I would like to encourage all those who labor for Christian unity and readers of the ecclesiastically approved TLIG writings who do the same to express your support for the work to establish one common date for Easter. You may do so by writing to the Vatican Office for Promoting Christian Unity in your name, asking them to decide for one date for Easter for all Christians. It is important that you write in your name, so as to convey your personal desire for unity and not speak on behalf of an institute or organization. In other words request from the heart a joint Easter from now on. According to Fr. Joseph, there will be a discussion soon on this issue, and so to encourage Cardinal Koch that there are many Christians who are eager that Easter becomes one universal celebration, it is fitting that we should write him. The letter should not be more than 3 lines. Very brief but spot on.

The address is :

Cardinal Kurt Koch,
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity,
Via della Conciliazione, 5 – 00193 Rome, Italy

or by email to: [email protected]

In Sacred Scripture Jesus prayed that we may all be one as He and the Father are One (Jn. 17:22). St. Pope John Paul II published the Encyclical, Ut Unim Sint (That they may they be one) in which he calls all Christians to unite, and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stated, “Christian unity and a common approach to the great modern problems is not only a current request but also a command of the Founder of the Church.”

Today, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches are discussing ways to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in 2025, and much of the focus is on the Nicene Creed and on the unification of the dates of Easter. Indeed, the Orthodox Archbishop Job of Telmessos, the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the World Council of Churches, proposed something concrete, namely, honoring the Council of Nicaea’s efforts to set a common date for Easter by setting a common date for Easter.

The Holy See (the Vatican) is in total agreement with establishing one common date for Easter. As I write this letter, Bishop Brian Farrell, the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is already working with other Church leaders to prepare for the Nicene anniversary. He said on March 17, 2021 that a common date for Easter should be part of the discussions: “It would be a great thing if all Christians, on the same day, celebrated the fundamental truth of our faith. That would be hugely important.”

Bishop Farrell’s words are inspired by Second Vatican Councils’ Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, wherein the Vatican issued a declaration “on revision of the calendar,” affirming that the Council members “would not object if the feast of Easter were assigned to a particular Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, provided that those whom it may concern, especially the brethren who are not in communion with the Apostolic See, give their assent.”