The alignment of the full moon and disparate calendars this year means that all Christians, Western and Orthodox, will celebrate Easter on the same day.

The synchronicity of the Feast of the Resurrection occurs every four or five years, but, depending on the date of the full moon and the date of Jewish Passover, Orthodox Easter can be one, four or five weeks later than the Western celebration.

The Rev. John Mancantelli is the priest at St. Nicholas of South Canaan Orthodox Church in Billings where about 100 people attend services each Sunday. He said Orthodox Easter cannot be at the same time as Passover, acknowledging that Christ's crucifixion took place during the Passover in Jerusalem.

After decades of argument, the early Christian church agreed on a date for Easter. It would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

But the Orthodox added a fourth requirement, "after the Passover," Mancantelli said.

Passover is a moveable feast, also. It is celebrated from the 15th day of Nisan, the first full moon after the vernal equinox, generally in April. Nisan is the seventh month of the civil year or the first month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar. This year, Passover began at sundown Monday - the full moon occurred at 11:03 a.m.

Until 1054, the Christian church was one unified body. But the West and East split that year over still unresolved conflicts - the primacy claimed by the pope as bishop of Rome and the wording of the Nicene Creed.

In the Orthodox tradition, the patriarch of Constantinople is the "first among equals" of the other patriarchs of the ancient and national churches.

Mancantelli said: "His calendar is the official one." With a note of pragmatism, he asked,

"To the 21st-century Christian, what does all that mean? The central dogma of Christianity is the Resurrection and that is the focal point of Easter regardless of what the calendar dictates. "

The days leading up to Easter - Holy Week, especially Thursday, Friday and Saturday - take on a new resonance this year because of "the movie."

The movie, "The Passion of the Christ," is Mel Gibson's rendition of the last 12 hours of Christ's life, from his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane to his death on the cross. It is a graphic portrayal of the suffering of Christ and has become the most successful, and controversial, of all the films depicting the life of Christ.

In the West, there has always been a focus on the suffering Christ, Mancantelli said, noting that artistic renditions show a "tormented corpus on the cross."

However, in the East, "the corpus depiction is one of resignation. The one who has suffered is gone," he said.

For the Rev. John Houlihan, pastor at St. Patrick's Co-Cathedral in Billings, the movie

"deepened our sense of anguish that Christ bore because of all of us."

Both pastors anticipate a renewed interest in Easter and the Passover because of the movie.

Houlihan said that the film should engender

"an increase in joy. That Christ on the cross has passed over from death to life already."

"Easter is about hope, not staying at the foot of the cross," he said. "It is a sense of gratitude that no longer confines Jesus to his passion and death, but to his life, resurrection and presence among us."

Mancantelli said he believes his parishioners who saw the movie "will be more attentive, to see if the portrayal is reflected in the Divine Liturgy."

That began Thursday morning. The Orthodox push the liturgy of the Triduum - Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday or Easter Vigil - forward by 12 hours.

The celebration of the Last Supper began at 9 a.m. with the 12 passion Gospel readings of the Crucifixion held Thursday night.

The Last Supper Mass at St. Patrick's began at 7 p.m. last night.

Today, St. Patrick's congregation joins the members of the American Lutheran Church at 5 Lewis Avenue for Good Friday services at noon. The two congregations have alternated hosting the Good Friday liturgy for about 15 years, Houlihan said.

He expressed the hope that Christians would someday be one church.

"There has been immense change in the past 40 years, particularly at the grassroots level," he said. "There has been a healing of the animosities and prejudices between us."

At St. Nicholas this afternoon at 3, the corpus is taken from the cross and the Shroud Icon, a tapestry, is brought out for veneration. In the evening, lamentations are sung over the dead Christ.

The week culminates on Saturday night. Easter vigil begins at 8 p.m. at St. Patrick's with a candlelight service, the baptism of new members to the church, and the Resurrection Mass.

At St. Nicholas, the vigil begins at 11:30 p.m. with the announcement of the Resurrection and a candlelight procession three times around the outside of the church. A Divine Liturgy follows. The Orthodox return to church at noon Sunday for Bright Vespers and a feast.

 By JIM GRANSBERY
Of The Billings Gazette Staff
April 2004