How Easter Could Bring Greater Unity Between Eastern And Western Churches
Easter will be celebrated this year on the same day by Christians across all denominations on April 20 — a rare quirk of the calendar that some see as an opportunity to set aside centuries-old disputes over the date of Jesus’ resurrection.
Easter Sunday varies each year depending on the position of the full moon relative to the equinox. As a result, Easter is considered a “movable feast” given the date changes each year. This year, the full moon and the equinox fall on the same day on both the Gregorian and Julian calendars, which results in a shared Easter date.
Since the 16th century, Eastern and Western churches have used different methods to calculate the date of Easter. Only rarely do they coincide. However, the search for a common date has also been one of the central issues of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, whose 1,700th anniversary is also being celebrated this year.
While Christmas is fixed to the solar calendar (and near the winter solstice), Easter is based on the lunar cycles of the Jewish calendar. In Christianity, the Last Supper (the final meal Jesus shared with his apostles before his death) was a Passover feast.
Different calendars
Easter has evolved over the last 2,000 years. Early Christians, for example, did not often separate between crucifixion and resurrection in their Easter commemorations, according to Michael G. Azar, an Orthodox theologian and religion professor at the University of Scranton.
“Rather, they celebrated God’s total and complete act of deliverance — the overarching ‘mystery of salvation’: God’s deliverance of humankind from darkness, to light; from death, to life, whether through Moses or through Christ,” he told UM News.
The how isn’t so much an issue anymore, but the when. Christians mark the passion and resurrection of Jesus on different days around the globe. Christians in the Western church — Catholics and Protestants — use a different calendar than Eastern Orthodox Christians.
The Gregorian calendar was created to correct the Julian calendar's drift against the solar year. As a result, the date of Easter depends on which calendar is used. Orthodox Easter falls anywhere between April 4 and May 8, while it falls between March 22 and April 25 on Western churches.
The two calendars sometimes align, like this spring, but there is typically a 13-day gap between when they are celebrated.
Celebrating together
This year, a growing chorus of Catholic, Protestant, Coptic and Eastern Orthodox clergy are calling for greater unity.
The World Council of Churches, a global Christian organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism, has urged churches to find a common date for Easter.
“Eastern and Western churches have used different calendars to calculate the date of Easter since the 16th century, and only rarely do they coincide,” said Prof. Rev. Dr Martin Illert, WCC’s Program Executive for Faith and Order. “This year is one of the few occasions when all Christians will celebrate Easter together, and this webinar will explore how we can renew the search for a common date for Easter as a sign of Christian unity.”
The Julian calendar was used in the West until 1582, when the Gregorian calendar was adopted. The Julian calendar's method of calculating Easter was standardized in the year 325 at the First Council of Nicaea.
“We hope that the anniversary of Nicaea will help create a momentum so that in the future all Christians can celebrate Easter together,” Illert said.
The Vatican has also called for Christians to unite on a common date. Last year, Pope Francis encouraged the work of the Pasqua Together group – an ecumenical initiative that encourages Christians of various denominations to celebrate Easter together – and invited them not to let this unique opportunity “pass by in vain.”
“I encourage those who are committed to this journey to persevere,” he said, “and to make every effort in the search for a shared agreement, avoiding anything that may instead lead to further divisions among our brothers and sisters.”
At the time, Pope Francis also pointed out that Easter is not tied to any one calendar.
“Easter occurred because God ‘so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’,” he said. “Let us not forget the primacy of God.”
The plan is to come together and agree on a single date across all Christendom, church officials across the denominational spectrum said, in order to dismiss the notion that there is a divided witness to a fundamental aspect of the Christian faith.
Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan Job of Pisidia said the argument against a unified Easter date is schism, but added that churches need to do more to explain to congregations a motive behind a unified date.
“There is an argument that the believers are not ready for a calendar reform,” he added. “I ask, ‘What are you doing to prepare the believers for a calendar reform?’”
Clemente Lisi is the executive editor of Religion Unplugged.