The writer Teodor Bakonski and professor Adrian Papahagi addressed an open letter to the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church and the National Church Assembly, in which they ask the BOR “to enter with energy and conviction into a pan-Orthodox and interfaith dialogue” on the subject of the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord on the same date, reports Agerpres.

In the online petition, the initiators note that “The First Ecumenical Council, which met in Nicaea in 325, one of the cornerstones of Orthodoxy, established that the Church of Christ, one, universal and apostolic, should celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord on one day. a day from Sunday, the same for everyone. From the time of the reign of Charlemagne in the West of Europe until the 16th century, therefore, even after the unfortunate schism, Christianity deserved to celebrate Easter, year after year, together.”

“Unfortunately, astronomical problems, computational complications and changes in civil and church calendars, which we do not discuss here, have led to the fact that today Christianity no longer celebrates the Resurrection of the Lord on the same day. Both the Western world and the Eastern world are entangled in calculations that are incorrect or inconsistent on both sides. There are calendar gaps between the Orthodox East and the Catholic or Protestant West, and even within the Orthodox world, so that Orthodox churches in Russia and Serbia, for example, even celebrate Christmas at a different time than most Christians, according to uncorrected data. Julian calendar (established by Julius Caesar before Christmas). (…) Awareness of the need to unify the date of the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord has always existed in Orthodoxy. (…) Unfortunately, the agreement did not last, and today the autocephalous Orthodox Churches operate according to different calendars,” the initiators of the petition note.

“However, it affects people’s lives and creates division or problems”

He said, “the complexity of synchronizing the calendar can be accomplished only through inter-confessional and intra-Orthodox dialogue.”

“Fortunately, the celebration of Easter on different dates does not cause dogmatic problems, because all Christians equally testify to the Resurrection of the Lord; unfortunately it affects people’s lives and creates division or problems. As lay people, we cannot be indifferent to these aspects. In multi-ethnic areas of Romania, school calendars and official holidays are disrupted. Numerous mixed families (in which the spouses have different denominations), millions of Orthodox Romanians living in countries of Catholic and Protestant tradition, numerous Romanian citizens of different denominations cannot celebrate together on one Sunday the Resurrection of the Savior, because, for hundreds of years, the Church has refused to agree , perpetuating this unjustified gap,” Bakonsky and Papagagi emphasize.

“At least from 2025, when it will be 1700 years since the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea”

Both specify that “celebrating the Resurrection of the Lord together, we would take an important step towards a much more complicated reunion of the Church of Christ, which contains complex dogmatic issues.”

“It would be good to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord together, both Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants, at least starting from 2025, when the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea will be celebrated. We know that real efforts are being made at the level of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, other Orthodox Patriarchates and the Roman Catholic Church to unify the date of Easter. Achieving this goal will also have a consistent pastoral and missionary impact in the Christian world, which is often under the aggressive pressure of secularism. (…) We know that the Easter problem cannot be solved only by the unilateral will of the Romanian Orthodox Church, although it is traditionally open to dialogue. However, we ask that the Romanian Orthodox Church participate with energy and conviction in the pan-Orthodox and inter-confessional dialogue on this topic, in order to convince the sister Orthodox Churches to embrace the spirit of unity and support the initiatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. of Constantinople”, the initiators note.

Among those who signed the online petition are the writer Ana Blandiana (president of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism and Resistance), professor Andriy Pleshu (president of the New Europe Foundation), professor Daniel David (rector of Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj), writer Monika Pillat, literary critic Alex Stefanescu, professor Radu Karp, researcher Daniela Dumbrava (Institute of the History of Religions of the Romanian Academy).