The Lord Bishop of ROCHESTERMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government by what date it is intended to bring into force the Easter Act 1928.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, the Government continue to hold the view that the Easter Act 1928 should not be implemented without the full concurrence of the Churches. We understand that for the present there is unlikely to be such concurrence.
The Lord Bishop of ROCHESTERMy Lords, I thank the Minister very much indeed for making the same reply as was made to the late Lord Merthyr on, I believe, no less than 11 occasions. As Lord Merthyr died on the Tuesday before Easter last year, may I, in memory of his patient persistence, ask the Minister whether he does not think that 50 years is long enough to wait for the declared will of Parliament to be implemented, especially as there is now virtually the fullest concurrence of all the Churches that keep the Western calendar?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I do not think it is unreasonable. The Act does not require that opinion expressed be favourable to the order before it is made, but it would, I feel, be quite undesirable to make an order with which some of the Christian Churches would disagree. We accept that Easter is a very important event and festival in the life of the Christian Churches; and, therefore, there would be, if I may say so with very great respect, a good deal of hostility 1678 to a Government acting in a matter of this kind unless they did so knowing full well that they had the wholehearted support of the Christian Churches—and that is not the case. The right reverend Prelate knows that the British Council of Churches took the matter up with the World Council of Churches and that they prepared a questionnaire and then finally decided to set up a joint working party, which included the Roman Catholic Church, to consider it. Of the 232 members who were asked to express an opinion, only 130 of them did so; and not the whole of the 130 were in agreement. I think my right honourable friend is quite right in taking the view that was taken by the Home Secretary in 1928, when he made it abundantly clear that he would not act unless there was unanimity among the Churches. This is really now a matter on which it is for the Churches to come to some agreement.
The Lord Bishop of ROCHESTERMy Lords, if the Government are in fact going to support what I understand is now the desire of the Churches in the East and the West to seek a common Easter rather than a fixed Easter, would it not really be better to repeal the 1928 Act, even if it robs Lord Merthyr's successors of an annual excuse for asking a Question?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLNo, my Lords. We live in hope that there will be a consensus of opinion.
§ Lord HAILSHAM of SAINT MARYLEBONEMy Lords, reverting to the noble Lord's original reply and despite the right reverend Prelate's episcopal benediction, does the noble Lord realise that there are some of us who, on perfectly secular grounds, do not wish for a fixed Easter? We say vive la difference! We like to have our holiday with spring progressing at different levels in different years. Would it not be better if we reverted to the Moslem practice of Ramadan, which follows the lunar year and sometimes takes place in the winter and sometimes in July?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I understand that if we were to act in this matter, I was going to say unilaterally, but I am not sure whether that is the right 1679 word, we could have Easter being celebrated on three different dates. I can assure the noble and learned Lord that the present Government—and I am trying to answer the question asked by the right reverend Prelate as to whether it would not be desirable to repeal this Act—propose to maintain the status quo.
§ Lord PARRYMy Lords, will my noble friend forgive me for asking at this point if it is too late for a Pembrokeshire voice to pay tribute to Lord Merthyr for the great service that he gave, not just to his county but to his country, in this House, while asking such questions as are now teasing my noble friend?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, my noble friend would not be the first Member of your Lordships' House to stretch Question Time in this way.
§ Lord PARGITERMy Lords, may I ask my noble friend whether, having regard to the fact that Good Friday is increasingly being regarded as a working day—most large shops now keep open in any case, and in some industries it is regarded as a working day—we could not treat Easter the same as we do Whitsuntide, and fix the Bank Holiday on a day different from the day after Easter Sunday?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, this has exercised the minds of my right honourable friend and the Government generally. If we did that—and, in spite of what my noble friend has just pointed out, Good Friday is generally accepted as a holiday—it would mean curtailing what is now a four-day holiday to a three-day holiday, and we do not think that that would be acceptable.
§ Lord ALEXANDER of POTTER-HILLMy Lords, is the noble Lord aware of the impact on the whole of the educational world of a variable Easter when all other national holidays are fixed, and of the impact of there being a variable term every year? It has virtually ruled out the possibility of organising the schools on the basis of a four-term year for the last 30 years.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I do not think that we are unmindful of the fact that there are difficulties in a number 1680 of ways, but I would say to the noble Lord that we feel that this is a matter on which it is for the Churches to come to an agreement. It really is for them to do so.