Church of England clerics have launched a campaign for Easter to be celebrated on the same weekend every year.So the Church is debating changing a centuries-old tradition simply to appease the authorities…?
They believe the move would make life easier for schools and end the disruption and confusion over the timing of bank holidays.
Wow, and they are scratching their heads over why attendance is dropping! Can anyone imagine the reactions of the Muslims if a Minister had the temerity to point out that the shifting timing of Ramadan was a little bit inconvenient?
A motion to fix Easter has been submitted to the General Synod, the Church's parliament, by Canon Andrew Dow, area dean of Cheltenham. He is supported by 44 fellow Synod members.Can anyone imagine education chiefs putting ‘pressure’ on any other religion, and expecting a grovelling response? Nope, me neither…
Over the past decade, pressure has grown from education chiefs for a set spring holiday.
Easter, the most important Christian festival, is calculated according to the lunar calendar.And the State just can’t cope with that inconsistency.
In Western churches, it is the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. It can fall on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. This year, Easter Sunday is on April 12.
Canon Dow's motion calls on the Archbishops' Council to work with the Government and other churches to fix the date of Easter on one weekend in the spring.Why discuss it then? You’ve opened the door a crack – don’t expect them not to start pushing even harder…
It may be discussed in a Synod debate over the next year.
But Church officials warned yesterday that its religious calendar would not be altered for the convenience of ministers or Whitehall.
William Fittall, secretary general of both the Synod and the Archbishops' Council, acknowledged concern among education officials.They always have. What’s changed?
But he said: 'The Government cannot tell Christians when to celebrate Easter.
'They can tell us when to have bank holidays and school holidays, but the issue is whether the major Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter should be recognised as major public holidays.'
4 comments:
more 'busy doing nothing', clerics bustling from meeting to meeting...'what's that? Evensong? Sorry cancel that in my diary I've a working party, pilot scheme, bla blah blah blah blah.....'; minutes to check, letters to dictate. The Church of England - 'There's so much more to this than worshipping God'.
They COULD, of course, allowing for the fact that the moon MAY just one day fall from the sky, work out these days MILLIONS of years in advance and put them on a CALANDER.
Perhaps the thick bastards have not heard of those.
Yet every year they act like it is a bloody guessing game.
Von Brandenburg-Preußen.
In 1928 the House of Commons approved a bill which allowed the fixing of Easter on the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. I don't believe this ever became law. Anyway, even if it did, it was never acted upon.
BTW what's the harm of a bank holiday following a moveable Easter? Is anyone genuinely inconvenienced? Has the move from a bank holiday at Whitsun to a fixed date holiday improved the joy of the nation? Have Mr Dow and his fellow idiots got nothing better to do? Maybe attending to the preservation of Christianity and the spiritual welfare of their congregations is outside their synodical remit.
"Is anyone genuinely inconvenienced? "
No, they shouldn't be.
But it's a nice little way of obtaining subserviance and deference for the new preaching classes, isn't it..?
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