Violating the Canons- Why the Orthodox do not celebrate Pascha with the Jews

 

Okay, so after a chance to revise and look at all the data, this article has changed in its original form. We as Orthodox Christians along with all the Christian world, celebrate the Holy Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We celebrated Pascha this year on April 24^th, a week after the Western world celebrated Easter. The English-speaking world has completely abandoned the term Pascha for the celebration of the Holy Resurrection of Jesus Christ, instead referring to it by the name Easter. While this is not a bash towards the name, we as Greeks, still call it Pascha and I refuse to call it by any other name. However, we are here to discuss Canon 7 of the Church. Celebrating Pascha with the Jews. We as Orthodox Christians know that we are independent of the jews, and thus should not look to their calendar to celebrate Pascha.

First, we must understand that the calculation of Pascha has been established since ancient times, and that by Ecumenical Council decisions has been written down as a formula since 325AD. The Apostles and their successors the bishops had understood that Pascha had taken place after the vernal equinox, the spring equinox. It had also occurred on the first day of the week, called the Lord’s Day, or Sunday as we know it. Thus, Pascha should always be established after the spring equinox and on a Sunday. This date, the spring equinox changes from year to year, as the sun does not pass the same way through the sky from year to year, so a set date could not be determined.. Celebrating Pascha before the equinox, according to my sources, does not divide the calendar year into two halves, thus we would celebrate the Resurrection twice, which is against church teaching. More on this in a bit in relation to the Papists. We the Orthodox Church, the true church of Jesus Christ are announcing to the world that Jesus died once and for all, not twice. If we announce that Jesus died twice, then we are corrupting scripture, and in turn saying the Son of God has died multiple times. Because of this, the formula is simple…after legal Passover, and after the equinox. Any bishop, priest or deacon who changes this is to be deposed from office, simply because they are not professing the correct faith. It is the same for sects and heretics that refuse to celebrate Pascha at all. While in the West, Pascha has changed in its celebration with bunnies, and colorful clothing, and secular aspects, the East has maintained that it is to be a spiritual celebration. Those who refuse to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ are in turn also admitting that the scriptures are wrong, and that Jesus did not rise from the dead. They may offer lip service to the belief that Christ rose, but those that refuse to celebrate are not professing their faith by their actions. See the Book of James for more information regarding your actions as a profession of faith.

This now leads me to my next point of contention. I am about to ruffle a few feathers, but that comes with the territory when you speak truth. We know that the Julian Calendar was the calendar used by the people during the life of Christ. The Julian Calendar however was replaced as we know by the Gregorian Calendar, especially in the West. While Pope Gregory XIII was right to establish a calendar that was closer to the tropical calendar, he inadvertently changed the calculation of Pascha. So much so, that now the date in the West is skewed from the original date that is still calculated in the East. This causes the problem that I mentioned earlier, being before or right after the legal Passover of the Jews, thus breaking this Canon. Because legal Passover of the Jews can sometimes fall on a Sunday, due to the Jews celebrating on the 15^th day of the month regardless of the day of the week, the calendar Pope Gregory established violated the canons of the church. Not that it mattered to the Latins, as they had become schismatics and heretics some five hundred years earlier and were set on their path away from the faith of the Apostles. Thus, Western Easter and Orthodox Pascha now happen on separate dates of the year, though rarely they occur on the same day, this does not happen very often. Again, violating the celebration of the resurrection twice. Christ died once and for all, not twice, not thrice, but once. Therefore, the schismatic Latins caused division and a rift within the church again by their actions. This is not a discussion of the Great Schism, but the calendar is one issue I would love to see repented of if the Latins are to return to the Church and the Pentarchy restored as it was before 1054AD.

So what about the Canon? Well…look the Orthodox world celebrates Pascha on the same day across the board regardless if it’s the Revised Julian Calendar or the Standard Julian Calendar that the local church uses. The Orthodox Church of Finland is required by law to celebrate Pascha on the same day as every other church in the country, so an exception is made there as they will celebrate the Resurrection with the West. Our Bishops rarely if ever have violated this Canon, though I’m sure they have and have been reprimanded and deposed as they should be. With the pandemic changing the way the celebration of Pascha was conducted in both 2020 and 2021, many bishops did not have a choice in the matter and could have refused to celebrate as mandated by their governments. However, this would have caused strife and friction within these countries and was generally not worth the effort, even I personally believe that they should have. Celebrating the Resurrection according to the same formula that was established by the Church at its inception ensures continuity with the Apostles and with the Orthodox Faith. Deviating from this is schismatic and heterodox. We see this with the Latins and we see this with the Protestant Churches. Now, I will not bash the Prots as I have in the past, because on this particular issue its not their fault. They have celebrated it according to how they were raised and the traditions of their families for years. They were not the ones who established the difference, and certainly did not play a part in the formation of the Gregorian Calendar. That was the Latins. They had the same history for the first thousand years of the church and knew better. They knew that what they were doing violated church law, and rightfully are still out of communion with us. For their bishops to repent and turn back to the faith a renunciation of the calculation of Pascha based on the Gregorian Calendar would need to be made as well as conscience effort to not celebrate with the legal Passover of the Jews. An independent calculation based on the vernal equinox as established at Nicaea is the only viable way to celebrate Pascha because it proclaims one, holy catholic and apostolic church, as well as one death, burial and resurrection for the whole world.

I am not a priest, or a scholar. However I hope you have learned something from this dissertation on the 7^th canon of the Orthodox Church. Pascha as I have repeated (I do this to drive home the point) must be celebrated after the vernal equinox, after the legal Passover of the Jews, and on a Sunday as prescribed in the Bible. May God have mercy on us.

Amen.