Fixing Easter
I am amazed that Archimandrite Simeon Piers (Letters, 2 April) “can see no good reason for linking Easter to a Jewish movable feast”. Does he see no continuity at all between the Old and New Testaments?

Besides repudiating our Jewish origin, fixing the date of Easter would continue two unfortunate recent trends. One is to break with Christian liturgical tradition, as we have done by moving feasts such as the Epiphany, the Ascension and the Assumption to the nearest Sunday. The other is to detach our liturgy from its framework in the natural order. Already, moving the Epiphany to a Sunday does more than destroy the 12 days of Christmas, so ancient a part of our culture. The winter feasts of the Church were traditionally anchored in the relative movements of Sun and Earth. St Lucy’s Day marks the earliest setting of the Sun; 25 December is not the shortest day but one of four days in the year when sundials and watches agree about noon, and 6 January is the first day on which the Sun rises earlier after the solstice.