Charity under fire for removing the word 'Easter' from upcoming event

The Church of England is sparring with a charity organization in the United Kingdom that removed the word "Easter" from its annual Easter egg hunt.

National Trust, a nature and environmental conservation charity, has held the popular annual event for a decade, and each year it has been branded as the Easter Egg Trail. But this year, the charity decided on a different name with one obvious key word missing.

The event's new name? The Great British Egg Hunt.

Cadbury, the chocolate candy company that sponsors the yearly event, explained that they wanted to appeal to non-Christians.

"We invite people from all faiths and none to enjoy our seasonal treats," the company said, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The Church of England denounced the decision, saying it was an attempt to airbrush faith from the Christian holiday.

"This marketing campaign ... highlights the folly in airbrushing faith from Easter," a spokesman for the church said.

Archbishop of York Dr. John Sentamu also sharply criticized the decision, pointing out that John Cadbury, the company's original founder, was a Christian and that the act was disrespectful to his name.

"The Cadburys were Great Quaker industrialists. If people visited Birmingham today in the Cadbury World, they will discover how Cadbury’s Christian faith influenced his industrial output," Sentamu said. "He built houses for all his workers, he built a Church, he made provision for schools. It is obvious that for him Jesus and justice were two sides of the one coin. To drop Easter from Cadbury’s Easter Egg Hunt in my book is tantamount to spitting on the grave of Cadbury."

The National Trust and Cadbury both insist they weren't purposely trying to remove Christianity from the event, pointing to their marketing materials that still use the word "Easter" when referring the date of the event.

Last year, Cadbury came under fire for a similar situation when consumers noticed their regular chocolate Easter egg packaging was changed, with the word "Easter" being moved to the back of the package and replaced with "Milk Chocolate Eggs."