Leaders of 12 Christian communions have issued a letter that affirms the resurrection of Christ and grounds their statement in the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed. The leaders acknowledged the differing calendars of Eastern and Western communions, which usually lead to differing days for the celebration of Easter.
The 12 leaders wrote:
Together, from East and West, North and South, in this year of our Lord 2025, we have been given by God the great gift of a shared date of Easter. Devout Christians have prayed for generations that this may be possible. Though we have not yet achieved agreement on the date of Easter in perpetuity, we have no doubt that the Lord calls us to agreement, and unified witness, so that the world may believe (John 17:21).
As a further summons, God in his mercy has enabled us this year to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and its Creed. We are humbled and amazed that we can, on this Easter, profess together the fact that:
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
In the light of these gifts, we call upon the Holy Spirit to move our Communions to live and walk together, in obedience to the call of Jesus that all his disciples may be one. We hope to hear his “words” anew, just as when he appeared to his disciples after his resurrection and “opened their minds to understand the scriptures,” namely, that the Messiah must suffer and rise, “and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:44-47).
The reasons for differing dates to celebrate Easter are complex, but generally they are tied to the Gregorian calendar in the West and the Julian calendar in the East. The Pillar offers a more detailed explanation in an explainer article from 2021.
These are the 12 leaders who signed the letter:
- The Very Rev. Fr. Hrant Tahanian, Ecumenical Officer, Armenian Apostolic Church, Holy See of Cilicia
- The Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo, Secretary General, Anglican Communion
- The Rev. Elijah Brown, General Secretary and CEO, Baptist World Alliance
- Tina Bruner, General Secretary and Executive Director, Christian Church and Churches of Christ
- Bishop Maximos of Melitene, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, Ecumenical Patriarchate
- The Rev. Christoph Amstad Schuler, Ecumenical Officer, International Old Catholic Bishop’s Conference/Old Catholic Church
- The Rev. Anne Burghardt, General Secretary, Lutheran World Federation
- The Rev. Jørgen Bøytler, Unity Board Administrator, Moravian Church Worldwide Unity Board
- The Rev. César García, General Secretary, Mennonite World Conference
- The Rev. David Wells, Vice Chair, Pentecostal World Fellowship
- Commissioner Jane Paone, Secretary for International Ecumenical Relations, The Salvation Army
- The Rev. Reynaldo Ferreira Leão Neto, General Secretary, World Methodist Council
