Remembering the Cappadocian Fathers

PASTOR’S CORNER, Rev. Jason Toombs, Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Liberal
Friday, the Church remembers the Cappadocian Fathers. “Who,” you might be asking. The Cappadocian Fathers are St. Basil the Great of Caesarea, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and St. Gregory of Nyssa. These fathers of the faith, whose cities are difficult to pronounce for us, were churchly men who proclaimed the faith when the Church faced persecution within and without.
Emperor Constantine, who declared Christianity an allowed religion within the Roman Empire, called an assembly that met in Nicaea, or Nicea if you prefer, to discuss matters of the faith. This council met in 325 AD and issued the Nicene Creed as a way of proclaiming the true faith amid controversy. There was a presbyter, Arius, who proclaimed that Jesus was not coeternal with the Father.