The leaders of Anglican churches in some developing countries, including South Sudan, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have said they no longer recognise Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, as the head of the global church.
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, addresses delegates during the General Synod on 6 February 2023 in London.
Their decision stems from the decision this month of the Church of England’s governing body, the General Synod, to allow clergy to bless couples in same-sex marriages.
The conservative Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), which claims to speak for 75% of Anglicans worldwide, said in a statement on Monday that the C of E had “departed from the historic faith” and disqualified itself as the “mother church” of the Anglican communion.
Easter Sunday falls on a different Sunday every year. Using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church, Easter falls on the first Sunday, between March 21st and April 19th, after the Paschal full Moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. If the full moon lands on a Sunday, then Easter is the following Sunday
The date is fixed in accordance with an ancient ecclesiastical computation, and does not always correspond to the astronomical equinox. The Metonic cycle of 19 years is one in which the phases of the Moon repeat exactly. It is thus possible to have a 19-year cycle for the dates of full or new Moon. In the Julian calendar this 19-year cycle can be fairly easily translated into a date for Easter.
The date of the Paschal Full Moon, used to determine the date of Easter, is based on mathematical approximations following a 19-year cycle called the Metonic cycle.
March 21 is the Church’s date of the March equinox, regardless of the time zone, while the actual date of the equinox varies between March 19 and March 22, and the date depends on the time zone.
In today’s Gregorian calendar the calculation is complicated by the definition of which century years are leap years. These leap years mess up the simple Metonic cycle by altering the number of days in different periods of 19 years.
On page lii and liii of the 1928 BCP, you can find the calculation for determining when Easter Sunday is. It requires the following steps:
Find the Golden number or “Prime”
Find the Sunday (Dominical) Letter
Determine Easter Sunday on Calendar with item # 1,2
I developed my own One Year Bible Reading Plan because most of the plans on the internet were in order of the Holy Bible which finished the year reading Revelation during Advent and Christmas! I somehow thought that after a full year of intense Bible study I couldn’t see myself reading about the apocalypse and Armageddon while reading Matthew. I decided to divide up the themes of the Holy Bible across a 7 day period for 52 weeks. I found an excellent little church in New Zealand called “City” https://city.org.nz. The pastor there worked up a plan that was heavy on theme rather than chronological. Here is a link to that bible reading plan…. https://city.org.nz/pdf/bible-plan.pdf. I discovered the time periods each book was written with help from the ESV Study Bible ,(A Mighty Oak of a study bible!) I then came up with a excel spreadsheet, printable for one page with highlights to show the time periods and themes.
