Christ is risen for our orthodox friends. The silliness of the churches having two different Easter days bothers me more as the years go by. We waste our time on other silly controversies when the date of Easter remains unresolved.
There was a plan some years ago to unite the churches by those who currently keep Old Calendar taking our Christmas, and those of us who keep New Calendar taking their date for Pashcha (Easter). The fact that such a stroke of common sense and compromise managed to pass us by does none of us any credit.
11 years ago I was in Egypt in early spring. At that time in Cairo, there were local Anglicans keeping Old Calendar and Westerner Anglicans keeping New Calendar in the same church. When the Easters did not coincide, the flowers went into church for the 11 am service and came out again for those coming later in the day who were still in Lent.
Still, He is Risen Indeed for all of us today, and I can bid my hairdresser Christos Anesti! when I see him.
Bet you didn’t know my barnet was Orthodox, did you?
We had a “stranger” in our Eucharistic gathering yesterday who stood throughout at the back. It was wonderful at the end to welcome him and discover he was Ukrainian, and hois eyes were filled with joy and laughter when he told me he was celebrating Easter Day. With a huge grin he told me that receiving the Body of Our Lord with us affirmed our unity rather than our division, and that yesterday was the highlight of his visit to Scotland!
It was one of these wee brilliant “Aw!” moments we are blessed with in ministry!