Seasons and Observances

The Episcopal Church observes liturgical seasons and commemorates various saints and important people in the church's history.  The following is information about the current liturgical season and the observances for the week of Sunday, May 11.  Starting with December 2, 2007 we are in liturgical year "A" and "cycle 2" of the offices.

The Current Season
Season of Pentecost

The season of Pentecost begins on the day after Pentecost Sunday and lasts until Advent.  The season of Pentecost is often referred to as “ordinary time.” During this season the life and ministry of Christ and His disciples, and the growth of the Church are commemorated. The first Sunday after Pentecost Sunday is called “Trinity Sunday” and is a celebration of God in all three persons of the Trinity.  Another major feast day occurs on the fixed date of November 1 which is called All Saints Day.  This day commemorates all Christian saints known and unknown, and especially the sainthood of all Christians in Christ. The liturgical color for the Season of Pentecost is green.

May 11
Day of Pentecost

Pentecost Sunday (sometimes called Whitsunday) ends the Easter season.  It celebrates the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles.  It is considered the “birthday” of the Church, and is a highly festive occasion.  

May 12
The First Book of Common Prayer

The first Book of Common Prayer came into use on the Day of Pentecost, June 9, 1549, in the second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth. From it have descended all subsequent editions and revisions of the Book in the Churches of the Anglican Communion. Though prepared by a commission of learned bishops and priests, the format, substance, and style of the Prayer Book were primarily the work of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1533-1556. The principal sources employed in its compilation were the medieval Latin service books of the Use of Sarum (Salisbury), with enrichments from the Greek liturgies, certain ancient Gallican rites, the vernacular German forms prepared by Luther, and a revised Latin liturgy of the reforming Archbishop Hermann of Cologne. The Psalter and other biblical passages were drawn from the English "Great Bible" authorized by King Henry the Eighth in 1539, and the Litany was taken from the English form issued as early as 1544. The originality of the Prayer Book, apart from the felicitous translations and paraphrases of the old Latin forms, lay in its simplification of the complicated liturgical formats of the medieval Church, so that it was suitable for use by the laity as well as by the clergy. The Book thus became both a manual of common worship for Anglicans and a primary resource for their personal spirituality.

May 14, 16, 17
Ember Days

Ember days are four groups each of three days, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, after St. Lucy’s Commemoration (December 13), the First Sunday in lent, Pentecost Sunday, and Holy Cross day (September 14) which have been observed as days of fasting.  Originally connected with crops they came to be associated with ordinations.

2008-05-09