Determining which is the correct date to celebrate Christ's Resurrection has been the subject of ecumenical debate for hundreds of years. The Gregorian calendar points to one set of rules, the Julian calendar points to another.

It's a debate which many - Francis included - would like to end.

"Easter does not take place by our own initiative or by one calendar or another.

"Easter occurred because God ‘so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life'" Francis said during an audience at the Vatican last week.

"Let us not close ourselves within our own ideas, plans, calendars or ‘our' Easter. Easter belongs to Christ!

"Moreover, it is good for us to ask for the grace to be ever more His disciples, allowing Him to be the one to show us the way we should follow."

One Resurrection for all

The delegation members Francis was addressing were from the ecumenical "Pasqua Together 2025" initiative. Founded in 2022, Pasqua calls on Orthodox and mainline Christian churches to celebrate Easter on a common date.

In Easter 2025, the Julian and Gregorian calendars happen by astronomical design to align. Pasqua proposes there should be agreement that the universal celebrations planned for next year should continue every year thereafter.

Pope Francis spoke encouragingly to them in support of their initiative, noting he has been asked several times to seek a solution to the issue of multiple dates for Easter.

"I encourage those who are committed to this journey to persevere and to make every effort in the search for a shared agreement, avoiding anything that may instead lead to further divisions among our brothers and sisters."

Christians should reflect, plan and walk together so that we may bear witness to Christ and that the world may believe, he said.

What's in a date?

Next year will mark both the Holy Year for the Catholic Church and celebrations of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.

That Council gave birth to the Nicene Creed, affirmed the full divinity of Christ and set a formula for determining the date of Easter. It was to be the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.

These days though, we measure time differently from the way we did in 300 AD. The calendar a church uses determines when they'll be celebrating Easter.

Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar which was in use during the Council of Nicaea.

Mainstream Christian churches use the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582 as a more accurate means of keeping time.

Source

• Vatican News
• Catholic Weekly

Nonetheless, she hopes the Catholic Church will continue to explore the topic of women's leadership with "courage".

"I'm aware ... that to many such an opportunity feels rare, if not historic. I'm thankful for the privilege, and equally want to honour the risk Pope Francis surely took in welcoming it" she wrote.

Wells - who is the deputy secretary-general of the Anglican Communion - was one of three women to meet with Francis and his so-called "C9" group of nine cardinals on 5 February.

The C9 meet each quarter to advise Francis on church governance.

The group's last two meetings have focused on the role of women in the church.

Ecumenical engagement

Including both women and an Anglican woman bishop for the first time ever at the usually all-male meeting suggests Francis sees the value of ecumenical engagement.

That engagement is "not only for collaboration between churches but for listening and learning from each other" Wells says.

According to Wells, Salesian Sr Linda Pocher (from Rome's Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences "Auxilium") organised the session for Francis.

Ordained women

Pocher asked her - as an Anglican woman bishop - "to speak to the story of the ordination of women in the Church of England and in the Anglican Communion, offering a personal perspective as well as the broader ecclesial journey" Wells said.

Francis has expanded the Catholic Church's dialogue with both the Anglican Communion and with women's ministries throughout his papacy.

Wells said she told Francis and the C9 the story of Florence Li Tim-Oi who (because of extenuating circumstances) in 1944 became the first woman to be ordained to the Anglican priesthood.

At the time, it was impossible for male priests to visit her Chinese congregation in Macau.

Nearly 50 years later in 1992, the Church of England's General Synod voted to ordain women - though certain parishes don't have to accept ordained women as priests.

In Rome, Wells said, she discussed the "levels of decision-making in regard to women in the three orders of deacon, priest and bishop" with the pope and cardinals.

She said the pope and cardinals "listened graciously, evidenced from their questions and the discussion which followed".

In addition, she said she is impressed by the ongoing synod on synodality, where topics include questions about ordaining women to the diaconate and priesthood.

The "urgent need" for expanded roles for women's ministry, as the synod's synthesis report described it, is expected to top the agenda when synod delegates reconvene in Rome this October.

"We might expect that, whatever the path ahead in terms of women and ordination, the Spirit will be at work to affirm and harness the gifts and graces invested in women for the sake of the whole body of Christ" said Wells of the synod.

Pocher said after the women met with Francis and the C9 that she believes that Francis is "very much in favour of the female diaconate". Women's ordination remains out of bounds for him however.

Source

• NCR