CWNews.com - Bishops participating in the Middle East Synod have expressed a strong interest in fixing a common date for Easter, to be celebrated at the same time by Catholics, Orthodox, and other Christians.
Bishop William Shomali, an auxiliary of the Jerusalem patriarchate, said that agreement on a common date for Easter would be “a positive sign for Christians and also for non-Christians,” advancing the cause of unity among the faithful. The Catholic News Service reports that the topic of a common Easter date arose “repeatedly” during open-discussion periods at the Synod.
Since the calendar reforms of Pope Gregory XIII, Roman Catholics and Protestants have celebrated Easter according to one schedule, while the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, using the older Julian calendar, use another date. The disparity between dates is a particularly vexing problems in countries where there are substantial populations of both Western and Eastern Christians—most notably in the Middle East.
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