Steamboat Pilot & Today

In the year 325 A.D., a Council of the Fathers of the undivided Christian Church was convened in Asia Minor (now Turkey) in the city of Nicaea. Part of the work of the Council was to determine, once and for all, the date on the calendar when Christians should celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. As it was, in those days Christians in various parts of the Roman Empire were commemorating the Resurrection at differing times. The church was compelled to “fix” the problem.

Using the already existing calendar implemented by the pagan Roman emperor Julius Caesar, called the “Julian” calendar, the Fathers in Nicaea came up with the following formula: “Jesus’ Resurrection will be celebrated every year on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, and after the Jewish feast of Passover.”

Because this calculation is based on a lunar event, the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ falls on a different date each year, making it a “movable feast,” as opposed to other commemorations like Christmas, which are celebrated on the same day each year.

The Julian calendar held sway until 1582, when Pope Gregory VIII realized the Julian calendar was not accurate and needed to be corrected (Julius Caesar’s mathematicians did not know that the Earth does not revolve around the sun in 365 days; it actually takes 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds. Leap years were introduced to resolve the discrepancy).

The formula for Easter — “the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox” — is identical for Western and Eastern Orthodox Easters, but the churches base the dates on different calendars. Western churches use the Gregorian calendar of 1582, the standard calendar for much of the world, and Eastern Orthodox churches use the older Julian calendar.

That much is straightforward. The two churches (West and East) vary, however, on the definition of the spring equinox and the full moon. The Eastern Church sets the date of Easter according to the actual astronomical full moon and the actual equinox as observed along the meridian of Jerusalem, site of the Crucifixion and Resurrection. The Eastern Orthodox Church also applies the formula so that Easter always falls after Passover, because the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ took place after he entered Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. In the Western Church (Roman Catholic and Protestant), Easter sometimes precedes Passover by weeks.

The Western Church does not use the actual, or astronomically correct, date for the spring equinox, but a fixed date based on the Julian calendar — March 21. And by full moon, it does not mean the astronomical full moon but the “ecclesiastical moon,” which is based on tables created by the church. These constructs allow the date of Easter to be calculated in advance rather than determined by actual astronomical observations, which are less predictable.

So it is that Western churches will celebrate Easter this Sunday while the Orthodox Christian Church (350 million members worldwide) will celebrate Easter on April 15. The World Council of Churches stated that “it has long been recognized that to celebrate this fundamental aspect of the Christian faith on different dates gives a divided witness and compromises the churches’ credibility and effectiveness in bringing the Gospel to the world.”

A meeting organized by the World Council of Churches in 1997 proposed a solution thought to be favorable to both East and West: both methods of calculating the equinox and the paschal full moon would be replaced with the most advanced astronomically accurate calculations available, using the meridian of Jerusalem as the point of measure. Since that meeting, however, no further progress has been made and the problem remains.

This year, the Greek Orthodox Parish of St. John the Baptist in Craig will commemorate Passion Week and the Resurrection of Christ with Palm Sunday services this Sunday and Holy Week from Sunday to April 15. The celebration will culminate with the Divine Liturgy of the Resurrection at midnight April 14. For more information and the schedule of services, call 970-824-6664. All are welcome.

The Very Rev. Makarios Mannos leads St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Craig. David Henderson is the former rector of St. Paul Episcopal Church in Steamboat Springs and currently a member of St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Craig.