1,700 years ago, bishops and an emperor wrote a creed

Peter Smith, Associated Press

Friday, November 21, 2025

Centuries of church schisms show that if there’s a doctrine to be fought over, there’s a good chance Christians will fight about it. That repeated splintering is what makes the Council of Nicaea, a meeting of bishops 1,700 years ago in present-day Turkey, so significant today. And it’s why Pope Leo XIV is traveling on Nov. 28 to the site of this foundational moment in Christian unity as part of his first major foreign trip as pope. In 325, the council hashed out the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still recite each Sunday.