A FIXED DATE FOR EASTER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2582, 19 May 1923, Page 3

A FIXED DATE FOR EASTER.

That a fixed date for Easter is desirable has come to be almost the universal verdict, says the London Times. The secular bodies by which it is supported include many Chambers of Commerce, both within and without the Empire, large numbers of universities and schools and other educational establishments, industrial concerns like the cotton operatives of Lancashire and railway and shipping companies, together with hankers, financiers, and lawyers? and the large section of the community that makes holiday in the spring of the year. All of these stand to gain in one way or another by the institution of a fixed Easter, and might naturally ]»<* expected to be in favour of the proposal of which the chief advocates ia England is Lord Desborough. But. largely owing to his efforts,-the important fact Inis been established that the Christian Churches too, would welcome the change. The Archbishop of Canterbury on each occasion showed the strongest sympathy with Lord Desborougli’s aim, and expressed his conviction that tlie desire for a harmonious arrangement as to Easter was shared by the Eastern Church and the Church of Rome. Ho has received from Cardinal Bourne a most cordial and friendly reply to his communications oil the subject, in the course ot which his Eminence told him that, without in any way speaking ofli- , idly, he had reason to believe that the attitude of the Holy See was one .-f willingness to sanction the proposed change, provided that there was a practically unanimous request to that effect from t lie principal Governments of the world. Lord Desborough’s proposal is that Easter Sunday should lie definitely fixed as tho second Sunday in April, a.- being the nearest Sunday to the generally accepted date of the event which it commemorates. The inconvenience of the present arrangement, by which the date of the Church festival and the secular holiday mav fall on any day between’Mareh 22 and April 25, is patent to everyone.