Ecumenical pilgrimage to mark Nicaea anniversary

Senior West Midlands church leaders were among the participants in the three-day pilgrimage that took place from Monday 28 to Wednesday 30 July 2025. The 28-mile walk was organised to mark the 1700^th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which brought together around 300 bishops over a ten-week period in the summer of 325AD. The Ecumenical Council bequeathed to the Church 20 Canons and a statement of faith centred on the nature of Jesus Christ. This ‘original’ Nicene Creed was developed into the Nicene Creed still used today at the Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople (Istanbul) in 381AD.

A total of 30 pilgrims visited four West Midlands Cathedrals and 18 other places of Christian worship over the three days of the pilgrimage. The Cathedrals and churches visited included those belonging to Anglican, Baptist, Elim Pentecostal, Jabula New Life Ministries, Methodist, Quaker, Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Salvation Army traditions. Visits were also made to Urban Devotion Birmingham, Betel UK’s new national Anchor Point centre in Aston and the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education.

The pilgrimage began at the shrine of the 7th-century Midlands pioneer bishop St Chad in Lichfield Cathedral and ended at the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Holy Prince Lazar in Bournville. The south-southwesterly route followed the path of the Roman Ryknild Street and passed the ruins of Letocetum, to the southwest of Lichfield, a bustling Roman town in the years prior to the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. The terrain varied from urban pavements, country lanes, footpaths through fields, public parks, greenways and canal towpaths.

Along the way, thanksgiving was offered, prayers made, hospitality received, the 325 AD Nicene Creed read and friendships built. The event provided a brilliant insight into the rich diversity of Christian worship and outreach in the West Midlands in the 21^st Century, encompassing people and places belonging to Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant communities. The ecumenical embrace has never been broader than it is today.

Christian sites visited by the pilgrims

• Lichfield (Anglican) Cathedral
• St John the Baptist (Anglican) Church, Wall
• (Wall Roman Site)
• St Peter’s (Anglican) Church, Little Aston
• Streetly Methodist Church
• (Rowton’s Well, Sutton Park)
• St Columba’s (Anglican) Church, Banners Gate
• Urban Devotion Birmingham
• St Margaret Mary (Roman Catholic) Church, Perry Common
• Connected Life (Baptist) Church, Erdington
• All Saints (Anglican) Church, Gravelly Hill
• The (Greek Orthodox) Church of the Holy Trinity and St Luke, Erdington
• New Jerusalem (Apostolic) Church, Aston
• Betel/Anchor Point Church, Aston
• The Birmingham (Salvation Army) Citadel
• St Chad’s (Roman Catholic) Cathedral, Birmingham
• Birmingham St Philip’s (Anglican) Cathedral
• Birmingham City (Elim Pentecostal) Church
• The (Greek Orthodox) Cathedral of the Dormition of the Theotokos and St Andrew, Birmingham
• Ladywood Methodist Church
• Oratory of St Philip Neri, Birmingham
• Queen’s Ecumenical Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham
• Selly Oak (Quaker) Meeting House,
• (Serbian Orthodox) Church of the Holy Prince Lazar, Bournville

List of participating senior church leaders

• Major Adrian Allman (Commander, Salvation Army West Midlands Division)
• Rev Adrian Argile (Regional Minister Team Leader, Heart of England Baptist Association)
• Rev Steve Faber (Moderator, United Reformed Church West Midlands Synod)
• Rev Novette Headley (Chair, Birmingham Methodist District)
• The Right Rev Anne Hollinghurst (Principal, Queen’s Foundation)
• The Right Rev Michael Ipgrave (Anglican Bishop of Lichfield)
• Rev Helen Kirk (Chair, Chester and Stoke-on-Trent Methodist District)
• The Very Rev Jan MacFarlane (Dean of Lichfield)
• The Very Rev Brian McGinley (Dean of St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham)
• The Right Rev Tim Menezes (Auxiliary Bishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham)
• The Right Rev Matthew Parker (Anglican Bishop of Stafford)
• Fr Nenad Popovic (Priest, Church of the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Holy Prince Lazar)
• Rachel Parkinson (Retiring Chair, Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury Methodist District)
• The Venerable Megan Smith (Anglican Archdeacon of Stoke-upon-Trent)
• The Very Rev Matt Thompson (Dean of Birmingham)
• The Right Rev Michael Volland (Anglican Bishop of Birmingham)

Learn more about Birmingham Churches Together, Black Country Churches Engaged, and Churches Linked across Staffordshire and the Potteries.