{"id":24791,"date":"2009-07-10T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-10T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/07\/will-there-be-a-common-date-fo\/"},"modified":"2009-07-10T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-10T14:30:00","slug":"will-there-be-a-common-date-fo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/07\/will-there-be-a-common-date-fo\/","title":{"rendered":"Will there be a common date for Easter? Ever?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you ever think of the (dis)unity of Christians? Are you concerned enough to pray for the unity of the Churches? Today after Mass I prayed a prayer that asked God the Father to give us the grace of unity among Christians while He also fixes the errors that exist among the same. A tall order I know but I am known for bold requests! For some time I’ve been praying that one day–in my lifetime– that among some Christian churches we can observe a common date of Easter if not also a common altar. Needless to say, I am saddened by the fact that most Christians don’t
\nhave an issue with the various Christian churches and ecclesial communities celebrating
\nEaster on different days. I lament this apathetic approach to our observing THE most solemn day of our Lord and Savior’s triumph over sin and death.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

\"Resurrection.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Admittedly, the problem of
\na common date for Easter is nearly as old as Christianity itself. History
\nshows us that when the Apostles formed the various Christian communities under the power of the Spirit and by their work of evangelization differing opinions surfaced on how and when to commemorate Jesus Christ’s death
\nand resurrection. Most often differing opinions were based on how the four
\ngospels recorded the events of our salvation. We know the first attempt at
\ndeciding a common date for Easter began with the Council of Nicaea (325). The
\nCouncil taught that the date of Easter would be the first Sunday after the full
\nmoon following the vernal equinox. However, there was no method for calculating
\nthe full moon or the vernal equinox.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Today, we have the practice of the Orthodox churches who use the March 21st of the Julian calendar as the date of the equinox, while the churches of
\nthe Western tradition  base
\ntheir calculations on the Gregorian calendar.  Hence, a <\/span>window of difference is five weeks exists. Hmmm!!!???<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
According to a report on a recent
\nseminar in the Ukraine attended by Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant
\ntheologians of Europe, all participants endorsed a compromise proposed at a 1997 World Council of
\nChurches (WCC) consultation in Aleppo, Syria. Notice that no North American theologians’ opinions were considered. The proposal made was to keep the
\nNicaea rule but calculate the equinox and full moon using the accurate
\nastronomical data available today, rather than those used many years ago.
\nBrilliant, if you ask me!  <\/span>Now I
\nwonder of the  <\/span>churchmen who head
\nthese churches also agree.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Recently, the French Orthodox theologian Professor
\nAntoine Arjakovsky, director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies, pointed
\nout: “Whilst the astronomic reckoning of the Nicean rule comes closer to
\nthe Gregorian calendar than to the ancient Julian one, the Roman Catholic and
\nProtestant churches did take a step towards the Orthodox churches in Aleppo,
\naccepting that the date of Easter should be established on the base of a cosmic
\ncalendar rather than by a fixed date as had been proposed prior to the
\ninter-Orthodox meeting in Chambésy in 1977.”<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
In 2010 and 2011 there is a
\nconvergence of calendars which will produce a common Easter date that may, one hopes, serve as
\nan opportunity for all Christians<\/span> to join together for a celebration that is
\nnot based on mere coincidence. By Easter 2012 (April 8), can we hope that a
\ndate based on exact astronomical reckoning and celebrated by all Christians?<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
It
\nseems that it’s not only theology or the calendar’s calculations that’s the
\nproblem but the ecclesial relations among the communities of faith. Sad if you
\nask me.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you ever think of the (dis)unity of Christians? Are you concerned enough to pray for the unity of the Churches? Today after Mass I prayed a prayer that asked God the Father to give us the grace of unity among Christians while He also fixes the errors that exist among the same. A tall … Continue reading Will there be a common date for Easter? Ever?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2030,1713],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}