Would you miss Easter if it disappeared?

Once, the great high point of the Christian year, it seems we are now struggle to even see regulars for Good Friday. I’m finding that nominal ‘Christmas and Easter’ Anglicans are turning into ‘Christmas only’ Anglicans.

Why is that? Life is hard and busy. What right thinking person wouldn’t grab the chance to get away over Easter?

I’ve no data to back this up but I think the short Easter break is bigger than ever. Combine it with school holidays and you will expect to see a lot of people away.

Easter has less cultural traction than Christmas. Maybe partly because it is a moving feast, it isn’t locked into the psyche or the diary in the same way.

With growing biblical illiteracy I’m finding more people don’t know what Easter is for at all.

Friends at school have said they feel uncomfortable talking about the death of Jesus with their kids - whereas Christmas; the angels and the stable is a much easier ‘sell’.

Each year there is a growth in activities that compete at Easter - and pressure mounts each year to open it up for more retail trading.

Part of Easter’s decline must be the declining observance of the church calendar. It may even be more common to hear Lent preached against than practised.

How do we react to this? Does it faze you at all - perhaps we should be content to preach the cross and resurrection every week? Or should we go back to stricter observance of the church calendar? Should we just say our mission field is changing so we need to think of new ways to reach it?

Another issue is whether we should provide an Easter counter-culture within the churches and Christian households. We could easily trump the lame celebrations of Easter currently on offer. Why not give the kids Easter presents?

The observance of Christmas provides an interesting parallel.

In days of old, the Puritans did ban observance of this “Romish mass”. They even forced businesses to remain open. Their concern was that every day be one to the Lord, and every Sunday be a significant Lord’s Day. They didn’t want to be swept along by popular superstitious practices that seemed to have little to do with the Gospel, and provided opportunity for drunken immorality. What would we lose if Easter came off the calendar?