Confirmation – Sunday 17 June, 6pm
Bishop Jeremy Greaves will be joining the 168¿ª½±¹ÙÍø’s community for the 2018 Confirmation Service and Supper on 17 June. Candidates aged Year 8 and above, who would like to make their mature commitment to a relationship with God and faith, are encouraged to chat with me as soon as possible.
Confirmation is open to adults in our community as well. Please email me: ncolledge@stmargarets.qld.edu.au to find out more.
Upcoming Services – Family Services
Years 9 and 10 - Tuesday 1 May, 6:30pm at St Mark’s Anglican Church, Clayfield
Years 11 and 12 - Tuesday 15 May, 6:30pm at St Augustine’s, Hamilton
Upcoming Services – Other
Young Families Sunday Service - Sunday 22 April, 9am
Baptisms and Admission to Holy Communion - Wednesday 2 May, 6pm, School Chapel
Years 1-6 Eucharist, Friday 11 May, 2pm. All are welcome!
Reflection for the Easter Season (with thanks to the Anglican Community of St Leonard’s in Assisi, Italy for the following information!)
As everyone knows, Easter is a ‘moveable holy day’. Most people know that it somehow relates to the lunar calendar (like the Hebrew and Islamic calendars) and not the solar calendar. So, what are the facts and statistics?
Easter represents the resurrection of Jesus. The aim of dating Easter is to maintain, for each Easter Sunday, the same season of the year and the same relationship to the preceding astronomical full moon that occurred at the time of the actual resurrection of Jesus. The principles were set out in First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. However, it was not until the 6th Century that precise calculations were made and everyone began to fall in line with fixing Easter Day.
Since the Middle Ages the rule has been that ‘Easter is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the Vernal Equinox’. However, this does not reflect the actual ecclesiastical rules precisely. The reason for this is that the full moon involved (called the ‘Paschal full moon’) is not an astronomical full moon, but an ‘ecclesiastical’ moon. The difference is that the astronomical vernal equinox is a natural astronomical phenomenon, while the ‘ecclesiastical’ vernal equinox is fixed at 21 March. Therefore, for the Anglican Church the earliest date for Easter is 22 March and the latest date is 25 April.
Some interesting statistics:
The last year during which Easter was at its earliest date (22 March) was 1818
The next year during with Easter will be at it earliest date (22 March) is 2285
The last year during which Easter was at its latest date (25 April) was 1943
The next year during with Easter will be at it latest date (25 April) is 2038
The Easter cycle of dates repeats after exactly 5.7 million years – don’t wait up!
The most common date for Easter is 19 April
Like everything in life there are some complications.
Firstly, the Orthodox church, defines Easter in a similar way but refines it as ‘the Sunday after the first full moon after the day of the Vernal Equinox’. This means their Easter can possibly, but not always be up to about one month later.
Secondly, the Eastern churches use the Julian calendar and not the Gregorian calendar (the calendars changed in 1582). Even this becomes more complex than first appears – but that is another subject all together! Therefore, Easter for Eastern can be on the same date or at least one week later than Western churches.
Happy Easter!
With every blessing on you and your week ahead,
The Reverend Canon Nicki Colledge