Dear Partners in Ministry:

I am delighted to invite you to this new issue of The Living Pulpit that focuses on the resurrection. As many of our readers know, The Living Pulpit devoted a past issue to Easter, and many would fondly remember it. The current issue, Vol. 21, No. 2, is not a reprint. It is a totally new edition with feature articles freshly written by biblical scholars, church leaders, preachers, and a rabbi.

This year Easter comes on April 8, a date determined by the ancient S.A.F.E. formula that computes the day of the movable feast. Easter is the Sunday After the Full moon following the (vernal) Equinox. This formula turns an ordinary day into a special occasion. Before Easter finds us, the spring equinox (from Latin aequinoctium, “equality between day and night”) has to come. In the cold winter, the nights are long, but from the winter solstice (from Latin solstitium, “the sun stood still”), the day starts gaining on the night. On the equinox, the day finally catches up with the night, and light triumphs over darkness. In the churches that use the Gregorian calendar, the spring equinox has been set on March 21, since early church days.   Once we pass the spring equinox, we look for the full moon, which this year comes on April 6. In the West, the full moon is often associated with strange behavior, but in the East, the full moon marks a festal occasion of plentitude. Easter comes with the blessing of superabundance through the S.A.F.E. formula. Incidentally, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ‘safe’ has the same root as ‘salvation.’

I invite you to the feast of the resurrection in this issue. We welcome your membership and participation in the life of The Living Pulpit. We depend for support from the many faithful who share our vision and commitment. Please visit www.pulpit.org for subscription details. Free trial subscriptions continue until June 30, 2012. Come and celebrate with us the continuing ministry of The Living Pulpit for the enrichment of the ministry of proclamation.

In Christ,

Jin H. Han, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief

About the author

Jin Han wrote 31 articles for this publication.

Jin H. Han is Wilbert Webster White Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics and Technology at New York Theological Seminary in New York City.

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