Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! Khristos Anesti! Alithos Anesti! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
The apostles’ witness that they had seen with their human eyes the Resurrected One is the very heart of our faith as followers of Christ. Yet the churches of East and West usually celebrate the period of preparation and date of Easter on different dates. This year is one of those rare occasions when Christians from both the East and West will be celebrating on the same Sunday, April 24. It is a wonderful opportunity for our churches to reflect upon the service toward Christian unity that a common date for Easter/Pascha would proclaim to the world.
In March 1997 the Aleppo Statement emerged from a consultation of Orthodox, Catholics, Oriental Orthodox and Protestants and called for a common date for Easter. The Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. decreed that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Differences in dating for Easter occur because churches follow different calculations of the equinox and the full moon. In the 1920s some scholars called for setting the date of Easter on a fixed Sunday in April every year, but most church experts believe this would only create another schism and would lose the theological linkage of the first Easter with the Jewish Passover observance.
The Aleppo Statement called for churches to follow the Nicene rule of the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. It urged that all the churches forego previous methods of calculating the Easter date and adopt as a common standard modern precise astronomical calculations, using Jerusalem, the site of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, as the meridian from which the calculations are based. Under current calendar methods using the Julian calendar in the East and the Gregorian calendar in the West, the churches of East and West typically celebrate Easter on the same date only once in a while.
Since the earliest of times in the church the central proclamation of our faith is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Aleppo Statement reminds us that the desire for a common date for Easter has taken on a growing urgency because “by celebrating the feast of feasts on different days, the churches give a divided witness to this fundamental aspect of the Apostolic faith, compromising their credibility and effectiveness in bringing the Gospel to the world.”
This is a very strong message and one that Christians are still reflecting upon. Last year, the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation which took place at Georgetown University reaffirmed the recommendations of Aleppo and recommended adoption sooner rather than later because as they said, “the need for such unity is great, for our world has changed drastically since the Aleppo Statement was published in 1997. We have witnessed the growth of secularism and the global effects of tyranny and war. More than ever, there is a need for a unified Christian proclamation and a witness of the core of our common faith, the Resurrection of Our Lord.”
Last month, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA issued a statement calling upon the Christian world to celebrate Easter on the same day each year. In a letter from Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the NCC, and Dr. Antonios Kireopolulos, associate general secretary, they remind all Christians that Easter “is the Good News! And yet almost every year the Christian community is divided over which day to proclaim the Good News. Our split, based on a dispute having to do with ancient calendars, visibly betrays the message of reconciliation. It is a scandal that surely grieves God.”
Dates for other joint celebrations of Easter for both East and West are in 2014 and 2017. Then 17 years will pass before another unified date in 2034. Hopefully, we Christians can get our act together and at least agree on a unified date to proclaim to the world the central reason for our common baptism, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Have a blessed Easter!
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