March Article - An Early Easter

Most major religions have the date of some of their special celebrations set by the phases of the moon. Christianity is no exception in that Easter Sunday is defined as the Sunday following the first full moon that is on or follows the 21st March (although actually the full moon is calculated from ancient tables and is sometime wrong). This year Easter is on 23rd March which is almost as early as it can be. This causes all sorts of headaches for education planners who like term dates to fall into nice neat regular patterns. The National Secular Society and one or two prominent people like John Humphreys, the Radio 4 presenter, have called for the date of Easter to be fixed in April “so that long-term planning can be made easier”. An Act of Parliament passed in 1928 would allow this to happen so long as the Church of England agrees.

Well I’m afraid I’ve not a lot of time for planners who would like to change things just so their job is a tad easier. No doubt they would also like a ten hour day and ten day week to make the maths a bit easier. But actually I guess it’s not really that important so long as the central message of Easter comes through. I don’t mean the cream eggs, simnel cakes and hot cross bunnies, although these are all nice, but the fact that death was overcome, the main battle is now over. Jesus burst through and demonstrated that there was life on the other side. Yes, death is still with us, it’s something we all have to face and still has an element of unknown about it. That’s why I’m only too pleased to have someone who’s been that way before, so that when my time comes I’ll be holding His hand for guidance all the way.

Whatever you think of Easter do enjoy the break (and the chocolate!)

Andy
Baptist church leader.