[Communicated to the Council and the Members of the League.] Official N o.: C. 335. M. 154. 1934. VIII. Geneva. August 3rd, 1934. LEAGUE OF NATIONS ORGANISATION FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSIT STABILISATION OF MOVABLE FEASTS SUMMARY OF REPLIES FROM RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES TO THE LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS COMMUNICATING THE ACT REGARDING THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ASPECTS OF FIXING MOVABLE FEASTS I. — COMMUNICATION OF THE ACT TO THE RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES. According to the instructions of the Council, the Secretary-General brought the Act regarding the economic and social aspects of fixing movable feasts, adopted by the Fourth General Conference on Communications and Transit, to the notice of the Christian Religious Authorities, asking them to consider as favourably as possible what action they could “take in the matter. As far as the Holy See is concerned, the Act was communicated by letter from the Secretary-General of the League to the Secretary of State of His Holiness on November 16th, As regards Christian Churches other than the Roman Catholic Church, a request was addressed on November 16th, 1932, to the President of the Universal Christian Council for Life and Work, to which all these Churches are affiliated, asking him to bring the above-mentioned Act to their knowledge and to inform the Secretary-General of the League of the views expressed by the Churches in the matter. II. — RESULTS OF THE ENQUIRY. 1. — Attitude of the Holy See. By letter dated December 30th, 1932, Cardinal Pacelli informed the Secretary-General that the Holy bee maintains the point of view already expressed in previous communications — i.e., that the stabilisation of Easter is a pre-eminently religious question which falls within the competence of the Holy See and that, for reasons of higher spiritual concern, the Holy ?>ee cannot contemplate a change in this matter. Attitude of the Christian Churches a/Jiliated to the Universal Christian Council for Life and Work. i he main results of the enquiry into the attitude of these Churches were communicated to the Secretary-General in a report drawn up by the Research Department of the Universal ■hnstian Council for Life and Work on July 25th, 1933.1 This report may be recapitulated as follows : A. A t t i t u d e o f t h e O r t h o d o x S e c t io n o f t h e U n i v e r s a l C h r i s t i a n C o u n c il . All the members of the Orthodox Section mentioned in the following list were asked to state their attitude to the proposals of the League of Nations : His Holiness the Œcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, President. His Grace the Metropolitan of Thyateira, Archbishop D. Germanos. His Grace the Metropolitan of Trebizond, Chrysanthos, Greece. His Beatitude the Patriarch and Pope of Alexandria, Egypt. His Grace the Metropolitan of Hermopolis, Nikolaos, Egypt. His Beatitude the Patriarch of Antiochia, Syria. Copies ol this report are available in the archives of the League. Series of League of Nations Publications VIII. TRANSIT. S' d. N. 875 (F.) 950 (A.) 9/34. Imp. Granchamp. 1934. VIII. 5. His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Palestine. His Grace the Metropolitan of Jordan, Timotheus, Palestine. His Beatitude the Patriarch of Serbia, Barnabas, Yugoslavia. His Lordship the Bishop of Novi Sad, Ireneus, Yugoslavia. His Beatitude the Patriarch of Boumania, Myron Christea, Roumanie. His Grace the Metropolitan of Sibvu, Nikolaos, Roumania. His Beatitude the Archbishop of Cyprus, Cyrill, Cyprus. His Grace the Metropolitan of Paphos, Leontios, Cyprus. His Beatitude the Archbishop of Athens, Chrysostomos, Greece. Professor H. S. Alivisatos, Secretary, Athens, Greece. His Beatitude the Metropolitan of Warsaw, Dionysios, Vice-President, Poland. Archimandrite Sawa, Poland. His Grace the Metropolitan of Sofia, Stephan, Bulgaria. Professor Dr. Zankow, Sofia, Bulgaria. The President of the Orthodox Section is His Holiness the (Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. His Grace the Metropolitan of Thyateira, Archbishop D. Germanos, is his permanent representative and at the same time one of the four Presidents of the Universal Christian Council. The (Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as its own domain, governs the Church of Albania, and the dioceses in Europe, America and Australia and its supremacy covers also the autonomous Churches of Finland, Estonia and Crete. It is connected with the autokephalic Orthodox Churches of Alexandria, Antiochia, Cyprus, Greece, Jerusalem, Yugoslavia, Poland, Roumania and Russia. The attitude of the Orthodox Churches to the stabilisation of Easter was jointly decided upon at the Panorthodox Congress of May 23rd and June 5th, 1923, and communicated to the League of Nations by the (Ecumenical Patriarch, with whom the initiative for following the question further was left. The results of the new investigation can be summed up in the following way : The general attitude of the Orthodox Church to the stabilisation of Easter, which was established by the resolutions of the Panorthodox Congress of May 23rd and June 5th, 1923, is still regarded as the basis of the present attitude to the proposals of the League of Nations. Thus, the Orthodox Church is ready, if all the Christian Churches are in common agreement, to accept a stabilisation of Easter, which in any event must fall on a Sunday. Furthermore, the official representative of the (Ecumenical Patriarch, Professor Dr. D. Eginitis, of Athens, has, in connection with the resolutions of the Fourth General Conference for Communications and Transit, in the year 1931, declared himself for the stabilisation of Easter oil the Sunday following the second Saturday in April, and reported accordingly to the (Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople without any objections having been raised. Consequently, there are no fundamental objections from the Orthodox Church to a suitable stabilisation of Easter, provided that a general agreement on this point can be reached by all the Christian Churches. The Patriarch of Alexandria, the Archbishop of Athens, the Archbishop of Cyprus and the Archbishop of Roumania have again emphasised the common attitude of the Orthodox Churches in a direct reply to the Research Department. A particular expression of opinion as to the latest proposals of the League of Nations is still to he expected from some of the individual autokephalic Orthodox Churches. The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Roumanian Church has concerned itself with the most recent proposals of the League of Nations, without its having been possible to arrive at a final resolution. In this connection the Archbishop and Metro­ politan of Roumania has personally pointed out that, in the event of such a change of age-old custom, everything must be done to avoid a shock to the religious life of the faithful. In the same way, an expression of its attitude is not to be expected from the Orthodox Church of Yugoslavia before June 1933, since the Council of Bishops, as the competent assembly, will not come together before Whitsun. According to the communication from the Metropolitan of Warsaw, an official statement is also expected from the Orthodox Church of Poland on the whole question of the stabilisation of Easter and of the calendar reform eventually to be connected with it. B. European-Continental Section of the Universal Christian Council. From the Churches which belong to the European-Continental Section, there is no uniform decision such as is stated by the Churches represented in the Orthodox Section. The enquiries were supported in some countries and groups of Churches by special investigations undertaken by the competent Church organisations. Such special investigations were carried out for the Old Catholic Church, for the German Protestant Church Federation, for the French Protestant Church Federation and for the Swiss Protestant Church Federation. Below are given first of all the essential points of the attitude of each Church represented in the European-Continental Section, and then, in a general survey, the decisions common to all the C hurches are summed up : Germany: Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenbund (German Protestant Church Federation). Taking for granted the general agreement of the Christian Churches to the stabilisation of Easter, no objections of a fundamental n atu re will be raised, but the necessity, or at least the desirability, of the stabilisation of Easter is expressly stated. W ith regard to the date, opinion differs. A wish is expressed that Easter might possibly be fixed within a period before the first of April and in fact on the first S un day following March 21st— that is to say, on a day between March 22nd and 28th. In this way the disturbance and commotion caused by April 1st being the first day of the quarter and of the financial year would be avoided as far as possible. But the advantages of a fixed Easter are regarded by the German Protestant Churches as being so essential that they would also agree to a latter date so long as the solemnity of Holy Week were not endangered or the Easter festival itself harmed. — 3 — Austria : Evangelische Kirche Augsburgischen und Helvetischen Bekenntnisses (Protestant Church of the Augsburgian and Helvetican Creed). There are no objections to the stabilisation of Easter. On the contrary, it is considered desirable, and agreement is expressly given to the proposal of the League of Nations for the stabilisation on the Sunday following the second Saturday in April. On the other hand, a fixed date for the stabilisation of Easter is rejected. Belgium : Eglise chrétienne missionnaire belge (Christian Missionary Church of Belgium). No fundamental objections are raised to the proposal of the League of Nations with regard to the stabilisation of Easter, on condition that a general agreement between all the Christian Churches can be reached.