Someone recently sent me a wonderful video by Fr Casey Cole, OFM (thanks – you know who you are) saying I would probably know all the content, but might still be interested. I hope many of you are also – Fr Casey’s video is titled, “The Liturgical Year is a MESS (I went down a rabbit hole)”. Take time to appreciate/enjoy it:
Fr Casey is correct: the Church Year is a MESS, but it is even more of a mess than Fr Casey lets on. In the case of the mess Fr Casey is talking about – the Western (“Latin Rite”) part of Roman Catholicism (the majority of Christians) – the mess is ultimately a nourishing feast of scripture and tradition. But, by the time this filters down to the way it is used by NZ Anglicanism, it has been reworked to a confused chaos that, in some communities, is worse than the BCP system that it replaces.
Here are some comments (with video timestamps):
Christmas Day
1:38 “Christmas Day is always December 25” – ummm… well, sort of. It depends what you mean by December 25. Most people follow the Gregorian Calendar – for you (depending where you sit in relation to the Date Line) today is Friday, 11 March. But in the Julian Calendar, today is Friday, 26 February. So those using the Julian Calendar – yes, Christmas is called “December 25”, but that day will fall a dozen days after those using the Gregorian Calendar! Eastern Orthodox will generally belong to Julian approach.
Fr Casey serves in the Roman Catholic Church but, some may not realise, there are Eastern churches that accept the Vatican’s oversight, ie, they are in full communion within the Church that Fr Casey is talking about. And, whilst some of these Eastern churches celebrate Christmas on the same day as Fr Casey (Gregorian Calendar), other Eastern churches in full communion with the Vatican do not follow the Gregorian calendar but the Julian one of their Eastern Orthodox cousins.
Melkites seem to follow the calendar of the majority in whatever country they are in: if they are in the West, they follow the Gregorian Calendar; if they are in the East (say Syria, Jordan, Lebanon), they follow the Julian Calendar. Ukrainian Catholic Churches in Ukraine celebrate with the Orthodox (Julian); in USA, some of their parishes follow the Gregorian Calendar, others follow the Julian Calendar.
And then there’s Armenians! Early Christianity had January 6 as a celebration of Christmas. Armenians outside Palestine/Israel continue with January 6 – Gregorian Calendar, coinciding with Orthodox’s 25 December Christmas Julian Calendar. The Armenian community in Jerusalem continue with January 6 Julian calendar – which is January 19 Gregorian Calendar.
In summary – there are three different celebrations of Christmas – two different ones (Western & Eastern) are celebrated in Fr Casey’s own Church – and the Jerusalem Armenian third one. I’m delighted I have been part of celebrations of all three!
Easter Day
1:43 “Easter Day is the first Sunday after the full moon on or after the Spring Equinox” – well… sort of. The calculation is not done on the real full moon in the sky – this “Full Moon” is based on ancient tables. And it’s not the actual Spring Equinox – this “Spring Equinox” is simply a date on the calendar. And, yes, you guessed it – there are two calendars: Gregorian and Julian. As a consequence, there are two Easter Days. The Gregorian one, this year, is 17 April 2022. The Julian one, this year, is a week later, 24 April 2022!
Ordinary Time
3:01 “The day of the week that Christmas Day falls on affects how many weeks of Ordinary Time there are”.
A liturgical year normally has 52 Sundays – each with a week following: 4 Advent Sundays + 6 Lent Sundays + 7 Sundays of Easter (the Day of Pentecost is the 8th Sunday of Easter; it is followed by an Ordinary Week, so the Day of Pentecost replaces that Ordinary Sunday) = 17 Sundays. There can be 1 or 2 Sundays between Christmas and Epiphany (6 January – if Christmas Day is on Sunday or Monday, there’s only one Sunday before 6 January; if Christmas Day is on Tuesday, then 6 January is on a Sunday; other days of the week Christmas Day falls on results in 2 Sundays). Giving us 18 or 19 Sundays so far, and leaving 34 or 33 Sundays (and week following each of these Sundays) in such a 52-Sunday year. These are the “Ordinary” or “Counting” Weeks (from the word “Ordinal” numbers, 1st, 2nd, 3rd…)
If there’s a couple of Sundays after Christmas Day, we drop, in the Lent-Easter Seasons as explained in the video, one of the 34 Weeks provided. If there’s only 1 Sunday between Christmas Day and 6 January (ie. when Christmas Day is on Sunday or Monday) no week is dropped out.
But! If Christmas Day is a Sunday, then there are 53 Sundays in that Church Year. We don’t need an extra Sunday, however, the 34 Ordinary Sundays are enough because the Sunday we are needing is Christmas Day itself.
Finally, if it’s a Leap Year, and Christmas Day is on a Saturday (eg. the 1999-2000 Church Year) – then that year has 53 Sundays! We use the 17 Sundays listed above, all 34 Ordinary Weeks, and I’ve already said that Christmas on Saturday means there’s 2 Sundays between Christmas Day and 6 January – tah! dah! 53 Sundays present and accounted for! Ordinary Week 1 always begins on the Sunday 7-13 January which we celebrate as Christ’s Baptism.
4:35 “No week is ever skipped on consecutive years.” I’ve never noticed that! And what follows gives some interesting points about how we can miss sections for significant periods.
NZ Anglicanism – The Anglican Church of Or
Finally: the Church in which I serve, the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia well deserves being referred to as the Anglican Church of Or. Fr Casey is right in pointing out that the scriptural fare placed before us on Sundays and Major Feasts in the 3-Year Cycle is a feast: First Testament, praying a set psalm together, New Testament, Gospel. But in the Anglican Church of Or, the only obligation at Eucharist is the Gospel reading. So, regularly, communities drop one or more readings and/or the psalm. Or they regard the psalm not as a prayer, but as simply another reading. Worst – because of poor formation and training, I have been present at Eucharist where we are standing for “The Holy Gospel according to the letter to the Galatians…”
Furthermore, although Fr Casey pointed out some of the feasts that take precedence over an Ordinary Sunday – at least there is a common prayer element involved: if you go from one RC parish to the neighbouring RC parish, you will find the identical celebration occurring. I struggle with the multiplication of themed services, in the Anglican Church of Or, which might or might not be used instead of the Ordinary Sunday. The plethora of themed Sundays is part of the reason, I am convinced, for the reduction from reading – psalm – reading – Gospel, because the poorly formed are looking for a theme in the readings when there isn’t one!
I have recently been highlighting how, in the Anglican Church of Or, as just one example from this coming Sunday, one might NEVER encounter the Transfiguration at a Sunday celebration. EVER.
Fr Casey has highlighted, the Liturgical Year is a MESS. I have reinforced his points and underscored that it is an even greater mess than he has let on. But this, as he indicates, is a glorious mess, a nourishing mess for regular Sunday churchgoers for a lifetime of growth. I conclude, however, that in the Anglican Church of Or, it is a different type of mess altogether – it is a chaos, clutter, and confusion that can lead to a very undernourished Christian, even if they are committed to every-Sunday worship. And this shambles has been increasing rather than decreasing as time goes by.
