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Church
News...
By
Pastor Jean Barrington
Easter is now celebrated by the Church as a Christian holiday in
most parts of the world, but it began as an ancient pagan
holiday celebrating spring in the Northern Hemisphere, long
before the advent of Christianity. This pagan festival
celebrated fertility, renewal and new life. It praised the pagan
goddess of spring, known as Ostara, Eastre or Eostre. Hence, the
name Easter evolved from her name over time.
Easter began to be celebrated as Christian festival early in the
common era and by mid-second century it was an established
festival. It was not uncommon for Christians to connect their
celebrations to those already well established. The Jewish
Passover and the pagan Spring Equinox celebration seemed to fall
at an appropriate time to Christians. Their beliefs that Jesus
died, was raised from the dead (during the week of Passover in
about 33 C.E.) and that his being raised gave hope of new and
continuing life to believers made this the perfect time of year
to celebrate.
This year Easter comes in March. Why?
Well, according to Wikipedia, Easter and the holidays that are
related to it are moveable feasts in that they do not fall on a
fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars (both of which
follow the cycle of the sun and the seasons). Instead, the date
for Easter is determined on a lunisolar calendar, which is
similar to the Hebrew calendar.
The First Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) established two rules,
independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity,
which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the
council. No details for the computation were specified; these
were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and
generated a number of controversies. In particular, the council
did not decree that Easter must fall on Sunday, but this was
already the practice almost everywhere. In western Christianity,
using the Gregorian calendar, Easter always falls on a Sunday
between March 22 and April 25, within about seven days after the
full moon.
This year, Trinity Church here in Point Roberts will be
celebrating Palm Sunday on Sunday, March 24. It is an excellent
time to come and hear the story of Jesus’ last supper with his
disciples, and of the Jewish people, who believing their messiah
– their new king and savior – had come, began waving palms
branches and crying, “Hosanna, in the highest.” But something
went horribly wrong.
What happened between that joyous parade and the execution?
Believe it or not, it is a story everyone should hear at least
once in their life.
The following Sunday, March 31, Trinity Church will celebrate
the Christian festival of Easter. We will celebrate our belief
that Jesus’ death and resurrection offers all people new life –
no matter what they have done or left undone.
Please join us on one or both Sundays, March 24 and 31, at 11
a.m., at Trinity Church, 1880 APA Road. All are welcome! Blessed
Easter to all. |
