Following is the full text of the joint statement issued Nov. 25, 2025, by Archbishop Richard G. Henning and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Methodios on the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed.



On November 29, 2025, Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will meet at Nicaea, where the Nicene Creed was formulated 1700 years ago. For seventeen centuries, this Creed has been the basis of our worship and our witness, as well as what binds us together as Christians. Here in Boston, our Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches welcome this historic event with joy, joining the voices of many other Christians locally and abroad in affirming that "We believe in one God, Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth ... And in one Lord Jesus Christ ... Light from Light, true God from true God."

Here in Boston this event has a special significance. The fraternal encounter of Pope and Patriarch is not an unknown paradigm for us, but something we have implemented and experienced in our Churches for decades. It was 1959 when the first representative of an Ecumenical Patriarch formally met a representative of the Pope. But here in Boston, twelve years earlier, in April of 1947, we recall the celebrated image of Archbishop (later Ecumenical Patriarch) Athenagoras and Richard Cardinal Cushing embracing as brothers.

In 1969, Cardinal Cushing first accepted an invitation to preach from the pulpit of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Boston. By the 1980s, our two "Sister Churches" began exchanging visits on the occasion of one another's Patron Feasts as well as for the significant celebrations of the Orthodox Easter Vigil and the Catholic Chrism Mass. These traditions have continued uninterrupted, perhaps longer than anywhere else in the world. And beyond these public events, there have been countless collaborations and consultations on matters of the common good, along with relationships and friendships grounded in the common faith of Nicaea. Finally, in 1996 and 2007, our two Churches undertook joint pilgrimages to Rome and Constantinople, forging deeper bonds in our shared apostles and saints.

The "dialogue of love" and "dialogue of truth" between our two Churches in Boston have followed the example bequeathed by the venerable Popes and Ecumenical Patriarchs. And they have borne rich fruit. We have come to know, love, and collaborate with each other as brothers in Christ. We have sought to obey and implement the Lord's will "that His disciples may be one" (Jn 17.21). Moreover, we have advanced this example and collaboration on the national level, particularly through the North American Orthodox-Roman Catholic Theological Consultation, which we have convened and hosted many times in New England, even publishing a bridge-building theological agreement on the Filioque clause in the Nicene Creed. Finally, the national Orthodox-Catholic bishops' dialogue has been welcomed and directed on multiple occasions by the Greek Orthodox Metropolis and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. In all of this we have discerned the abundant mercy of God, discovered the rich faith of the Nicene Creed, and developed an increased desire to grow in the unity of faith.