The Date of Easter

My much-admired friend Michael Covington asks in this Post:

"Does anybody know more about this?"

Michael is a scientist, an astronomer, and a Protestant -- and is confused about the issues being addressed. They are complex, arcane, and have to do with the internal politics of Orthodoxy (as well as Western Catholicism).

I answered his question as follows:

The issue has nothing to do with the real date/time of the Equinox, nor, directly, with calendars, and everything to do with the innate conservatism of Orthodoxy.

There is a light bulb joke:

Q: How many Orthodox does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Change? CHANGE!?!?!
We will pray in the dark,
as the Apostles did!!!

The Byzantine and Oriental Orthodox churches in the East have been under relentless and savage attack, both physically and ideologically since the rise of Mohammedanism in the 7th Century AD. From the West also, since the 11th Century or so.

The cultural result has been an absolute intransigence, preferring martyrdom to accommodation -- which Mohammedans, Mongols, and Soviets have been more than happy to provide. Russian Orthodoxy has canonized Nicolas II as "The Tsar Martyr". despite (and sometimes because of) his total ineptitude as a ruler.

The first Ecumenical Council, held at Nicea in 325 AD, has enormous prestige, and is foundational to much of the Church's structure and belief -- both East and West. The Link:

http://www.usccb.org/seia/easter.shtml

. . . and their Link:

http://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/wcc-commissions/faith-and-order-commission/i-unity-the-church-and-its-mission/towards-a-common-date-for-easter/towards-a-common-date-for-easter.html

. . . are an attempt to open dialogue with the most intransigent of the iron-bound conservatives (often calling themselves "Old Calendarists", and more often than not located in the monastic communities on Mt. Athos).

The argument goes:

1) Look what Nicea was trying to do: Unify Paschal worship

2) Look how Nicea did it: using the best contemporary
tools of science.

3) Let us, therefore, follow in the footsteps of the
Fathers of Nicea in unifying the Paschal
dating, using contemporary tools in
the same way they did theirs.

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My personal take on the whole issue is to shrug, and just accept the date of Easter as calculated by the Orthodox (however bizarrely), on the grounds that changing the minds and habits of all of Western Christianity would be easier and quicker than changing anything in Orthodoxy.

+Sam'l Bassett
Geek Bishop