Pope Leo XIV called for unity among Christians on Friday at an ecumenical prayer service on the shores of Lake Iznik to celebrate 1,700 years since one of the early Church's most important gatherings.

On the second day of his visit to Turkey, Leo flew to Iznik, the ancient city of Nicaea, where he joined Patriarch Bartholomew I, leader of the world's Orthodox Christians and other dignitaries at the site where the ancient gathering took place.

Richly dressed in ceremonial robes, they gathered on a wooden platform overlooking the ruins of a 4th-century basilica marking the spot where hundreds of bishops met in 325 to draw up the Nicene Creed, a text still central to Christianity today.

In the warm sunshine, they prayed together in multiple languages as a choir sang a cappella hymns in Eng

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