Another long term crisis started, once again,
by the all-knowing and science hating Church.
Think how less complicated it would have been
to stay on the lunar calendar.
Same number of days, same time for the feasts
each year, no poems to remember which month
had how many days, but, no, the Church couldn’t
do that, could they?
But non unity among Christians is even a greater scandel, which includes the issue of not having a certain date for Easter. Case in point, the Catholics and Protestants observe Easter TODAY and then the Orthodox do theirs on May 1st. In truth the later is closer to the Jewish Passover than ours this year. Next year all the churches come together for Easter, which is very good.
It’s fine just how it is. How will Good Friday and the Annunciation fall on the same day if it is changed?
I’m not sure where the idea of a fixed date got any currency. It’s an absolute non-starter for the Orthodox, since it violates decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, as is simply adopting the Gregorian Paschalion, in view of multiple local councils anathematizing it.
The one bit of wiggle room on this would be if the Russians, Georgians, Serbs and Jerusalem could be persuaded to drop the Julian calendar (which is a matter of long-established custom, rather than something based on conciliar decrees). In that case a proposal floated by the Copts a while back could be the basis for a common date: follow the ancient prescription, but using the most astronomically accurate available calendar — now the civil calendar complete with “leap seconds” — rather than either the Julian or Gregorian calendar as the basis for calculating the vernal equinox.
The really objectionable thing in Pope Gregory’s reform was not the improvement in astronomical accuracy, but using the first Sunday after first full moon after the vernal equinox as the Feast of the Resurrection, rather than computing Passover — which lasts seven days — as starting with the first full moon after the vernal equinox, then having Pascha as the first Sunday after the completion of Passover (to abide by the conciliar prohibition on celebrating with or before the Jews).
Had the Coptic proposal been adopted when it was first made, today would have been Palm Sunday for everyone, and Pascha would have been kept next Sunday.
Having seperate dates for Easter is a scandal.
It’s really freaky to see the Church of England take a more conservative stand than the Catholic and Coptic churches.