A fixed Sunday for Easter?

Discussion in 'Feasts, Fasts, and Church Calendar' started by Mockingbird, Jan 23, 2016.

  1. Mockingbird

    Mockingbird Member

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    According to Archbishop Welby,

    http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/15/easter-justin-welby-christian-attempt-fix-date

    While it is not impossible, I find it so unlikely that the Coptic Patriarch would make such a proposal that I suspect that Archbishop Welby might be mistaken about what Pope Tawadros wrote in his letter last Spring to the papal nuncio.

    Whether it is Pope Tawadros's proposal or not, if such a deed were to be done I would deem it a dumb deed. Changing old customs that do harm is one thing. Changing something that is doing no harm, merely to ingratiate ourselves with the robber-barons of Wall Street, is silly.

    The moon as well as the sun was created for times and tides. (Genesis 1.14). By maintaining the lunar computation for Easter, we are using the moon and sun for their intended purpose. Furthermore, as Bishop Nazir-Ali has suggested, by abandoning the lunar computation would put us at a greater remove from our Jewish origins than necessary.

    http://www.christiantoday.com/artic...t.against.fixing.the.date.of.easter/77426.htm
     
  2. Andy

    Andy Member Anglican

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    I agree. There's no need to effect any changes, only the perceived need to appease and placate yet another group of people.
     
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  3. Aidan

    Aidan Well-Known Member

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    If it's not broken why fix it? Easter has been calculated like this from the earliest times of the Church
     
  4. Silvan

    Silvan Active Member

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    I agree! :)
     
  5. PDL

    PDL Well-Known Member Anglican

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    I see absolutely no reason for changing the date of Easter. An early Easter is a slight problem in education because we tend to try and have certain things done by Easter. It makes the spring term rather short. However, we adapt and there are still as many weeks from early January until mid-July.

    I prefer the fact the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany cycle is fixed round a set date: 25th December, and the Lent-Easter-Penteocst cycle fixed around a variable Easter Day.

    I had thought this discussion was old but it sounds like it is still being considered in some circles. What I cannot see is all Christian churches agreeing to a fixed date.
     
  6. Shane R

    Shane R Well-Known Member

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    This discussion resurfaced earlier this year when a Greek Archbishop and a Catholic Cardinal proposed that a change be implemented to the collective church calendars of East and West in 2025 to celebrate the 1700th Anniversary of the 1st Council of Nicaea. Of course, the Eastern church is in schism of its own and the Moscow Patriarchate and the churches under its influence have no interest in synchronizing the Gregorian and Julian calendar for the Easter feast.
     
  7. PDL

    PDL Well-Known Member Anglican

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    I read the link given above to Bishop Nazir-Ali's comments on this matter. He said there was two options. The first was that the date of Easter still varies but that all Christians agree a formula so it is celebrated by all of us on the same calendar day each year. The second was that it be permanently assigned to a fixed day, e.g. second or third Sunday in April.

    I would have no issue with the former but would be opposed to the latter. As you point out one particular communion cannot agree on matters so there is absolutely no way all Christian churches can reach a common agreement, and most definitely not in the next four years.
     
  8. Mockingbird

    Mockingbird Member

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    Bishop Nazir-Ali left the third option unspoken: continuing as we are. And this is what will happen in the near term. for the Easterners aren't willing to update their tables notwithstanding their inaccuracy, and I see no reason why we should accept the Easterners' outdated tables. Our Gregorian lunar calendar agrees reasonably well with the visible moon.

    upload_2021-7-6_19-43-12.jpeg
     
  9. Botolph

    Botolph Well-Known Member

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    Have we no come such a long way. Augustine was sent to Britain to convert the English, yet spend much of his time negotiating with the Celtic Church to get them to celebrate Easter on the correct date.
     
  10. Tiffy

    Tiffy Well-Known Member

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    Isn't it rather important though that Christmas is only a fixed date because we only know it happened, but don't know exactly when. For Easter though, we know exactly when it happened by the phases of the moon. so that cycle of date measurement is reproducable but not on a solar year date timescale, but on a lunar one. Maunday Thursday / Good Friday is always a full moon, and that is of importance for both memorial and occult reasons. It is when the forces of darkness were defeated, once and for all.
    .
     
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  11. PDL

    PDL Well-Known Member Anglican

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    There was no unspoken third option. The discussion was about how to change the date of Easter. If you are looking at making a change not making one is not one of the options.