wfn.org | WCC official says churches should make most of 2001's Easter

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Note #6479 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

coincidence
5-April-2001
01121

WCC official says churches should make most of 2001's Easter coincidence

Russian Orthodox lead opposition to ongoing common date for Easter

by Edmund Doogue
Ecumenical News International

GENEVA - An official at the World Council of Churches (WCC) has called on
churches world?wide to point out to churchgoers on April 15 that by a
"happy" coincidence of church calendars, all of the world's Christians are
celebrating Easter on the same day this year.

	Referring to the fact that in most years there are two dates for Easter,
Tom Best, executive secretary of the WCC's Faith and Order Commission, told
ENI that this was "a terrible counter-witness to the unity we share in
Christ. This is the core festival of the Christian faith. An important way
to show our unity would be for all Christians to celebrate it together every
year."

	Best referred to an initiative launched in 1997 by the Middle East Council
of Churches and the WCC to enable all churches to celebrate Easter together
every year. The initiative has been warmly welcomed by many churches around
the world, though hopes that this year might mark the end of division over
the dates have proved unrealistic.

	Differences over Easter date back to early Christianity. At present Western
churches calculate the date of Easter using the Gregorian calendar,
introduced in 1582 and now the standard calendar world?wide, whereas most
Orthodox churches, including the Russian church, maintain the older Julian
calendar to calculate the date of Easter.

	The division about what is known as "the Paschal controversies" has
prompted many discussions over the centuries, and especially in recent
decades, at the highest level in churches. The issue was one of the reasons
for calling the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325 - on the site of
present?day Iznik in Turkey.

	At a meeting held in Aleppo, Syria, in March 1997, 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."

	Best told ENI that the Aleppo proposal sought to avoid a "clash of
calendars" by continuing to use the Nicene formula to determine the date of
Easter, basing calculations on the best astronomical data available and
taking the meridian of Jerusalem as the reference point.

	According to Best, about 25 churches have sent positive responses to the
WCC over the Aleppo proposal, although the initial response from the
(Orthodox) Church of Greece was negative. He pointed out that several
international Christian bodies, including the Lambeth Conference of Anglican
Bishops, the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the
Conference of European Churches and the Lutheran World Federation have
expressed strong interest in the plan.

	Two leading Orthodox bodies, the patriarchates of Constantinople and
Moscow, have informed the WCC that they are studying the proposal, which has
also been welcomed by other Orthodox-linked agencies in North America. In
the meantime, a leading Russian Orthodox official, Metropolitan Kirill of
Smolensk and Kaliningrad, who heads the Moscow Patriarchate's department of
external relations, has called on Western churches to reform their religious
calendars and calculate the date of Easter using the Julian system. Orthodox
churches in Australia have made a similar suggestion to the WCC.

	Asked by ENI about prospects for the Aleppo proposal, Best told ENI that
"the reaction is very positive so far. We understand that the Orthodox
churches have particular difficulties with the proposal - the tradition of
using the Julian calendar to determine the date of Easter is deeply rooted
for the Orthodox churches and we understand that it would be difficult for
them to make an abrupt change."

	However, he added, the Orthodox churches themselves had anticipated the
Aleppo proposal at a meeting at Chambesy, Switzerland in 1977, and the
Aleppo proposal  responded to many of the Orthodox concerns.

	Asked what the prospects were now, given that agreement had not been
reached this year as the Aleppo meeting had hoped, Best said that there were
possibilities that plans for a common Easter date would be explored by
churches on a regional basis - for example in the Middle East, where the
division over the celebration of Easter is especially visible. This had in
fact been a suggestion of the Aleppo meeting.

	He also pointed out that "we are presented - happily - with the fact that
in the next few years, Easter will often fall on a common date." In 2004,
2007, 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2017 the dates coincide.

	"We hope people will get attached to celebrating Easter together," Best
said. "We would ask the churches to focus on these years of common
celebration, emphasizing this as a sign of our unity. We hope there will be
a growing sense that the common celebration of Easter should be the norm,
not the exception."

	Best said another meeting on the Aleppo proposal was likely in the second
half of this year, with officials representing major Christian
organizations. The general secretaries of the World Christian Communions
supported plans for another meeting, he said.

	In a message released April 5, the Russian Orthodox Church's department for
external relations has indicated that Metropolitan Kyrill's proposal - which
is markedly different from the Aleppo proposal - is the official position of
the Russian church and "has been repeatedly stated by official
representatives." The statement adds that the Russian church will continue
to insist on this solution to the "problem" of Easter dates "regardless of
whether or not non?Orthodox Christians are ready to accept [it]."

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