Alanna Mitchell

As a Jewish kid growing up in Toronto, the award-winning theatre artist Tracey Erin Smith longed to be a rabbi. Or maybe an archeologist. Or a triple threat on the Broadway stage who can not only act, but also sing and dance. The rabbi dream faded when a friend in rabbinical school warned her that teachers told first-year students: you can come in with whatever ideas you want, but you leave with ours. Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Imagine being in the remote mountains of northern Ecuador in a cloud forest in the dark of night with a fungus expert, a fabled musician, an activist Colombian lawyer and a celebrated nature writer.

The First Council of Nicaea was a months-long council of Christian bishops in the city of Nicaea, in what is now Turkey, in 325 C.E. The seminal council, which Roman emperor Constantine I convened, brought together leaders from across Christendom to find agreement on basic doctrinal matters. The council upheld the divinity of Jesus Christ and adopted the original Nicene Creed, a profession of faith that is still used in churches around the world.