"'TWO EASTERS IS A HOUSE DIVIDED'"

According to Western Christianity, which includes both Protestant and Catholic churches, today is Easter Sunday. However, the Eastern Orthodox Church does not celebrate Easter for five more weeks, that is, until April 27, 2008. According to www.religionfacts.com it was decided "at the Council of Nicea in 325, which decreed that Easter should be celebrated by all on the same Sunday, which Sunday shall be the first following the paschal moon (and the paschal moon must not precede the spring equinox), and that a particular church should determine the date of Easter and communicate it throughout the empire (probably Alexandria, with their skill in astronomical calculations).

"The policy was adopted throughout the empire, but Rome adopted an 84-year lunar cycle for determining the date, whereas Alexandria used a 19-year cycle. Use of these different "paschal cycles" persists to this day and contributes to the disparity between the eastern and western dates of Easter."

In the TLIG International e-news letter of March 19, 2008, it claims that "Two Easters Is A House Divided." In the past I had never really focused on this as being very important. However, as I now look forward to the Second Pentecost and Christian Unity (as yet undefined), I am impressed by the following excerpted from the TLIG international e-news:

"And, have you ever thought of what this looks like to the non-Christian world? Here is what Monsignor Isidore Battika, Greek Catholic Patriarchal Vicar in Damascus, Syria, where Christians are a minority has to say about it. 'For the Easter feast it is very important. We have two Easter feasts in Syria. It is a bad thing for the church. We don’t testify to Jesus Christ. To the Moslem, when they see us have two Easter, two Crucifixions, two Resurrections it is too much.'"

Consider expressing yourself by voting on the following petition to Unify the Dates of Easter:
http://www.onedate.org