken at the Council of Rome.
Lastly, the Council of Nicea in 325 laid the foundation stone for what is known today as the Nicene Creed, which was given its present-day form at the Council of Constantinople in 381. It is a confession of faith that we can pray and confess together despite our differences of denominational affiliation.
Intercessions
The Nicene Creed shows us that Christians are more united than divided. Christ gathers us as members of his body in faith.
Lord, we ask you to give strength and trust to Christians, especially in the Middle East, who are marginalised and persecuted because of their faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
On May 29, 2025, the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) will welcome guests from all over the world to commemorate the birth of the Anabaptist movement 500 years ago in Zurich, under the slogan ‘The courage to love’. As an act of peace and a witness to their recent reconciliations, MWC is inviting leading representatives of churches from all over the world (such as Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed churches); churches that were once strongly opposed to the Anabaptist movement, in order to now commemorate this movement together.
Lord, we thank you for the peace which comes from you and which enables our churches to reach out to one another. We entrust to you the preparations for MWC and pray that the reconciliation you have initiated will continue to grow.
On Friday 16 May, our brother Andreas Oehler, a member of the Chemin Neuf Communion in Germany, was appointed preacher in the Protestant Church. Oliver Matri, a committed member of the Community, was ordained as a pastor in the Lutheran Church in Berlin on Saturday 17 May.
Lord, we thank you for our brothers and their ministry. May the Holy Spirit make them bridge-builders between the different denominations in Germany.