Tag: Easter services

Why Do Some Countries Celebrate Easter on a Different Day?

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Today as we celebrated Easter at White Fields Church in Longmont, Colorado, we had a special greetings sent in from some of the missionaries we support around the world, including several in Ukraine.

See: An Easter Like No Other

Here’s the video of the Easter service, which includes the greetings from those missionaries:

Some of the missionaries in Ukraine mentioned that their country celebrates Easter a week later than we do in the United States, leading some people to ask why that is.

Council of Nicea (325 AD): Setting a Common Date for Easter

The First Ecumenical Council of Christin leaders around the world as held in 325 AD and is known as the Council of Nicea.

Prior to Nicea, churches in different parts of the world celebrated Easter on different Sundays of the year. In order to bring unity, council members created a formula to would calculate the date for Easter for all churches around the world: the first Sunday after the first full moon which follows the vernal equinox, after the Jewish Passover.

To avoid confusion, it determined that the vernal equinox was on March 21. This system guaranteed that all churches around the world celebrated Easter on the same day.

The Great Schism and the Introduction of the Georgian Calendar

In 1054 the Eastern and Western churches split. The division was for theological, cultural, and political reasons. Shortly after this, Pope Gregory VIII introduced the Gregorian calendar, whereas the Eastern Empire continued with the Julian calendar, which had been used since the time of Julius Caesar.

The reason for the introduction of the Gregorian calendar was the realization that the Julian calendar was discovered to be 11 minutes too long, which, though not much, led to the spring equinox no longer being on March 21 by that time. The Gregorian calendar sought to bring correction to this issue, whereas the Eastern Empire (and its churches) continued with the Julian calendar despite the fact that according to it, the vernal equinox was no longer on March 21.

By using two different calendar systems, the vernal equinox now fell on March 21 under the Gregorian calendar and April 3 on the Julian calendar. The two empires (and their churches), as a result, began celebrating Easter on two different days, though on occasion Easter date does still fall on the same day for both calendars (e.g. in 2017 and next in 2025).

As for the question of why the date of Easter changes every year, see: Easter Math: How Does It Add Up?

First Service in New Building… Kind Of

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This past Sunday (March 22, 2020) was supposed to have been our last service in the Saint Vrain Memorial Building, where White Fields Church has met since its inception, years before I became pastor.

However, because of concerns about the Coronavirus outbreak, not only are we not gathering physically out of concern about spreading the virus, but the Memorial Building is closed.

This past week, some members of our congregation were able to get in to move our things out of storage at the Memorial Building to move them to the new facility. The group also moved us out of the offices our church has been in for the last 2.5 years.

Moving out of the Memorial Building and church office

Looking at the pictures, it was a bit surreal realizing that it is the end of a season during which a lot of good ministry took place, and when I last left those places I had no idea that I wouldn’t be able to return!

This coming Sunday (March 29, 2020) was scheduled to be our first Sunday in the new building, and we were planning to kick off doing two services on Easter. Right now, it is looking unlikely that churches will even be able to gather on Easter at all.

However, I was able to go into the empty church building last Saturday and pre-record my sermon by preaching to an empty room, making this the first service in our new building… kind of.

I can’t wait for the time when we will get to gather physically again, and have a proper grand opening!

Here’s the video of the service:

Longmont Easter Egg Hunt & Festival in Roosevelt Park 2019

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Nem érhető el leírás a fényképhez.

Easter Egg Hunt & Festival

White Fields Church is excited to host our 9th annual Easter Egg Hunt & Festival on Saturday, April 20th in Longmont’s Roosevelt Park, in partnership with Longmont Recreation.

This event has grown over the years to become the largest event of its kind in Boulder County and we hope it will become a true Longmont tradition.

The event starts at 10:00 AM, and will include an egg hunt as well as a puppet show, inflatable obstacle courses and bounce houses, face painting and a craft station.

We will have a coffee truck on-site making craft coffee drinks, as well as our friends from GraceFM who will be handing out t-shirts and other swag for free.

It’s fun for the whole family and we hope you will join us!

Easter Sunday

We also invite you to join us on Easter Sunday at White Fields Community Church to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, the reason we can have hope!

We will have two services on Easter Sunday, at 8:45 & 10:30 AM.

There will be a nursery (birth-2 years) and a wiggle room available at the 8:45 service, and full children’s ministry available at the 10:00 service (birth-middle school).

Join us, and invite a friend or family member to join you, as this is one of the occasions when many people who don’t regularly attend church say that they would attend if invited by a friend or family member. Don’t miss that opportunity!