www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology TOWARDS A COMMON DATE OF EASTER: REMAINING FAITHFUL TO NICAEA

There is a fairly high-power (ecumenical) conference for the 1700th anniversary of the AD 325 Council of Nicaea going on in Rome, at the Angelicum, as I write this. Only the Plenary talks in the Aula Magna are recorded and live-streamed. The calendar sessions are on Saturday.

YouTube:
NICAEA and the Church of the Third Millennium - Friday, June 6: Nicaea and Synodality [youtube.com]
NICAEA and the Church of the Third Millennium - Thursday, June 5: The Nicene Faith [youtube.com]
NICAEA and the Church of the Third Millennium - Wednesday, June 4: Opening Day [youtube.com]

Met. JOB, whose editorial was the impetus for this thread, spoke on the Opening Day. @1:26
17:15-17:45
Aula Magna
“Towards Unity in Faith: Nicaea and the Question of Restoring Ecclesial Unity Today”
Metropolitan Job (Getcha) of Pisidia (Ecumenical Patriarchate)

Nicaea 2025 Conference Program [iota-web.org]

Session 9 | 12:00-13:30
Session 9: Towards a Common Date of Easter
Chair: Rev. Prof. Joseph Carola, S.J. (Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy)
Session sponsored by the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences
Saturday, June 7
12:00-13:30
Aula Magna
Prof. Gayle E. Woloschak (IOTA Vice-President and Treasurer, Associate Dean for Graduate Student and Post-Doctoral Affairs, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA): “Nicaea and the Ongoing Controversy Over the Date of Easter”
Rev. Prof. Carlo Dell’Osso (Patristic Institute “Augustinianum” and the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, Rome, Italy): “African Computists: Around the Pseudo-Cyprian De Pascha Computus”
Prof. Paul Mattei (Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences): “Nicaea: Mathematical Rules and Historical-Theological Questions”

Session 10 (Breakout) | 14:30-16:00
Session 10A: Date of Easter
Chair: Rev. Prof. Rocco Ronzani, O.S.A. (Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archive, Vatican)
Session sponsored by the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences
Saturday, June 7
14:30-16:00
Rev. Prof. Francesco Braschi (Venerable Ambrosian Library, Milan, Italy): “Ambrose, Lettera extra collectionem 13 (Maurists 23)”
Aula 2
Prof. Alberto Camplani (Sapienza University, Rome, Italy): “Leo the Great and the Alexandrian Computus (Ep. 121 to the Emperor Marcian; Ep. 122 to Julian, Bishop of Cos)”
S.E.R. Mons. Carlos Azevedo (Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences): “Late Computists, Including Martin of Braga, De Pascha”

Session 11 (Breakout) | 16:30-18:00
Session 11A: The Significance of a Common Easter Celebration for Christian Unity
Chair: Prof. Dr. Gayle E. Woloschak (IOTA Vice-President and Treasurer, Associate Dean for Graduate Student and Post-Doctoral Affairs, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA)
Session sponsored by Pro Oriente
Saturday, June 7
16:30-18:00
Aula 2
Dr. Christian Gastgeber (Dozent, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria): “Calculating the Easter Date: Differences, Frictions, and Solutions in Medieval Christianity”
Dr. Aho Shemunkasho (Director of the MA Program in Syriac Theology, University of Salzburg, Austria): “The Challenges of the Different Easter Dates and the Urgent Need for a Common Date: The Current Situation for Syriac Christians in Ecumenical Contexts”
Dr. Aleksandr Andreev (Doctoral Research Fellow, University of Oslo, Norway): “From Nicaea to Milanković and Beyond: Practical and Liturgical Considerations for an Astronomical Determination of Easter”

Also, recently added:
Papal Audience | 8:30-11:00
Saturday, June 7
8:30-11:00
Private Audience with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. The event is open to registered conference attendees only.

Christ is in our midst!!

ajk,

Thank you for both your interest in this important issue and for bringing us the most ukp-to-date news about its progress.

You are welcome and I appreciate your kind words.

I recently commented elsewhere [groups.io]:


Nevertheless, there is Remarks by H.A.H. Ec. Pat. Bartholomew on April 24, 2025 - 1700th Anniversary, Council of Nicaea [youtube.com]

and from the remarks of Pope Leo given June 7, 2025 at the conference marking the1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea [osvnews.com]:

Will any of the Saturday talks be written up and posted on-line?

Saturday's Plenary: NICAEA and the Church of the Third Millennium - Saturday, June 7: Date of Easter [youtube.com]

I have searched for postings of papers by the breakout sessions' authors but have not found any. A conference proceedings is intended but that will take some time.

ajk, thanks for that link.

The first speaker made a number of small mistakes, but he seemed to be advocating the adoption of the Gregorian paschalion. He also seems to agree that using the true moon, instead of using the mean moon, would be overkill. The second speaker's overview of the pseudo-Cyprianic de Pascha Computus was clear and informative. The third speaker understood the historical documents very well.

We should thank the non-native speakers of English for their hard work in learning English and in presenting papers in that language.

I agree and have expressed my admiration for those non-native speakers of English giving presentations in English.

The final wrap-up session is NICAEA and the Church of the Third Millennium - Saturday, June 7: Afternoon [youtube.com]

@~5:50 the plenary papers will be edited and we hope to put them out online on the IOTA channel within a year and... we will also...edit and publish online within the next two years or so the papers that were given in the breakout session ...

@~13:23 ...about the third day of the conference and the practical questions and in particular regarding the date the of Easter ...

@~15:23 ... my name is Aushim Mukashu from Salzburg from the Syrian Orthodox Church ... I think the question, the issue with Easter, is a little bit too short to leave it as is just stated by you -- you mentioned the Easter date. There should be a way to work really strongly together on it not just on academic but somehow on a way that we can give a message from this conference to the hierarchies of the church but also to the faithful, that there should be something comes into dynamic to find a common solution; and we cannot wait till we have full communion on every sense and all other theological question are sorted out -- being the primacy and whatever else -- because this is an issue that affects many people on normal community parish everywhere in the world ...

The remark of "Aushim Mukashu" (spelling as given in the transcript) echoes my appraisal: A good conference, good rehashing and interpreting of the history, fervent desire and need of a solution, but no concrete movement forward. Pope Leo, speaking to the Conference participants, said: 'Several concrete solutions have been proposed that, while respecting the principle of Nicaea, would allow Christians to celebrate together the “Feast of Feasts”.' There is Aleppo, but what else?

More @13:17 from IOTA [iota-web.org] President and Founder Dr. Paul L. Gavrilyuk (Aquinas Chair in Theology and Philosophy, Theology Department, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA):


He came across to me as someone who can get things done. I hope he succeeds.