by Daniel Pourchot

Daniel Pourchot, c.a., is a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and professor (retired) of the Faculty of Theology, University of Montreal (Church History and Patristics).

For all Christians, the most important celebration is, assuredly, the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, otherwise known as Easter. Indeed, right from the very beginning, Sunday became the day of the week for believers to gather in commemoration of the day their Lord and Saviour rose from the dead.

Why is it, then, that from the very beginning, and right up to the present day, believers have not been able to agree on the date this celebration should take place each year?

What we call the "Easter controversy" arose in the 2^nd century, at a time when each local Christian community enjoyed considerable independence, especially when it came to setting its calendar.

That is why, primarily the Western churches (including Rome), but also a few Eastern churches such as Alexandria, chose to celebrate the Resurrection on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring, which is still the case for churches of the Western Latin tradition today. In Asia Minor, and thereafter in most of the churches of the Eastern Greek tradition, the date chosen was the fourteenth day of the first moon of spring, or the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan in the Jewish calendar.

In spite of concerted efforts over many centuries to achieve reconciliation on this issue, an agreement has still not been reached. The Easter controversy was even one of the causes of -- or pretexts for -- the schism between Eastern and Western Christianity in the 11th century.

The problem was subsequently exacerbated in the 16^th  century by the effects of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations on the one hand, and on the other, by the adoption in October 1582 of the Gregorian calendar to replace and correct the Julian calendar which had been in use until that time. Adopted almost immediately in the Western and Central European countries that obeyed Rome, the new calendar was not accepted until the 18^th century by countries that had adopted the Lutheran, Calvinist or Anglican reforms. Not until 1918 did then-Soviet Russia accept the Gregorian calendar for civil matters while the Orthodox churches, including the Russian Orthodox Church, remained faithful to the Julian calendar concerning the date of Easter, among other things.

The 20^th century saw the birth of the ecumenical movement, calling Christians who wanted a more concrete and visible manifestation of the deep and God-given unity of all believers to a more fruitful dialogue. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all these believers could celebrate the mystery and promise of the Resurrection together on the same day around the world?

Surely it is this desire that has inspired the contributors to this issue of Ecumenism who represent the major Christian denominations.

Dr. Pamela Bright, a specialist in the Patristic era, and Fr. Cesar Vasiliu, priest of the Romanian Orthodox Church will give us an in-depth look at the Easter controversy. The other contributors will report on their own traditions and set out the conditions for a dialogue that one hopes will one day lead to complete agreement on the question.

My prayer is that the readers of this review may all live until such time as they can celebrate together, on the same day, the joy, confidence and love of the Resurrection of the Head of the Church who has made possible their own.

Translation: Belva Webb