02/01/2026
For the next few weeks I am going to give you some information on "The Christian Church Year"
Some may not be interested but I hope there are some will enjoy it and get a better understanding of the Church year.
All the information will be from a booklet by Arden Mead and King Schoenfeld by the name "I Love To Live The Story" A Guide TO UNDERSTANDING & CELEBRATING, The Christian Church Year.
PART ONE:
The first part will be the introduction:
The Christian Church Year is living history, a cycle of ancient events brought to life each year. It is history that is as alive as the Church itself.
The Christian Church Year and how it leads us to celebrate the story of our Lord as our own story
The Church Year is an annual cycle of festivals and seasons, developed straight out of the Word of God by Christian generations long before us.
Christians around the world and throughout history have shaped their faith and marked their lives by the events of the Church Year, making this cycle as new as each new year of celebration.
In the 21st century, parishes may wonder about the value of such a tradition for communal worship and personal life. For those who want to explore the meaning of the Church's liturgical Year and its use in parish life, this booklet offers a brief overview plus appropriate symbols for use in the sanctuary and Christian classroom.
Why should we promote an understanding and appreciation of this ancient system?
First‐--looking back---the Church Year connects us with Scripture through a planned series of readings, which present its great stories and themes, especially the life and words of our Lord.
Second---looking ahead--- the Church Year helps the Church, the community of believers, celebrate God's forgiveness and justice for people today, living in an unforgiving and unjust world.
Roughly speaking, the first half of the Church Year (Advent through Pentecost Day) recalls events in the life of our Lord, making them real for us in the present. The rest of the Church Year focuses on Jesus' teaching and on discipleship---the new life in Christ in which we are living and growing.
When Christians all over the world come together to celebrate the same festivals and seasons of the Church Year, they
●learn the words and acts of God that
have changed history;
●remember the birth, life, death and
resurrection of our Lord which give us
a rebirth, new life and hope of the
resurrection;
●relive these saving events through
which our Lord created his Church
and transformed our lives.
HOW THE CHURCH YEAR CAME TO BE
To early Christians it was vividly obvious that every Sunday was Easter again. Every Lord's Supper was a reliving of Christ's Easter victory over sin, death and the devil. Christians then, as now, knew they shared his victory; their worship gatherings comforted and encouraged them.
As the centuries passed, converts tended to become spectators at worship, and the Church came to depend on the Gospel readings, the liturgy, and a growing number of special days to teach its members. Repetition of the readings, the liturgy and the "holy days," year after year, helped believers to learn, remember and celebrate the main teachings of the faith.
During the Middle Ages the leaders of the Church unified observances that differed from place to place, so that a common Church Year calendar took shape.
Today many Christians in North America have adopted the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), so that they use the same Scripture readings and similar names for the festivals and seasons. The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod uses a similar lectionary series with variations (revised Advent 2006).
The information in this booklet is general enough to apply to churches using either the RCL or the revised Lutheran Lectionary.
Each section that follows the introduction will include two types of resources for each festival day or season of the Church Year:
IMAGES and WORDS will include definitions and explanation of what Christians may see and hear in celebrating a particular part of the Church Year. These will include foreign words, phrases from Scripture, liturgical colors, and season-specific objects.
