www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Date of Easter for Byzantine Catholics

Dear Cantor Joe,

Excellent point!

Schmemann also says that the "Day of the Cross, the Day of the Tomb and the Day of the Resurrection" were fused into the "Triduum Pasche" or the Three-Day Pascha.

This is also why Easter Sunday is referred to as "Pascha" (the name for the events of Great Friday), but all other Sundays of the year are traditionally referred to as "Day of the Resurrection" or "Voskresennya" - the traditional Orthodox name for "Sunday."

To paraphrase the scriptures, "You have spoken well, teacher!"

Alex

Dear Orthodoxyordeath
Sorry to hear your baby is sick will intercede before the throne of grace.
Was just reading an article in Eastern Churches Journal concerning the dating of easter. I will quote a small part for you.
" The practice of continuing to celebrate Pascha according to the ancient Julian Calender ("a venerable tradition" my intrejection) has often been defended, by some Eastern Christians, as resting on a decision associated with that Council ( Nicea I) prohibiting the Churches from celebrating the Paschal feast "with the Jews".
As scholars of both traditions have very clearly demonstrated, this prohibition was directed against making the calculation of the date of Easter depend upon contemporary Jewish reckoning, not against a coincidence of date between the two festivals. In fact, a coincidence of Passover and Easter dates continued to occur from time to time as late as the 8th century. Only later, when the increasing lag of the Julian Calendar made any coincidence impossible, did the prohibition come to be misinterpreted as meaning that the Jewish Passover must necessarily preced the Christian Passover each year."

The meeting between Churches in Aleppo recommends
the following:
1. Maintain the norms established by the First Oecumenical Council in Nicea 325 AD, according to which the Easter/Pascha should fall on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring.
2. Calculate the necessary astronomical data (spring equinox and full moon) by the most accurate possible scientific means, using the Jerusalem meridian as the basis of reckoning.

Stephanos I
Unworthy Monk and Archsinner

[ 04-23-2002: Message edited by: Stephanos I ]

Dear Stephanos,

That is fine, but try telling the Old Calendar people, like many of our parishes, that!

We like having our Easter separate from the West.

It just makes our year!

Alex

My $0.02:

I would like to see a unified calendar for all Apostolic Christians.

My suggestions:

#1: use the Gregorian calendar for the fixed dates
#2: calculate Pascha using the Orthodox rules applied to the Gregorian calendar (i.e. no "drifting").

I don't think the tie to Jewish Passover should be completely severed; someone in this thread stated that he would not find it objectionable if Pascha ended up in autumn. I would.

The typikon could certainly be updated to account for the 13-day shift.

Since I believe it will take a Catholic-Orthodox ecumenical council to effect reunion anyway, the bishops may as well add the matter of the calendar to their agenda.

Stephanos I,

Sorry, but I have not visited this thread in awhile. I seem to be getting busier and busier with Church functions as Passover draws near.

I believe I mentioned earlier that the phrase "not with the Jews" merely meant that we do not go by their current algorithms, so you'll get no argument from me.

As far as using the most astronomically correct data...

There has never been a self-professing Christian who has ever forwarded a calendar for the purpose of astronomical accuracy, it has always been done for reasons of unity, relativism, or authority.

When the Holy and God-fearing Fathers formulated the calculation for Passover, they did so knowing full well that the Julian Calendar was, even in their time, days in error between the calendar vernal equinox and the actual celestial event. They however, were only concerned with the unity of all Orthodox Christians.

Just like the negotiations with the Greeks at Ferrara-Florence were as much of an internal power struggle between the Latin bishops and the pope for authority in the Latin West, Pope Gregory's calendar was also a tool to acquire more authority over the Kings and Princes of Europe.

The new-calendarists contend that they corrected the calendar purely for astronomical reasons. They said that it was embarrassing to follow an antiquated, inaccurate calendar. Very well. The Church, however, is certainly not concerned with the astronomical accuracy of the calendar, but only with the liturgical and festal union and order of the local churches. Even so, let us suppose that those people truly labored on behalf of scientific accuracy.

Why then did they not correct the calendar according to the scientific data available in the twentieth century? Rather, they implemented an equally inaccurate calendar dating from the sixteenth century, the calendar of Pope Gregory. Why did they not implement the one which Peter Dragic had carefully computed and which was submitted to the so-called Pan-“Orthodox” meeting of Constantinople in 1923? Simply because the real reason was not a scientific correction of the calendar, which would have been a completely useless undertaking from an ecclesiastical point of view. The real purpose of the calendar change was to effect a festal union of the “churches,” which could be actualized only with the Orthodox adoption of the Gregorian calendar of the Latins and Protestants.

New Calendarism equals Ecumenism, equals a rejection of the Truth, a rejection of the One, Holy Church, a rejection of Holy Tradition, a rejection of the continual presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church. The new-calendarists declared the festal order of the Church Fathers to be in error; they overturned the festal relation between the Paschal cycle and immovable feasts; they abolished fasts; they changed immovable feasts to movable ones (eg. the feast of Saint George); they destroyed the festal harmony and unity of the Church of Greece with the other Orthodox Churches which did not change the festal calendar. They did all this in order to concelebrate with the "denominations" of the West.

And today there is already talk of instituting yet another calendar which would have an equal number of days in every month and is much more accurate. Well now, I suppose at some point even the modernist's who always want to be in step with the world would have to ask themselves, is the calendar that underpins God's holy days sacred or secular? Who is the authority in the Church, “pan-Orthodox” councils, the Pope, scientists, or the age old, ever-trusted and much revered Holy Tradition?

I have a brilliant idea. Why doesn't everyone simply recognize the authority Holy Tradition and return to that which was prescribed for them?

[ 04-23-2002: Message edited by: OrthodoxyOrDeath ]

I would politely disagree.

Axios

Dear Alex,

Back when I was a kid, I liked having two Easters and two Christmases. Just for fun!

John
Pilgrim and Odd Duck

quote:
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New Calendarism equals Ecumenism, equals a rejection of the Truth, a rejection of the One, Holy Church, a rejection of Holy Tradition, a rejection of the continual presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church
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I would also politely disagree and state that the "calendar" used/any calendar, does not rise to the level of dogmatic truth. Dating back to the Essenes (in Judaeo-Christian history) "calendar" disputes have been the cause of many divisions in people of faith where, aside from the "calendar" issue, dogmatic unity was in place. The "slippery slope" reasoning cited is unsound raising a series of separate issues. It is sad, and surely not in keeping with the Gospel message, that people fight over the minutae and ignore the larger issues. May God help us all overcome the tendency (yetzer hara) to do that. FatherDeacon Moshe

It is not impossible to change the calendar, but it must be done for Orthodox reasons and for all.

And you can disagree that New Calendarism equals ecumenism, but it would be much more helpful if you could state why the calendar was changed, if not for ecumenical reasons.