Panel Backs Single Date for Easter
A panel representing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and U.S. Eastern Orthodox churches has endorsed a call to have all Christians mark Easter on the same date.
Christianity’s Eastern and Western branches often celebrate on different dates. For instance, this year Western Easter is April 23 and Orthodox Easter is April 30.
The group said consideration should be given to the Orthodox view that Easter should come after the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to the New Testament, Jesus was crucified the day before Passover and rose from the dead on the day after the holiday.
Since the fourth century, churches have observed Easter on the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. But because Eastern and Western Christians use different calendars, they mark the equinox on different days.
Both sets of churches will celebrate the holiday on April 15 in 2001, and a 1997 meeting of churches, held in Aleppo, Syria, suggested that would be an ideal time for all Christians to start adopting a common date based on “the most accurate astronomical scientific knowledge” available.
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