Reflection on Creed and Council Day 3

To Emperor Constantine, Ossius, and my fellow council members:

The the third council day was a success. I was struck by both Constantine and Ossius’ excitement. They seemed to be very satisfied with council’s ability to approve the creed and move forward to the other issues in the coming days. I share in this excitement and would like to set forth some thoughts on the creed as a whole.

First off, I was working with Arius and other allies throughout the days centered on the creed and I am happy that despite loss of language we retained some very important phrases. The one being of course “Son only-begotten before all time”. This is in fact supportive of Arius and his position. He set this forth at the beginning and having it retained was critical for our argument.

Something I was also very happy with was the amount compromise that took place. On the first day I spoke about this in hope to echo Emperor Constantine. It was my foremost goal to attain unity and in my eyes, it was worth it to give up as much as we did to pass this creed.

I was unhappy with some aspects of the creed however. I do not think the language was reflective enough of the scriptures. It was important for me in coming here to assert the truth of the Holy Word of God. However, without direct focus on the word of “Father” in describing God was ignorant toward the scriptures. Also, in the first part I am not totally sure we had to include all of the words that we did in describing our Father in Heaven. I know Arius was in support of this language, but it somewhat detracts from the power of the main traits of the Father.

Overall, I am satisfied with the creed. It is vague, but has comprises that were critical to create. Thank you to all who have been so invested in deciding the future of our Holy church.

Praises to the Holy One,

Eusebius of Caesarea