WCC NEWS: Webinar to explore common Easter celebration to strengthen Christian unity

In 2025, one of the few years when Christians of all traditions will celebrate Easter on the same date – 20 April – a webinar being organized by the World Council of Churches on 13 February will explore how churches might renew the search for a common Easter date as a sign of their unity in faith. At the Palestinian village of Iqrit. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC 23 January 2025 “Eastern and Western churches have used different calendars to calculate the date of Easter since the 16th century, and only rarely do they coincide,” said Prof. Rev. Dr Martin Illert, WCC programme executive for Faith and Order, who is organizing the webinar.  “This year is one of the few occasions when all Christians will celebrate Easter together, and this webinar will explore how we can renew the search for a common date for Easter as a sign of Christian unity,” he said. This webinar will bring together people from different traditions – Coptic, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran – to explore how a shared celebration of Easter can unite Christians worldwide in their common faith in the resurrected Christ. This year also marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea of 325 CE, the first ecumenical council gathering the whole of Christendom, which addressed the need for a common celebration of Easter since churches of that time often used different dates. “We hope that the anniversary of Nicaea will help create a momentum so that in the future all Christians can celebrate Easter together,” said Illert. The different dates for celebrating Easter go back to the reform of the calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Since that time, Western Christians have come to calculate the date of Easter on the basis of this newer Gregorian calendar, while the Eastern churches have continued to use the older Julian calendar.  Webinar information Date: 13 February 2025, 16:00 CET Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RuLP2e18RBWCvWyzgAPrVA#/registration Panelists:  Fr Prof. Dr Arsenius Mikhail, St Athanasius and St Cyril Coptic Orthodox School, Newport Beach, California, USA. H.E. Metropolitan Prof. Dr Job (Getcha), Metropolitan of Pisidia and Dean of the Institute for Orthodox Theology Higher Studies at Chambésy, Geneva, Switzerland. Dr Johannes Oeldemann, Johann-Adam-Möhler-Institut für Ökumenik, Paderborn, Germany Rev. Dr Tomi Karttunen, Executive Secretary for Ecumenical Relations and Theology, Lutheran Church of Finland. Moderator: Rev. Prof. em. Dr. Sandra Beardsall, moderator of the WCC-Nicaea-Steering-Group, Saskatchewan, Canada. View the Event  Download the Flyer for the Webinar  Frequently Asked Questions about Easter See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland