As anniversary of Council of Nicaea approaches, De Margerie Lecturer asks "Are we ready for visible unity?"

The late Fr. Bernard de Margerie was remembered during the 2025 De Margerie Series for Christian Reconciliation and Unity — the 12th year of the series and the first to be held since his death in March 2024.

“We continue this series in his memory, and, with his encouragement, to continue to be agents of Christian reconciliation and unity,” said Nicholas Jesson, who helped establish the series in 2012 while serving as ecumenical officer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon, and who now serves in Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations for the Archdiocese of Regina.

“No doubt Fr. Bernard is listening tonight and joining us in prayer that all may be one in Christ so that the world may believe (John 17:21),” said Jesson in a poignant introduction at the start of the 2025 series Jan. 22 in Saskatoon.

De Margerie was a leader in ecumenism in Western Canada beginning as a young curate when Pope John XXIII’s 1959 announcement of Vatican II became for him “a personal charge,” noted Jesson, providing a history of the series and its namesake.

De Margerie studied ecumenical theology in Rome during the days of the Vatican Council and upon returning to Saskatoon he began to establish close relationships with leaders of other churches. “Together they built a vibrant ecumenical community in Saskatchewan.”

In 1984 De Margerie established a centre for ecumenism as an ecumenical office of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon, however from the start it had an inter-church board and mandate, said Jesson. By 1988, the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism had formally become an ecumenically-sponsored centre, eventually representing seven denominations. “It is one of only two centres in Canada and it is unique in its focus on local parish ecumenism and ecumenical formation.”

The 2025 De Margerie Series

The 2025 De Margerie Series opened in Saskatoon with the first of two lectures held Jan. 22 at St. Thomas More College on the University of Saskatchewan campus, and continued the next evening with the second lecture at Campion College at the University of Regina — with both lectures also available online. In-person workshops were also part of the series: Jan. 24 in Regina, and Jan. 25 in Saskatoon.

Sponsors of the 2025 series include the Leslie and Irene Dubé Chair in Catholic Studies at St. Thomas More College, Saskatoon Theological Union, the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon, Campion College at the University of Regina, and the Archdiocese of Regina.

The series “represents another way which we as Christian communities dialogue with one another, and explore the faith that we hold in common, albeit in distinct communities,” said Dr. Carl Still, STM College President during his welcome and land acknowledgement.

Here Comes Nicaea!

Focus for the 2025 De Margerie Series was the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in the year 325, and what that historic event means for Christians and for Christian unity today.

Guest speaker for all the events was Rev. Dr. Sandra Beardsall, an ordained United Church of Canada minister who served for many years as Professor of Church History and Ecumenics at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon, and who has extensive ecumenical experience, including formal dialogues and both academic and grassroots initiatives, with an enduring interest and expertise in ecumenical shared ministry.

As part of her involvement with the Commission of Faith and Order for the World Council of Churches she has been among those working on plans for the centrepiece of the Nicaea 2025 commemorations  and will help lead the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, to be held at the ancient St Bishoy Monastery near Alexandria, Egypt, in October 2025, around the theme “Where now for visible unity?”

In her De Margerie Series presentations, Beardsall brought Nicaea alive for listeners, by grounding reflections in the relevance for today of the faith handed down by the apostles and articulated at the Nicene Council in 325.

Lecture topics included “Are We Ready for Visible Unity” (Jan. 22) and “Are We Ready to Share the Apostolic Faith Together?” (Jan. 23) while the topic for the repeated workshop was “Bringing Nicaea Home: Are We Ready to Let it Shape Parish Life?”

Kiply Lukan Yaworski is the communications coordinator for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon

Photos by Paul Sinkewicz and Kiply Lukan Yaworski