Last year Eastern and Western Easter was celebrated on the same day. The same is true this year. Last time that happened for two consecutive years was 1942/1943. Next time it will happen for two consecutive years (unless churches get their act together – or Jesus returns sooner – we can discuss which might happen sooner) is 2037/2038.
This link explains how Easter Day is arrived at.
Here’s the next few years when Eastern and Western Easters coincide: 2014 2017 2025 2028 2031 2034…
image source: Easter service in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, (AP/Daylife)
The post from 2010 to which you link
http://www.liturgy.co.nz/blog/when-easter/2715
contains errors in the main text. One must read the comments to find the corrections. The most serious error are
(1) The statement that the quartodeciman practice was the Easter practice deprecated by the Council of Nicea. In fact Nicea decided between two schools of Sunday observance, “Jewish calendarists” and “independent calendarists.” Both these schools held Easter on Sunday. The dispute was over how to compute which Sunday was to be fixed as Easter. A 1-day difference in reckoning the age of the moon can lead to a different week, or even a different lunar month, being chosen as the one in which Easter will fall.
(2) The implication that the western churches use an 84-year Easter cycle. In fact the west, like the east, uses a 19-year cycle.
(3) The implication that the Zonaras Proviso is an explicit part of the eastern paschalion, when in fact it is merely an after-the-fact rationalization for the accumulated errors in the Julian computus.
Thanks. Yes, some bloggers alter a post in the light of comments which follow. This means the comments then look silly, and pointless as they no longer improve points in the post. Others allow the comments to enhance the post and are seen as integral to the post. I regularly tend to the latter.
Mockingbird, I know your name is Timothy Phillips, I prefer that people use their actual name on this site – IMO it helps with the culture of openness and respect here.