If by any chance the Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate do reach an agreement on a common date for Easter, this would create a tectonic shift in the Orthodox world. Such a move would deepen the ongoing Orthodox rift between Constantinople and Moscow, potentially creating a series of schisms within local Orthodox churches (similar to what happened in the 1920s with the Greek and Romanian churches).
Read More(EXPLAINER) Since 2000, the two holidays have overlapped every year but four — in 2005, 2008, 2016 and this spring. Easter is calculated based on the Christian liturgical calendar tied to the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Passover, on the other hand, is determined by the Jewish calendar, which is also lunar-based. That’s where the similarities end.
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