1700 Years of Nicene Faith
Celebrating the 1700th Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea through Prayer and Art
Celebrate Nicene Faith
Thursday, November 6
Princeton Seminary Campus
Location & Directions
Princeton Theological Seminary joins the international chorus commemorating 1700 years of the Council of Nicaea with a day-long event on Thursday, November 6, 2025. Since the Creed of Nicaea’s formulation in 325, it has become not only the succinct expression of Christian theology but also an important part of the verbal prayer-life of the church, as well as non-verbal, artistic expressions of Christian faith.
Join us for a day of reflection on Nicaea in prayer and art with the world-renowned liturgical historian, Bryan D. Spinks, and the internationally acclaimed curator of art, Helen C. Evans. We will enjoy lectures and discussions about Nicene prayer and art with our esteemed speakers. Throughout the day, we will come together for prayer, contemplation of sacred art, and fellowship over lunch and snacks.
Keynote Speakers
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Bryan Spinks
Bryan D. Spinks is Bishop F. Percy Goddard Professor Emeritus of Liturgical Studies and Pastoral Theology at Yale Divinity School. His area of study is liturgical history, ancient, medieval, Reformed, and contemporary. His many publications include the edited volume, The Place of Christ in Liturgical Prayer: Trinity, Christology and Liturgical Theology (Liturgical Press, 2008) and a textbook on the history of the Eucharist, Do This in Remembrance of Me: The Eucharist from the Early Church to the Present Day (SCM Press, 2013). He is a former president of the Society for Oriental Liturgy and former co-editor of the Scottish Journal of Theology. A priest in the Church of England, he is priest-in-charge of St. Andrew’s Northford, in the Episcopal Church in Connecticut.
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Helen C. Evans
Helen C. Evans
Helen C. Evans is Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator Emerita of Byzantine Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is an expert on both the history of art and the curation of art, particularly the sacred art of eastern Christianity. She curated the major, internationally-acclaimed exhibitions, The Glory of Byzantium (1997), Byzantium: Faith and Power (2004), Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (2012), and Armenia! (2018). She is a former president of both the International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA) and the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC). She is a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. In July 2025, she was awarded an Hon. Doc. Litt. honoris causa by the Courtauld Institute of Art, the University of London.
Discussion Speakers
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Kathleen McVey
Kathleen McVey
Kathleen E McVey (B.A. cum laude in Russian History and Literature at Harvard College, Ph.D. in the Study of Religion at Harvard University) is J. Ross Stevenson Professor of Church History, Emerita, at Princeton Theological Seminary. Her principal interest is in the engagement of emergent Christianity with its varied cultural contexts, especially, but not exclusively, the intersection of Syriac Christianity with the broader intellectual, spiritual, and material cultures of Late Antiquity.
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Vasily (Vitaly) Permiakov
Vasily (Vitaly) Permiakov
The Rt Rev. Dr Vasily (Vitaly) Permiakov is Assistant Professor of Liturgical Theology at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. He completed his doctorate in Theology (Liturgical Studies) at the University of Notre Dame in 2012, and in 2011-2025 served as full time faculty at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary (Jordanville, NY) and St Vladimir’s Seminary (Yonkers, NY). In August 2025 he was consecrated and enthroned as Bishop of San Francisco and the West for the Orthodox Church in America. His scholarly interests include Byzantine liturgy and liturgical theology, liturgy of Jerusalem during the Byzantine period, Eastern Christian rites of initiation, and Orthodox sacramental theology. He is a member of the Society for Oriental Liturgies and the International Orthodox Theological Association. In 2020-2025 he served on the editorial board of St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly.
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Sarah Stewart-Kroeker
Sarah Stewart-Kroeker
Sarah Stewart-Kroeker is the Associate Professor of Early Christian Theology. She received degrees from McMaster University, Yale University, and Princeton Theological Seminary. Stewart-Kroeker’s work has been largely focused on Augustine and Augustinianism (both historical and contemporary), virtue ethics, and aesthetics. Her work has been published in the Journal of Religion, Augustinian Studies, Journal of Religious Ethics, and others. Her previous experience includes serving as the Jacques de Senarclens Associate Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Geneva, where she taught classes on emotions and affectivity, forced migrations, ecumenical methodologies, and feminist ethics and theology. She is the author of Pilgrimage as Moral and Aesthetic Formation in Augustine’s Thought and La Terre Martyre.
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Charles Barber
Charles Barber
Charles Barber has written extensively on the history and theory of the icon in Byzantium. His most recent book is Eccentric Renaissance: El Greco, Michaēl Damaskēnos, Geōrgios Klontzas (Cambridge, 2024). His current research includes a study of Late Paleiologan discussions of art.
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Celia Chazelle
Celia Chazelle
Celia Chazelle is Professor Emerita of History at The College of New Jersey and a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. She is the author of The Crucified God in the Carolingian Era: Theology and Art of Christ’s Passion (Cambridge, 2001), The Codex Amiatinus and its “Sister Bibles: Scripture, Liturgy, and Art in the Milieu of the Venerable Bede (Leiden, 2019), and numerous articles and essays. She has also co-edited four volumes of essays, among them Why the Middle Ages Matter: Medieval Light on Modern Injustice (New York, 2011). She is currently researching and writing a monograph on the history of English thinking about their own whiteness from the early medieval to the early modern era.
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Margarita Mooney-Clayton
Margarita Mooney-Clayton
Margarita Mooney-Clayton is associate professor of congregational studies in the Department of Practical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. She earned her MA and PhD in sociology from Princeton University, and her BA in psychology at Yale University. She has also been on the faculty of Yale University, Princeton University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Pepperdine University. At Princeton Theological Seminary, she teaches classes on philosophy of social science, Christianity and the liberals arts tradition, aesthetics, research methods for congregational leaders, intentional communities, and sociology of religion. Her research has received approximately $3 million in funding from the John Templeton Foundation.
Schedule
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Thursday, November 6, 2025
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9:00 AM – 9:15 AM
Welcoming Remarks (Theron Room of Wright Library)
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9:15 AM – 10:15 AM
Keynote Lecture on Prayer by Bryan Spinks: “The Nicene Creed in Worship: How It Got There and Why It Should Stay”
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10:15 AM – 10:30 AM
Coffee Break
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10:30 AM – 11:15 AM
Discussion (Discussants: Kathleen McVey and Vasily Permiakov; Chair: Sarah Stewart-Kroeker)
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11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Chapel Service (Princeton Theological Seminary Chapel)
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12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Lunch (MacKay Dining Hall)
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1:45 PM – 2:45 PM
Keynote Lecture on Prayer by Helen Evans: “Finding the First Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed in Art” (Theron Room of Wright Library)
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2:45 PM – 3:00 PM
Coffee Break
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3:00 PM – 3:45 PM
Discussion (Discussants: Charlie Barber and Celia Chazelle; Chair: Margarita Mooney-Clayton)
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4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Excursion to the Princeton University Art Museum
Registration is Required
Registration Fee: $50
This event is free of charge for students, faculty, and staff of Princeton Theological Seminary and Princeton University.
Last day to register is October 26
Register Here