Two days ago began the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity during which Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants, knowing that their divisions constitute an obstacle to the reception of the Gospel, together implore the Lord, in a yet more intense way, for the gift of full communion. This providential initiative was born 100 years ago, when Father Paul Wattson started the “Octave” of prayer for the unity of all the disciples of Christ. Today for this occasion the spiritual sons and daughters of Father Wattson, the friars and sisters of the Atonement, are present in St. Peter’s Square and I greet them cordially and encourage them to pursue the cause of unity with their special dedication.
We all have the duty to pray and work for the overcoming of every division between Christians, responding to Christ’s desire “ut unum sint.” Prayer, conversion of heart, the reinforcement of the bonds of communion, form the essence of this spiritual movement that we hope will soon lead the disciples of Christ to celebrate the Eucharist together, the manifestation of their full unity.
This year’s biblical theme is dense with meaning: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). St. Paul addresses himself to the community of Thessalonica, which was experiencing internal clashes and conflicts, to remind them with insistence about certain fundamental attitudes, among which there stands out, indeed, incessant prayer. With this invitation of his, he wants it to be understood that from the new life in Christ and in the Holy Spirit there flows forth the capacity to overcome all egoism, to live together in peace and fraternal union, to bear in large measure the burdens and sufferings of others. We must never tire of praying for the unity of Christians! When Jesus, during the Last Supper, prayed that his disciples “be one,” he had a precise goal in mind: “That the world believe” (John 17:21).
The Church’s evangelizing mission, therefore, moves along the path of ecumenism, the path of unity of faith, of evangelical witness and authentic fraternity. As is done every year, on Thursday, Jan. 25, I will go to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls to conclude the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with solemn vespers. I invite Romans and pilgrims to join with me and with Christians of all the churches and ecclesial communities who will take part in the celebration, to ask of God the precious gift of reconciliation among all the baptized.
May the Mother of God, whose appearance to Alphonse Ratisbonne in the Church of Sant’Andrea delle Frate in Rome we remember today, obtain from the Lord the abundance of the Holy Spirit for all disciples in such a way that we can arrive at perfect unity and in this way offer the witness of faith and life that the world urgently needs.
Cathedra Unitatis 
As an individual you can take a small step towards Christian Unity at http://www.onedate.org.
It is an on line petition to unite the date of Easter that Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox would celebrate this Feast of Feasts all on One Date.
The site has been translated in to Greek as of the 18th January 🙂
Το αμάρτημα της διαίρεσης μας ως Χριστιανών and has been available in Russian for a few months now
Prayer – our union with God, I hope leads to union with each other – without losing the wonder of diversity
http://www.liturgy.co.nz/worship/matters_files/weekprayerchristianunity20080121.html
Orthodoxy has not changed the method for calculating the date for Holy Pascha and any who wish to revert to the canonical formula for fixing the date are certainly free to do so. Since this method is codified in the canons of The Church any change would require the approval of an oecumenical council. Frankly I see no reason for us to change the formula, since we are not the ones who arbitrarily started tinkering with the calendar. Sorry if that sounds somewhat lacking in the ecumenical spirit.
ICXC
John
Dear John,
Amen. Well stated!
If only we Orthodox could get the date of the Nativity Feast sorted out…then, perhaps, we could worry about Easter and its Ecumenical possibilities.
Long ago, I had a friend who did some interesting scholarly work on the calculation of the date of Holy Pascha in the early church. I note that “Orthodoxy has not changed the method for calculating the date” and that there is a “canonical formula”. Can anyone tell me what the unchanged method for calculating the date is, and where I might obtain sight of the “canonical formula”?
I am interested also to hear of “arbitrary tinkering” with the calendar. What was “arbitrary” about the tinkering?
If only we Orthodox could get the date of the Nativity Feast sorted out…then, perhaps, we could worry about Easter and its Ecumenical possibilities.
CPKS,
I refer you to http://tinyurl.com/22nsgc
ICXC
John
The date of the Nativity Feast is a little bit of an obsession for me. Something I refuse to take on faith is the claim that the Roman Church decided on December 25th in order to supplant a pagan holiday. What I suspect on the 2 week difference between the East and West is that the West changed to the Gregorian Calendar while the East remained on the Julian Calendar. The calendars are 13 days apart from each other. But that would be too easy of an answer, of course.
-Joel
John,
I agree it would be easier for the Catholics/Anglicans/Protestants to change the date.
The site itself however is not about how to “resolve or suggest how to reconcile the dates of Easter it is simply to register your Vote to celebrate the feast of Easter all in one date.”
Rob,
From the writings that have inspired the OneDate Petition Quote:
One of the strong points of the writings given to this generation through Vassula, concerns itself with Christian unity. In her many visits to hundreds of countries, societies and communities around the world Vassula lets us know that Christ”s greatest desire concerning unity, and one which will also be the key to unity, is the unification of the date of Easter, done in humility and with love. This is echoed in the message of the 24th of October 1994 “My Spirit will bring you together; have you not heard that the East and West will be one kingdom? have you not heard that I shall settle for one date?”
So it is because of this the site has been put up.
I have visited the tinyurl and read the article. It seems to say that the rule was that Holy Pascha fell on the first Sunday following the first full moon following the vernal equinox. It also seems to say that before the sixth century, various different “paschal cycles” were invoked, with the intention of getting as close as possible to the astronomical vernal equinox.
Concerning the canonicity of things, can anyone point me at the Nicene authority for this or that paschal cycle, or this or that method of establishing the date of the vernal equinox? (This is a slight rephrase of my original question asking for signt of the “canonical formula”.) I am trying to clarify whether the disagreement is about the algorithm for getting from the vernal equinox to Holy Pascha, or the algorithm for getting to the vernal equinox.
I amplify and repeat my second question, which the referred article did not address: when tinkering with the calendar, what distinguishes “arbitrary” tinkering with non-arbitrary tinkering?
As a matter of interest, my former friend (we lost touch years ago) conducted a lengthy and fascinating scholarly analysis of the calendar of the Celtic church. His task was made difficult by the fact that nothing was preserved (if ever written down) of the actual algorithm for the tables that were used in the calculation of the date of Holy Pascha, and that the only evidence of this underlying algorithm was to be found in the errors, corrections and marginalia of the tables themselves as found in the original manuscripts. Study of these led him to the cautious conclusion that the Celtic church, evangelized in the fourth century and thenceforth relatively isolated from the majority of the west, had preserved intact a method of calculating the date of Holy Pascha that preserved intact the method, according to the then current lunar calendar, that would have been used in Palestine at the time of Our Holy Saviour.
As we know, the Celtic church agreed to do things Rome’s way at the Synod of Whitby – study of which Synod I commend to my Orthodox friends as an intriguing example of how a small, isolated and utterly faithful province was brought into line with the “modern” praxis of the universal church (i.e. that continued to this day by the Holy Orthodox churches), in order to maintain fellowship and to avoid scandalizing the faithful with needless disagreements on inessentials.
Easter Dates,
This petition strikes me as a bit long on generalities and short on details. I am really not a fan of feel good statements or petitions that serve no practical use. Why not just put up a petition that says “we think all Christians should be in communion with one another?” It favors a specific goal but offers not a word of suggestion on getting there. In the absence of even a vague hint on implementation of this goal I will make the following observation.
As an Orthodox Christian I see no reason to change the canonical method (of immemorial usage) for calculating the date for Holy Pascha to accommodate other religious groups. I can however think of a number of very good reasons for not changing it. As for the other groups changing their system for dating; I am generally reluctant to tell other religions how to run their show. It’s really none of my business when Roman Catholics or Protestants celebrate the feast. Thus I must reluctantly decline to sign the petition.
In the grand scheme of things there are far more serious matters that divide Christianity. Changing the date for “Easter” without addressing the more serious theological issues would be at best, window dressing.
ICXC
John
The desire to celebrate Easter in common is a laudable one, whatever the solution adopted. A word of warning seems desirable, however, concerning Vassula and her followers. This lady may be sincerely convinced that she is receiving messages from Christ and that she is a “prophet”. It is necessary to point out though that she has been expelled from the communion of the Orthodox Church and that the RC Church does not recognize the supernatural origin of her “revelations”. These seem to me to be not only full of doctrinal errors which diverge from the Tradition received by both Churches, but to be based on claims outlandishly remote from the spirit of Christian prophecy. The latter, whether Biblical or ecclesiastical, always presupposes the conscious consent of the person to whom the charismatic gift is imparted; Vassula claims to have received at least her first “revelations” as the result of “automatic writing” reminiscent of spiritualist practices. I hve also been personally the witness of division among communities caused by the actions of her followers, who sometimes use dishonest tactics in order to gain or to falsely claim the adherence of others to their cause. None of this seems likely to be the fruit of the action of the Holy Spirit. Even if the cause be a good one, I suggest that if the Vassula movement is at the origin of this petition, readers of this blog would be ill advised to lend credibility to their activities by signing it.
Re: #9
See:
http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-012-v