Joint Easter date also under discussion

Patriarch plans anniversary celebration of the Council of Nicaea with Pope

Istanbul - In 325, the central Christian creed was formulated at the Council of Nicaea. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, is now announcing an anniversary celebration – with Pope Francis.

Published  on 04.09.2024 at 15:09  – 

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, wants to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the first ecumenical Council of Nicaea in Turkey together with Pope Francis at the end of May 2025. At the end of a meeting of bishops in Istanbul, the honorary head of world Orthodoxy said that Francis would take part in the anniversary celebrations, as the Patriarchate announced on Tuesday evening. The central Christian creed was formulated at the first ecumenical assembly in church history in the year 325 in Nicaea, now Iznik in Turkey.

At a meeting with a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Vatican in June, Francis expressed his wish to take part in the celebrations planned in the Iznik region. The Patriarchate of Constantinople set the date as "the end of May 2025". However, the Vatican has not yet announced that the Pope will be travelling to Turkey in 2025.

On the occasion of the anniversary of the Council, the Orthodox and Catholic churches are increasingly discussing a possible common Easter date for all Christians. The Orthodox bishops' assembly in Istanbul spoke out in favour of setting a common date for Easter, but did not make a concrete proposal for this, according to reports. According to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, it should not be "a happy coincidence" that Eastern and Western Christianity celebrate Easter on the same day in 2025 despite the different calculations. - The dates of Easter have so far differed by up to five weeks. In 2025, the feast of the resurrection of Jesus Christ will fall on 20 April according to both calculations. (KNA)