A Church of England bishop has voiced his opposition to plans to fix the date of Easter. Following talks with Anglican, Coptic Orthodox and Catholic leaders, the Archbishop of Canterbury announced in January that he hoped a fixed date for Easter could be achieved within the next five or ten years. But the Rt Rev Nicholas Holtam, the Bishop of Salisbury, said that such a move would detach Christianity from its Jewish roots as the date of Easter is dictated by the timing of Passover. Bishop Holtam told the Daily Telegraph that Passover “is not incidental” to the Passion. He said: “If the Primates of the Anglican Communion thought same-sex relationships were difficult to know what to do with, just wait until they get going on the implications of fixing the date of Easter.” He added: “It is the connection with Passover on which the desire to fix the date of Easter turns and falls. It seems to me a curiously unexamined piece of cultural accommodation that would separate the timing of Easter from Passover and detach us from our Jewish roots. “In a world in which the dominant secular narrative about religion is of division and violence, it ought to be a gift that there are shared stories, experiences and scriptures. Passover is not incidental to the Passion. Easter disconnected from Passover misses the point. “What’s more, it is a way into the shared experience of Jews, Christians and Muslims, the children of Abraham and people of the Book.” At present, Easter falls on the Sunday after the full moon that follows the vernal equinox, which occurs around March 21, meaning that Easter can fall between March 22 and April 25. Speaking in January, Archbishop Justin Welby said the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria, Pope Tawadros, “has put forward the idea to churches in the Eastern tradition and the Western tradition that it be fixed somewhere around the second or third Sunday of April, and we will certainly be joining in. We have agreed that we support that.” The archbishop said he would like to see the change before he retired. Last year, at a global gathering of priests, Pope Francis joked that under the current arrangement, Christians could say to each other: “When did Christ rise from the dead? My Christ rose today, and yours next week,” adding that such disunity was a scandal.