Easter Controversy

Background

Following the Gospel accounts that place the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ around the time of the Jewish Passover, the early church understood the feast commemorating the resurrection in connection with Passover. Passover, however, is fixed on the 14th day of Nisan (the first month of spring) in the Jewish calendar, so the day of the week on which it falls changes from year to year. As a result, two different practices of observance emerged.

• The churches of Asia Minor observed the feast on the 14th of Nisan regardless of the day of the week. They are called Quartodecimans, from the Latin word for "fourteenth." They claimed that this custom had been handed down from the apostle John.
• Rome and most other churches held that, since the resurrection took place on the Lord's Day, the feast should be observed on the Sunday following Passover.

Development

• Mid-second century: Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, visited Anicetus, bishop of Rome, to discuss the matter, but the two failed to reach agreement. They are said, however, to have remained in communion with each other and to have recognized each other's customs.
• Late second century (c. 190): Victor I, bishop of Rome, sought to excommunicate the churches of Asia Minor. Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, defended the practice of his churches on the basis of apostolic tradition, while Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, urged Victor not to divide the church over a difference in dates. This episode is preserved in the writings of the church historian Eusebius.
• 325: The Council of Nicaea is reported to have decided that all churches should observe Easter on the same Sunday and that the date should not be left to Jewish calendrical reckoning. The method of calculation in common use today—"the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox"—does not, however, appear as such in the council's canons; it became established later on the basis of the reckoning used by the church of Alexandria.
• Seventh century: Differences in reckoning also became an issue between the Celtic church in Britain and the Roman missionaries. At the Synod of Whitby in 664, Northumbria adopted the Roman method of calculation.
• 1582: Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar and promulgated the Gregorian calendar in order to correct the drift of the Julian calendar away from the actual spring equinox. Protestant regions adopted it over time, but the Orthodox Church continues to use the Julian calendar for calculating Easter.

Outcome and Influence

Today the Catholic Church and Protestant churches calculate the date using the Gregorian calendar, while the Orthodox Church generally uses the Julian calendar. Easter in the two traditions sometimes falls on the same day but can also be separated by anywhere from one to five weeks. Korean Protestants, regardless of denomination, follow the Western date, and the united Easter service is held on that date as well. Once the date of Easter is fixed, the other seasons and feasts of the church year, such as Lent, Holy Week, and Pentecost, are determined accordingly.

Assessment

The Easter controversy was a dispute over liturgy and the calendar rather than over doctrine itself. It is nonetheless regarded as an episode that raised, at an early stage, the question of how much uniformity the unity of the church requires. The second-century example of Polycarp and Anicetus is frequently cited as a model of maintaining communion while acknowledging differences in custom.

Within the ecumenical movement, efforts to find a common date have continued. A consultation convened by the World Council of Churches in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997 proposed adopting a calculation based on astronomical observation as a common standard. In 2025, the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the Western and Eastern dates of Easter happened to coincide, renewing discussion of a common date. At the same time, voices within the various churches urge caution about changing traditional calendars, and no agreement has yet been reached.