wfn.org | INTERNATIONAL: CHURCHES DISCUSS DATE OF EASTER

[a.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

Title; CHURCHES DISCUSS DATE OF EASTER
April 11, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, U.K

[97.4.2.2]

INTERNATIONAL: CHURCHES DISCUSS DATE OF EASTER

(ENI) Churches around the world will be asked to cooperate in an
international effort to put an end, from the year 2001, to the
400-year-old split over the date of the most important celebration in
the Christian calendar, Easter.

At present, Easter is usually celebrated on two different dates. This
year, for example, most Protestants and Roman Catholics celebrate Easter
on 30 March, while most Orthodox, along with some Protestants and
Catholics, hold their Easter services almost a month later, on 27 April.
The different datings are the result of disagreement over reform of the
calendar by Pope Gregory XIII 400 years ago.

At a meeting held in Aleppo, Syria, from 5 to 10 March, sponsored by the
World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Middle East Council of Churches
(MECC), representatives of the world's main Christian traditions agreed
on what the WCC described as "an ingenious proposal to set a common date
for Easter".

The consultation agreed that the continuing use by the Churches of the
principles of dating Easter adopted at the Council of Nicea, 325AD (the
Sunday after the first full moon after the March equinox) seems to be
the best way to unity in this matter.  Differences of dating have
occurred because Churches have followed different calculations of the
equinox and the full moon.  Accepting precise modern astronomical
determinations will assist the Churches to find a common date.

A statement from the meeting will be sent to the Churches for their
consideration.