Council Day 2 Reflection (Eusebius of Nicomedia)

Greetings Emperor Constantine, Ossius, and my fellow Council members,

I think that today was the most successful day that the Council has had thus far and I could not be more proud of us. I must admit that I was a bit nervous after the first day because I wanted the Council to reach a compromise and to not upset Emperor Constantine. Since the beginning of the Council the Emperor emphasized that there should be peace restored back to the kingdom and that these arguments are unnecessary, especially over minute issues.

This is what I was afraid of during the second day of council, which is why I made the interjection about the two areas, in regards to Jesus, that we could all agree on which is that Jesus was God’s only begotten Son and that Jesus died to pay for our sins and we are saved through his resurrection. I think this allowed many of the council members to keep this in perspective as we started to move forward.

With the Creed that we were able to come to a close consensus about, I agree with everything in it, and I would sign upon it now. However, I do think that one more compromise that we should make, which I think the Alexandrians would agree with us if we did this. I think that we should remove “God made Jesus exist at God’s own will” from the Creed. If this were to be remove I think that both the Alexandrian faction and the Arian factions would be satisfied. Do not get me wrong, I understand that there have been many sacrifices made by both factions, but my goals is to create a Creed that we can all agree on AND that the empire can understand fully-those illiterate and literate.

Although at times it seems as though in the Council we are not getting anywhere or reaching a consensus, I think we should keep in mind that this Creed is bigger than ourselves and our positions. This Creed is something that the whole empire will look to for guidance when going through their journey of Christianity, but ultimately they should look to God, the Father and Jesus, the Son, for guidance overall. It is my hope that we continue to make progress and create unity with the next 4 days of Council left.

Your humble council member,

Eusebius of Nicomedia