This year marks the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of 325, and the Nicene Creed, a “foundation marker” in Christian history.
The Episcopal Dioceses of Newark and New Jersey, working with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, the Lutheran, Presbyterian and Reformed churches, as well as the Ukrainian Orthodox and others from the Eastern Church, celebrated this historic moment, on May 3, in a service at the Co-Cathedral of St. Robert Bellarmine in Freehold.
A force behind the effort for this celebration was Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark. Tobin was not in Freehold but Rome for the convocation to elect a new pope. In his place, the Most Rev. David M. O’Connell, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton, presided. The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox, Rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Bloomfield and Glen Ridge, was part of the planning team and represented the Episcopal Diocese of Newark…