“The next archbishop has to…deal with the systemic issues of dysfunction both in the institution & its central capacity, but also in the House of Bishops in terms of cultures around power, privilege & entitlement that persist.”

Rt Revd Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle

A common date for Easter?

On 13 December, the Church Times published an item by Andreja Bogdanovski, Churches look towards one date for Easter, which indicated that leaders of the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches were signalling their openness to setting a common date for Easter,  an opportunity arising with the approaching 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. 

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was cited as stating that Catholic and Orthodox believers had a “golden opportunity” to agree on a joint date for Easter because of the “fortunate alignment” of the Julian and Gregorian calendars. In 2025 all Christians will celebrate the Resurrection on the same day, as highlighted by Pope Francis last month in his address to the delegation of the Group Pasqua Together 2025. Continue reading →