Christian leaders attempt to fix global date for Easter

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Christian leaders attempt to fix global date for Easter

Archbishop of canterbury Justin Welby says unified date could come in five to 10
years – allowing followers worldwide to celebrate at same time

Ben Quinn
Friday 15 January 2016 16.58 GMT

The archbishop of Canterbury has announced he is engaged in an ambitious plan to solve one of the oldest disagreements in Christianity – one dating back more than 1,600 years.

Justin Welby said he had been in discussions with Catholic representatives and the world’s other major Christian denominations to agree on a fixed day for Easter, at the end of a four-day meeting of Anglican primates whose meeting had been dominated by discord over gay rights.

The archbishop said he had warned ministers that the change could have an effect on school terms and calendars, saying he hoped the unified date on the second or third Sunday in April could be introduced in the next five to 10 years. He added: “I would love to see it before I retire.”

The rules for determining the date of Easter were set in AD325 at the council of Nicaea, which was convened by the Roman emperor Constantine to codify the Christian faith. It declared that Easter should come on the first Sunday after the 14th day of the Paschal – or ecclesiastical – full moon, meaning that it falls between 22 March 22 and 25 April where the Gregorian calendar is used.

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

[hrmjustin]

1. Would be nice to celebrate Easter at the same time with all our Christian brothers and sisters.

[skepticscott]

14. Why?

What would you do differently? And should Easter for Australian Xstians be pushed back a day, so that they're not celebrating on Sunday, when it's still only Saturday for Xstians in the US?

[hrmjustin]

15. It feels odd to tell a member of the Orthodox Church Happy Easter when they are still in lent.

But on reflection it is nice to go to an Orthdox Easter service with friends so that would not be posible.

But it is just an emotional thing about unity.

[skepticscott]

19. So don't tell them Happy Easter

when they're still in lent.

Problem solved.

[underpants]

2. It's March 27th this year

[Hoppy]

3. But if they get the date wrong, would our asses be scheduled to fry in the eternal bonfire?

We already got it wrong with Da Gay thing.

















Yes, Beatrice, its satire.

[TexasProgresive]

4. Since Easter is tied to the Passover

which is determined by the Lunar Jewish calendar this makes no real sense. It is like the Catholic Church in the U.S. moving 3 Kings day from January 6th to the Sunday following January 1st. I guess they got the idea from congress which has done its best to make every Federal holiday on a Monday. If they could legislate that July 4th is always a Monday they would or November 11th is always on a Monday.

[edhopper]

5. Should always be March 20

since it is just a co-opting of the Spring festival.

[MisterP]

6. for the 1,862nd year in a row!

[niyad]

7. I guess fixing the date for easter was just too pagan for this guy:

In 325CE the Council of Nicaea established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox.(*) From that point forward, the Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the vernal equinox.

[cleanhippie]

8. Why is it so difficult? It's a fictional event so pick a date and viola!

Or is there some disagreement between the 'serious theologians' over when this fictional event "actually" took place?

[edhopper]

9. The rising from the dead

not the crucifixion, At some unrecorded time, a guy named Yeshua might have been crucified. I think Josephus or Tacitus mentions it.

Any way, is it different than decided that Dec. 24th is the night Santa goes to everyone's home, or the date of a purely mythological birth.

[rug]

10. Once again you're befiuddled by something and therefore blame religion.

It's astronomy in this case. The confusion refers to the minority still using the Julian Calendar versus the majority using the astronomically updated Gregorian Calendar.

[Iggo]

16. Oh please, yes. Let's ask the biblical scholars.

[rug]

11. That would be convenient but the Orthodoxe Churches are not part of the Anglican Communion.

They are in fraternity though. Maybe they'll follow Canterbury's suggestion.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. "representatives of Francis, the Coptic pope and the ecumenical patriarch of the Orthodox church"

The article ends:

Welby took journalists by surprise at a press conference when he said that Easter had come up in primates’ discussions following a meeting he had with the Coptic Pope Tawadros II in Cairo, and discussions Tawadros had with Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch.

“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,” Welby said.

[rug]

18. Sounds like they've been working on it a while in several venues.

Ironically the Anglican Church rejected the Gregorian Calendar for a long time because it was adopted by Rome. It's reflected in the records of the early American colonies.

[Cartoonist]

12. As a spectator

I am amused.

Next on the docket, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

[mr blur]

13. Must be nice to have nothing better to do than this. nt