Adopt the Aleppo Proposal for a Common Date of Easter with effect from Easter 2019
- by: Revd Dr Gareth Leyshon
- recipient: Pope Francis
Do you want all Christians in the world to celebrate the Great Feast of Easter on the same date? Christians in the East and in the West currently celebrate Easter according to different calendars, but Pope Franics recently commented that we need to address this. A new proposal on how to calculate Easter was made by representatives of the World Council of Churches & Middle East Council of Churches meeting in Aleppo, Syria, March 5 - 10, 1997.
For many Eastern Christians, it is important to honour the decision made by the world's bishops at Nicea in the year 325, that Easter (or Pascha) should be on the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. This date can vary by five weeks, so although the Catholic Church, at the Second Vatican Council, expressed openness to having a fixed Sunday for Easter, that would not be acceptable to all Eastern Christians. The Aleppo proposal DOES honour the rules set down at Nicea.
Why 2019? If the Aleppo proposal were adopted by all churches, in most years it would result in Easter being celebrated on the date currently indicated by the Western Catholic method. 2019 would be the first year on which the Western Catholic Church would have to CHANGE the date of Easter - and to make the change in that year would be a powerful sign of the Catholic Church being willing to make possible changes for the sake of Christian Unity.
Your Holiness,
I am deeply conscious of the current disunity between different Christian denominations concerning the date of Easter, a public and scandalous sign of divisions between churches and ecclesial communities. I am also aware that you yourself spoke about the urgency of addressing this last year. As a Catholic priest with a PhD in Astrophysics, and responsible for the Ordo of my Archdiocese, I have a special interest in calendars.
Some church leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, have spoken in favour of a fixed date of Easter. While there are practical reasons which make this desirable, it would be very difficult for many of the Eastern Churches to adopt this, since it is not consistent with the decision of the Council of Nicea.
In 1997, a convention in Aleppo, Syria, including Vatican representatives, proposed a new way of calculating Easter which was consistent with the Nicea decision and the best available astronomical knowledge. Were all churches to adopt the Aleppo method, in most years it would result in the same date of Easter as using the current Latin Rite Catholic method, but a few years would result in an alternative date. The next such year would be 2019.
Your Holiness, I call upon you to make a gesture of goodwill by declaring that the Catholic Church will adopt the Aleppo proposal from 2019, choosing that year specifically as a gesture of the Roman Church's willingness to change that which can be changed, IF other churches also pledge to make the change from 2019. Let us lead by example, a humble example well-suited to Your Holiness's papacy.
I remain, your obedient servant,
Revd Dr Gareth Leyshon, priest of the Archdiocese of Cardiff
By signing, you accept Care2's Terms of Service.
You can unsub at any time here.
Having problems signing this? Let us know.