wfn.org | Two Easters?

[Sheila MESA <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
WCC Feature
For Immediate Use
7 April 1999

TWO EASTERS?
Towards a common date for Easter

"If we time it right, we can usually get our children's Easter eggs at half
price", jokes Peter Bouteneff, executive secretary with the Faith and
Order team of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and member of the
Orthodox Church in America. Like other Orthodox Christians around the
world, the Bouteneff family will celebrate Easter on 11 April, a week later
than most Western Christians.

If Christians are united in their belief of the Resurrection, why then do
we celebrate Easter on different dates? The reason is that we use two
different calendars to calculate the date of Easter. One is the
16th-century Gregorian calendar used mainly by Western churches. The
other is the much older Julian calendar used by most Orthodox churches.

Dagmar Heller, an executive secretary with Faith and Order, explains:
"This difference has existed since the 16th century when the Gregorian
calendar was introduced to replace the Julian calendar. The difference
between these two calendars arises from the fact that the astronomical
year, the time it takes for the earth to move around the sun once, is not
exactly 365 days. In order to divide the year into equal parts the calendar
must find ways to correct the difference, which is normally done by
means of leap years. Although not absolutely correct, the Gregorian
calendar is astronomically more exact than the Julian: the year according
to the Gregorian calendar is 26 seconds longer than the time the earth
needs to go around the sun, while according to the Julian calendar there
is a difference of 11 minutes and 14 seconds. At present the Julian
calendar differs from the Gregorian by 13 days; in the year 2100 it will
be 14 days."

Especially in regions where Christians of the Western and Eastern
traditions live closely together and may even constitute a minority, as for
example in the Middle East, this situation is extremely painful.

One milestone in the efforts to establish a common date for Easter was
the March 1997 consultation held in Aleppo, Syria, and jointly sponsored
by the WCC and the Middle East Council of Churches. Of great
importance was the recognition that differences in calculating the date of
Easter do not depend on basic theological disagreements.

The consultation recommended that the principle of calculation
recognised by both Eastern and Western churches and established by
the Council of Nicea in the year 325 should be retained. According to this
principle, Easter falls on the Sunday which follows the first full moon of
spring. The Aleppo participants also recommended that the spring
equinox be calculated "by the most accurate possible scientific means".
Moreover, the basis for reckoning should be "the meridian of Jerusalem,
the place of Christ's death and resurrection".

The Aleppo consultation also expressed the hope that the new method
of calculation could be introduced in the year 2001, when the date of
Easter according to both the Julian and Gregorian calendars falls on 15
April. From then on, the "celebration of Easter/Pascha on the same date
should not be the exception but the rule".

The eighth assembly of the WCC, held in Harare, Zimbabwe, last
December, also expressed the hope for a common celebration of Easter
saying, "We have rejoiced in the developing koinonia (communion)
between Christians in many parts of the world, and we affirm once
again that God has called us to continue to grow in that communion
together, that it may be truly visible. We rejoice in signs of this growth
such as the hope for a common date of Easter".

Preliminary responses received from the churches

Churches around the world continue to reflect on the challenge. In
summarizing the first responses from the churches, Dagmar Heller said,
"it is clear that various churches and groups have given serious thought
to the report from Aleppo. The Lambeth Conference (Anglican) and the
Lutheran World Federation have commended the Aleppo proposal for
consideration by their member churches." According to Heller, the
Conference of European Churches plans to do the same and she has
received positive reactions from others including Baptists, Methodists,
Old
Catholics, Presbyterians, Societies of Friends and Free Churches. Heller
made specific reference to the positive reaction of the Pontifical Council
for the Promotion of Christian Unity of the Roman Catholic Church.

Orthodox churches, according to Heller, are more varied in their
reactions. The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church
(ROC), though it welcomes the initiative, does not see the ROC as able to
address the issue at this time given its present situation. The response
from the Ecumenical Patriarchate was also positive but restrained with
regard to implementation, while the reaction of the Greek Orthodox
Church was "quite critical". In contrast, Heller noted that the Syrian
Orthodox Church would like to see the Aleppo proposal realised as soon
as possible.

Both Heller and her Orthodox colleague in Faith and Order, Peter
Bouteneff, call for patience.  Bouteneff points out that the that the
intra-Orthodox theological debate on the Aleppo proposal is not yet
conclusive. Moreover, he notes that the Orthodox themselves already
experience an internal division in celebrating their liturgical cycle on two
different calendars, and further internal division is feared if some
churches were to change the way they reckon the date of Easter.

Both Heller and Bouteneff are in favour of continuing the discussion in
the coming years. In the West and Middle East, says Heller, "certainly
more patience will be necessary, and on the Orthodox side, a
development of trust". It must be made clear that "it is not a matter of
imposing a Western system on the Orthodox churches", but of a common
way of calculating the Easter date that is faithful both to the Church's
tradition and to astronomical reality.

In the year 2001 it is planned that there will be a another consultation on
a common date for Easter, which will evaluate the process thus far and
make a plan for further action.

Contact:  Karin Achtelstetter, Media Relations Officer           Tel:  (+41.22)
791.61.53

**********
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 338, in
more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions.  The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but
works cooperatively with the WCC.  The highest governing body is the
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was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Its staff is
headed by general secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church
in Germany.

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