What happened at the Council of Nicea?
During Mass every Sunday, you might recognize a familiar moment in which everyone present professes in unison “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth…” This proclamation in its entirety is the Nicene Creed, which was the result of deliberation of (surprise!) the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The need to promulgate a formal statement of beliefs arose in part from the need to defend the Church against Arianism, which was a heretical (read: blatantly wrong!) denial of the Holy Trinity as being eternally existing.
