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The first American pope is making his first overseas trip this week to Turkey and Lebanon. He will mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in a town not far from present-day Istanbul. Durrie Bouscaren went out to the ruins of the church where early Christian leaders shaped the foundations of their faith.
DURRIE BOUSCAREN: If you're a churchgoer, you might be familiar with this prayer...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: We believe in one God.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: The Father.
BOUSCAREN: ...The Nicene Creed.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Korean).
BOUSCAREN: A version is spoken by the majority of the world's 2.3 billion Christians. It's essentially an outline of early Christian beliefs, first adopted by the Church in the year 325. It's something that Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches still share - sometimes chanted, sometimes spoken or even sung.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Singing in Igbo).
BOUSCAREN: But this universal prayer was first hammered out 1,700 years ago by a council of bishops who gathered in a city then known as Nicaea. Today, that town is in western Turkey, and it's called Iznik.
(SOUNDBITE OF DUCKS QUACKING)
BOUSCAREN: It's the kind of place where olive groves and modern homes intermingle with Roman and Ottoman ruins. For a long time, no one could find the church where the first ecumenical council was held, but 11 years ago, public workers taking aerial photographs of the area shared them with Turkish archaeologist Mustafa Sahin.
MUSTAFA SAHIN: (Speaking Turkish).
BOUSCAREN: Under the waters of Lake Iznik, just off the shore, Sahin quickly recognized the foundations of an ancient church.
SAHIN: (Speaking Turkish).
BOUSCAREN: "It was under about eight feet of water," he tells me. But locals knew about the ruin. Sometimes, when the water was low, swimmers would rest on the rocks.
SAHIN: (Speaking Turkish).
BOUSCAREN: Today, the shoreline has receded, and the entire outline of a church foundation is on dry land. As we walk through, Sahin points out the semicircle of the apse, dozens of graves lining the sides and what he believes is a large baptismal pool. Sahin strongly believes that this was the church where the first Council of Nicaea was held. He thinks an earthquake in the 11th century may have changed the shoreline enough to submerge the structure.
SAHIN: (Speaking Turkish).
BOUSCAREN: As evidence, he points out that the location and orientation of the church, on the shore of the lake outside the city walls, matches the background of a 16th century painting of the council in the Sistine Chapel.
RAUL ZEGARRA: So this is kind of a foundational moment that creates this kind of basis for Christianity.
BOUSCAREN: Raul Zegarra is an expert in Catholic theological studies at the Harvard Divinity School. He says this is the moment when early Christian bishops got together and agreed on a set of beliefs that they would all share.
ZEGARRA: It's this basic idea that Jesus Christ was not just a man or somebody created by, you know, the divine, but he was divine himself.
BOUSCAREN: On Friday, Pope Leo is scheduled to visit the ruin of the church and pray alongside leaders of the Orthodox faith. Zegarra says it's a sign he plans to prioritize unity and outreach with other denominations during his papacy.
ZEGARRA: And I think it's an invitation also to think about the theological and moral convictions to bring different Christian denominations and traditions together despite differences that of course still exist.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS SINGING)
BOUSCAREN: Turkey's tourism ministry has erected a raised walkway next to the ruins in anticipation of the trip, and Turkish tourists like Onder Gonultas are already stopping by.
ONDER GONULTAS: (Speaking Turkish).
BOUSCAREN: "This was a holy place for Christians, and we're looking out for their relics," he said. His friend, Ayla Derya, agreed.
AYLA DERYA: (Speaking Turkish).
BOUSCAREN: "Our country is a cradle for many civilizations, and it's such a beautiful thing," she says. "This needs to be protected, and we invite everyone to see it."
Early Christianity is steeped in references to places that are now in modern-day Turkey - ancient Antioch, where the term Christian was first used; even Myra, the home of a saint that inspired the Santa Claus of popular culture. But today, fewer than 400,000 Christians are believed to live in Turkey.
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR MEMBERS: (Singing in non-English language).
BOUSCAREN: At the St. Esprit Cathedral in Istanbul, a West African choir sings for the Sunday service.
MASSIMILIANO PALINURO: The Catholic community living in Turkey probably is not more than 60,000 people.
BOUSCAREN: Bishop Massimiliano Palinuro says his congregation is mostly foreign workers, refugees and the descendants of Europeans who settled in the Ottoman Empire.
PALINURO: Here in Turkey, Christians are really a very few and fragile minority. Because of this, since we live in a Muslim country, we feel more than in other places the necessity to live together, to support each other, to pray together.
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR MEMBERS: (Singing in non-English language).
BOUSCAREN: When he holds Mass, he says he can look out and see faces from 20 countries. And this, he says, is what it means to be Catholic.
PALINURO: The church is Catholic because it's universal. And so nobody may feel stranger and foreign when you are in the church because we are Catholic.
BOUSCAREN: And this experience of unity is something he hopes Pope Leo will be able to foster when he visits.
For NPR News, I'm Durrie Bouscaren, Istanbul. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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