Phanar: Celebrating Easter with Catholics is a first order issue

Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) of Chalcedon, who heads the delegation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Vatican, said that “The question of the common celebration of Easter gradually imposes itself as an ecumenical issue of the first order," Vatican News reports.

In an interview with the Vatican media, the Phanar hierarch said that this issue is exacerbated in the context of the approaching 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council, where a formula for calculating the date of Easter was established. “I believe that the Jubilee that is just around the corner should invite us to reflect on our liturgical practices with respect to the integrity of the body of Christ,” said the Metropolitan.

He also noted that for the Orthodox Church, calendar issues remain thorny and, as history has shown, can lead to schisms, but then added that “Celebrating Easter on the same Sunday throughout the Christian world on this conciliar historical basis would be a powerful message of witness and reconciliation."

Recall that in 2018 it was Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) who presided over the so-called "Unification council" in Kyiv, at which Ukrainian politicians and representatives of schismatic organizations announced the creation of a new "Orthodox Church of Ukraine".

As reported by the UOJ, the Pope called to pull down the "wall of prejudice" with Orthodoxy.