A New Date for Easter 2013, in the Holy Land

The Catholic Church in Israel has decided to change the date of Easter, beginning next year, to coincide with the date on which Easter is celebrated by the Orthodox Churches. The reason is pastoral care: many families include both Catholic and Orthodox members. There will be only two churches that will not change the date: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

You can read all about it here or here.

What other changes this would necessitate in Israel for the rest of the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar was not explained.

–rf

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Katharine E. Harmon, Ph.D., edits the blog, Pray Tell: Worship, Wit & Wisdom.

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Comments

3 responses to “A New Date for Easter 2013, in the Holy Land”

  1. Dale Rodriguez

    As I understand it JPII wanted to change the date for Easter by following the Orthodox Julian calendar so both the orthodox and latin rite churches could observe Easter around the world on the same date if the Orthodox would change their Christmas date to December 25th.
    It went nowhere because of recalcitrance on the part of the Orthodox (anything to “stick it” to Rome).
    Now however, it seems the OCA (orthodox church america) has begun to celebrate Christmas Dec 25th.
    It would be great news if all Christians observed Christmas and Easter on the same days.

    Reply
    1. Dunstan Harding

      The Eastern Orthodox churches have celebrated Christmas on Dec. 25 since at least the 6th century. But for those churches, especially the Slavic communities, which follow the Julian calendar, Dec. 25 falls on our (Gregorian) January 7.

      The Oriental Orthodox churches, principally the Armenian and the Coptic I believe, never did adopt Dec. 25 for Christmas and still don’t celebrate Christmas on that date, but instead adhere to the more ancient custom of observing the birth and the baptism of Christ on January 6.

      Reply
  2. Dunstan Harding

    I’ve observed the Orthodox schedule for Holy Week for 25 years or more. So, I wish you all a happy Palm Sunday. If the Catholic Church can take steps to celebrate Easter with the Orthodox in the Holy Land, there’s no reason why Catholics can’t do it elsewhere.

    Unfortunately, by adopting the Julian calendar date it means eventually Easter will fall sometime in June. Something both the east and the west must eventually address. A Church which can’t get it’s missal in order with glaring blunders throughout shouldn’t be expected to get it’s act together in coordinating a common date for Easter either.

    Reply

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