Public Lecture

Following the Sunday of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod in 325AD, Fr Anastasios Bozikis, Associate Lecturer in Church History presented a short lecture at the SOFIA Orthodox Fellowship at the University of NSW on the 18^th June 2024  entitled ‘Creed, Canons and a Calendar: The First Ecumenical Synod.' The talk discussed the emergence of the Arian Controversy in the early fourth century which denied the full divinity of Christ and the response by the Church Fathers, especially St Athanasios the Great, leading to the convocation of the Synod in Nicaea in 325 by the Emperor St Constantine the Great. This Council was responsible for formulating a significant portion of the Creed that is confessed to this day by the Orthodox Church . It also promulgated twenty canons or rules for the administration of the Church which form the basis of Church law. Finally, it established a formula to calculate the date of Pascha (Easter) every year.