WHEN DOES THE EASTER FESTIVAL END?

And do not forget the Festival of the Ascension!

Those Episcopalians and Anglicans (not to mention Roman Catholics and Lutherans) who note the use of prepositions in liturgy will have observed that the Church used to describe the Sundays following Easter Day as “Sundays” after Easter but now calls them Sundays of Easter.

Why?

In the 1970s there was a liturgical revolution which included changing the Calendar, and one result was that the Sundays after Easter (some six of them) became a part of Easter itself. According to the new theory, Easter stretched from ONE day into FIFTY days, the period in the Jewish Calendar from Passover to Pentecost. In fact, the chief liturgist in the Episcopal Church at that time declared that the key to understanding the content of the new Prayer Book of 1979 was the “recovery” of the “unitary festival” of Easter (which it was held was the norm and practice in the Church of the second to the fourth centuries). So it became common for many Episcopalians as they used the new Prayer Book of 1979 to speak of “the great fifty days”, to insist on standing throughout the whole Eucharistic Prayer and to omit public confession of sin (in order to emphasize the theme of celebration for the risen Christ) in these fifty days. Further, the Paschal Candle was kept alight until the day of Pentecost (old name – Whitsuntide) in order to underline the unity of the whole period of fifty days.

Obviously this new ethos of celebration did have some beneficial effects for some people since the proclamation of the Resurrection in clarity and power must be good. However, there were and there remain some serious problems with this way of treating the period from Easter Day till Whitsuntide (Passover to Pentecost).

Here are a few.

First of all, in the life of the Early Church the unitary nature of the fifty days was deepened and made more complex by the addition of the Festival of the Ascension in the fourth century, held forty days after the Day of Resurrection. Thus the FIFTY instantly became FORTY plus TEN and church liturgy, ceremonial and devotion changed with the change in the Calendar. The Liturgy of the West, including from 1549 the reformed catholic liturgy of the Anglican Way, reflected this forty plus ten arrangement from the fifth to the twentieth century (and still reflects it today where the 1970s revolution is not in place).

Secondly, the modern emphasis upon the unitary nature of the fifty days has led to a serious neglect of the fact and theology, not to mention the celebration, of the Ascension of our Lord (see Acts 1). The fact that he left the earth and took into heaven as his very own for all eternity his resurrected, immortalized and glorified human body and nature is of absolutely fundamental importance for Christian Faith & Hope. Now believers approach the Father through, in and with this Lord Jesus Christ who is Man as they are but is also God as is the Father, and yet He is One Person – One Person made known in two natures, divine and human. There is no doubt but that the Festival of the Ascension has been neglected in modern times and that this is a most serious loss to the piety of the Church.

Thirdly, the keeping of the Paschal Candle alight for fifty instead of forty days has led to confusion concerning what the Candle represents and how long Jesus met with his apostles and disciples before He parted from them (see Acts 1). It should be extinguished after the reading of the account of the Ascension on the fortieth day after Easter Day in order to signify that Jesus has ascended into heaven and that the period of ten days of awaiting His Paraclete, whom the Father will send in His name, has begun.

Fourthly, the omission of public confession of sin with absolution in these fifty days represents a wrong notion of celebration. In the Bible – see the Psalter for example – the genuine confession of sins is the praise of God, for it is the praise of His holiness, justice and mercy, for that He who hates and punishes sin also forgives sin in the humble and penitent. And was not Jesus raised, as St Paul says, for our justification before the Father, for the forgiveness of our sins and a right relation to God?

In summary, there is much to be remembered and then said in terms of the long tradition of worship, doctrine, ceremonial and piety for the FORTY plus TEN and for the wholehearted celebration of the Ascension on our Lord on the fortieth day (and if not on the Sunday following). However, in order to recover the old ways Episcopalians and Anglicans need to make use of the classic, historic Book of Common Prayer in the edition of 1662 in England, 1962 in Canada and 1928 in the USA. Modern prayer books remove this approach in favor of the Easter of 50 days.

Celebrate the Ascension on the day appointed for the Resurrected Lord did actually ascend into heaven, and is exalted to the right hand of the Father as the One Mediator between God and Man, as our exalted Prophet, Priest and King!

The Revd Dr Peter Toon April 30 2005