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The Church Year The congregation at Saint Paul follows
the liturgical church year both in the lectionary, (cycles A, B and
C) and the main color
of the vestments, altar hangings and seasonal banners.
Advent symbols: Visually on December 2nd. , the first Sunday in Advent, the sanctuary will take on a different look. The color blue will be prominent in all the vestments and banners and there will be a big wreath with blue candles appearing over the middle of the congregation. The vestments and banners will have some non-English words on them. Why and what does it all mean. Blue is the color of the winter sky after days of overcast, the color of the immense ocean, the color of the night sky just before dawn. Blue is the color of the season of Advent showing a confident hope in God’s future now. While Advent wreaths as something to look at are familiar to many of us, having it float over the whole congregation with its greens and candles gives us more of a feeling of being in Advent. As we walk under it we enter into the season. The circular wreath is a symbol of the circle of eternity, the circle of return, and hope of renewal. The long banners on each side of the sanctuary have the words "Adventus" and "Domini." They are Latin for "the coming" and "of the Lord." The words "Come Emmanuel"on the altar hanging come from Matthew 1:23. Emmanuel meaning "God is with us." Epiphany begins on
January
6th and may
be as long as eight weeks or as few as three depending on what date
Easter is celebrated. Epiphany means "to make known." On
Epiphany Sunday and the following Sunday, celebrating The Baptism of Our
Lord the liturgical color is white and then changes to green until Lent. Lent is the time to return (the meaning of the word "Lent" is to turn around, to change direction) to God, to encounter God who makes and keeps covenants with us. It is a time of preparation for baptism or for a reaffirmation of our own baptismal covenant. Lent is a time to return to the basics of faith formation, to ask ourselves questions about our spiritual relationships. Purple, the color of this season, represents its penitential nature. We mark the beginning of this season on Ash Wednesday, March 1, when we gather to receive an ashen cross on our foreheads (a gesture rooted in baptism), hear the proclamation to hear anew the ongoing meaning of baptismal initiation into the Jesus' death and resurrection. While marked with the ashes of human mortality, we hear God's promise of forgiveness and taste God's mercy in the bread of life and the cup of salvation. Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday, April 9 the Sunday before Easter, and continuing through the week to Maunday Thursday, celebrating the holy supper Christ gave to the church, through Good Friday when the church gathers to hear the proclamation of the passion, to pray for the life of the church and to meditate on the life-giving cross to Saturday.
The season of Easter begins with the Easter Vigil on Easter Eve,
April 14th. Easter is understood as the crown of the whole year,
and as such it lasts not for a day or a week, but for seven weeks.
Both white and gold are used for this season. Pentecost Sunday, May 11th, the fiftieth day of Easter, our faith community gathers to celebrate the ongoing life of the Holy Spirit, who is its breath, vitality and inspiration. She helps us to overcome divisions among us and unite us with others all over the world as brothers and sisters of Christ despite our differences. Jesus followers, many having fled on the day of his crucifixion, steadily had become aware of the resurrection of Jesus, and finally gathered together fifty days afterward. What they experienced that day was the Spirit of God coming upon them and infusing them with power. God's Spirit entered Jesus' followers individually and collectively, raising them to ecstatic heights, enabling them to continue the ministry that Jesus had begun. The liturgical color for Pentecost is red, a strong assertive color. Pentecost Sunday is sometimes called the birthday of the church. We hang a large many-colored ship in our chancel because it is an ancient symbol of the church. 
Trinity Sunday, May 18th,the Sunday after Pentecost,
is the day we celebrate the mystery of God, both transcendent and
immanent or both outside our world and inside our world. We Christians
are baptized in the name of the triune God, making us members of the Christian
church. Now we live as witnesses to God's love for us and all the
world. This the liturgical season when the gospel readings present a selection of Jesus' parables, miracles, and teachings. It is the time when we again explore the many facets of our relationship to God, through the teachings of Jesus. In the fall, although we continue the liturgical season of Pentecost, it does feel like a new season of beginnings. It is a time when we gather our energies , restarting those programs that may have taken a summer sabbatical and breathing new life into everything. Reformation Sunday, October 26th the last Sunday of October. On this day we are invited as daughters and sons of the Reformation to celebrate the perennial source of reform in the church: the word of God and the sacraments of forgiveness and new life. The Holy Spirit's reforming and transforming work continues among us, a Reformation church always in need of reforming. The liturgical color is red. All Saints Sunday, November 2nd . This is a time to remember and honor those who before us, lived and died in Christ. As the liturgical year draws to a close we hear in our lectionary readings stories of crisis and judgment and parables of loss and death. But at the same time the liturgy calls us to hear the promise of Jesus that God is with us in life and in death. The feast of the Reign of Christ, November 23 The last Sunday of the season is observed as the feast of the Reign of Christ. |
The long season after Pentecost
is the season of growth starting in the spring and going into the
harvest season. The liturgical color is green.