MetropolitanNikolai will lead the conciliar hierarchal liturgy on the “Central“ square at 9 a.m. Metropolitans and bishops from local Orthodox churches and nearby dioceses of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and laypeople will participate in it. The culmination of the church celebrations will be at 9 p.m. in the courtyard of the “Assumption of the Virgin“ cathedral, where the orchestra and choir of the Plovdiv Opera will perform a concert, BNR reports.
In the evening, Church Slavonic, classical and operatic works will be performed. Chants by Dobri Hristov, Pavel Chesnokov, Petar Dinev and Sergei Rachmaninov will be performed, as well as excerpts from operas by Puccini, Rossini, Verdi, Bizet, Offenbach and Mascagni. The children from the Choir “Detska Kitka“ of the United Children's Complex – Plovdiv with conductor Yana Deliradeva will also be part of the event.
The First Ecumenical Council was convened because of the growing Arian heresy under Emperor Constantine the Great. 318 bishops gathered at it. The undeniable truth was affirmed - the dogma that the Son of God is true God, born of God the Father before all ages and just as eternal as God the Father; He was born, not created, and is of one essence with God the Father.
At this council the first part of the Creed was also composed, and it was decided that Easter - the Resurrection of Christ - would be celebrated by all Christians on the same Sunday.