The Canons of Nicaea: Their Relevance for Anglicans Today
As we repeat the Nicene Creed week by week and come to appreciate its teaching, it is easy to miss the historic revolution that led to its creation at the First Council of Nicea.
The early Church from Pentecost onward was a missionary movement taking the Gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). The evangelistic missions of the apostles—Peter, Paul, John, and others—led to churches founded in various corners of the Roman Empire. As the Church compiled the apostles’ writings and established their successors as bishops, controversies arose over the message of the Gospel. By the beginning of the fourth century AD, these controversies focused on the unity and distinction of the Persons of the Triune God, pitting the “orthodox” like Athanasius against the heretics like Arius and Sabellius (see earlier articles in the “We Believe” series).
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Nicaea: The First Ecumenical Council
The marvelous network of Roman roads allowed the church fathers to communicate by letter, but only with the seemingly miraculous conversion of Emperor Constantine in 312 AD was it possible to convene a council of bishops from around the world (Greek oikoumene). Hence, we have come to call Nicaea the First Ecumenical Council. The confession of the “consubstantial unity of the Father and the Son” was completed in 381 at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople, which declared the equal Personhood of the Holy Spirit. Our Nicene Creed is the finished product of these two councils.
Creed and Canons
The Ecumenical Councils produced not only confessions but also canons (“rules”). The catholicity of the Church derives not only from right doctrine but from right order (discipline) and worship (liturgy). For this reason, Anglicans have consistently recognized “doctrine, discipline, and worship” as essential elements of a flourishing church.
The Canons of Nicaea (for complete text and commentary, see here) give a revealing insight into the life of the early church. First, they address matters of moral rectitude. Canon 1 prohibits a man who has castrated himself from the priesthood (properly interpreting Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19:12). Canons 2-3 uphold Paul’s rule that clergy should be seasoned elders “above reproach,” prohibiting new converts from being ordained and forbidding clergy from keeping a female non-relative in the home. While setting a high bar for clergy discipline, the canons offer mercy and a rigorous regimen of restoration for Christians who had “lapsed” doctrinally or morally (Canons 8-14,19).
Unity and Order
Secondly, the canons seek to bring unity and order to the worldwide church. Canons 6-7 lay out the priority of the “metropolitan” jurisdictions of Egypt (Alexandria), Syria (Antioch), and Rome, with an honorary place for Jerusalem. These “patriarchates” continue to exist among Orthodox people to this day. Canons 15-16 establish the integrity of geographical boundaries and prohibit clergy from church-hopping from one jurisdiction to another. Canon 20, while acknowledging the variety of worship practices, prescribes that in all places “prayer to God be made standing.” This may seem a minor or secondary matter, but divisions over liturgy and ceremony have plagued the church then and now.
Warfare and Economics
Finally, the canons address several ad hoc matters. Canon 12 concerns Christians in the military. Many in the early Church refused to serve in the army, partly in obedience to Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, but also because Roman laws required soldiers to offer sacrifices to the Emperor. This situation changed after Constantine’s conversion, and it appears the soldiers referred to in this canon were those who had served with Licinius, Constantine’s pagan opponent.
Canon 17 prohibits clergy from lending money at interest out of “lust of gain.” This rule against usury was later extended to the laity as well and upheld throughout much of Christian history. We find the association of usury with the oppression of the poor throughout the Bible, as well as in Judaism and Islam. It should remind today’s Christians that capitalism, whatever its benefits, is not a natural right and unmitigated good.
How Are Creed and Canons Relevant for Anglicans Today?
Over the past half-century, Anglicanism worldwide has experienced a widening division (schism) over matters of doctrine and discipline. As the early Church faced the challenge to clarify the nature of the Triune God, the contemporary Church has dealt with the nature of man in God’s image, the nature of male and female, and the purpose of human sexuality and marriage. This division is every bit as serious as that which faced the early church, and it has led to the realignment of churches domestically and internationally within the historic Anglican Communion.
The tragic irony of this division is that the “mother church” of the Communion has increasingly aligned itself with the heretical churches of North America. This has led former missionary churches of the Global South to come together in two overlapping movements and councils: the GAFCON movement and the “Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches” (GSFA).
A New Ecumenical Anglican Communion
As I see it, each of these groups brings something necessary to the table. The first Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in 2008 produced a doctrinal statement, the “Jerusalem Declaration,” which has been widely recognized and is included in the “Documentary Foundations” of the ACNA Prayer Book. The Global South Fellowship has produced the Cairo Covenant, which offers an overarching disciplinary framework of Anglican orthodoxy and provides order and accountability among its member churches. It is my conviction and hope that these two parallel entities can come together in an ecumenical council of a reformed, renewed, and reordered expression of the Anglican way.
It is unlikely that Anglican worshipers will begin reciting our church’s Constitution and Canons on Sunday. Nevertheless, in the household of God, doctrine without discipline and order is like a foundation without walls and a roof.
Image: Icon from the Mégalo Metéoron Monastery in Greece, representing the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea 325 A.D., photographed by Jjensen, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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