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The Christian calendar is organised around two major centres of Sacred Time: Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany; and Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, concluding at Pentecost. The rest of the year following Pentecost is known as Ordinary Time, from the word "ordinal," which simply means counted time (1st Sunday after Pentecost, etc.). Ordinary Time is used to focus on various aspects of the Faith, especially the mission of the church in the world. Some church traditions break up ordinary time into a Pentecost Season, (Pentecost until the next to last Sunday of August) and Kingdomtide (last Sunday of August until the beginning of Advent). And also to complete our year at St Giles' we have included a section about Harvest. |
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The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival." The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000 year old event in history. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. That is a process in which we now participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate. Scripture reading for Advent will reflect this emphasis on the Second Advent, including themes of accountability for faithfulness at His coming, judgment on sin, and the hope of eternal life. |
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Historically, Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth to a young maiden from Galilee. Theologically, Christmas is the celebration of the incarnation of God in Jesus the Christ, the self-revelation of God to the world in human form for the reconciliation of humanity to Himself. All the details of the various accounts concerning Jesus’ birth revolve around that central truth (see The Meaning of Christmas below). |
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Epiphany relevant pictures from St Giles' to go here! |
The term epiphany means "to show" or "to make known" or even "to reveal." In Western churches, it remembers the coming of the wise men bringing gifts to visit the Christ child, who by so doing "reveal" Jesus to the world as Lord and King. In some Central and South American countries influenced by Catholic tradition, Three Kings’ Day, or the night before, is the time for opening Christmas presents. In some eastern churches, Epiphany or the Theophany commemorates Jesus’ baptism, with the visit of the Magi linked to Christmas. In some churches the day is celebrated as Christmas, with Epiphany/Theophany occurring on January 19th. |
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Today Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter. Since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the six Sundays that occur during Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent, and are referred to as the Sundays in Lent. The number 40 is connected with many biblical events, but especially with the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for His ministry by facing the temptations that could lead him to abandon his mission and calling. Christians today use this period of time for introspection, self examination, and repentance. This season of the year is equal only to the Season of Advent in importance in the Christian year, and is part of the second major grouping of Christian festivals and sacred time that includes Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost. |
Lent relevant pictures from St Giles' to go here! |
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Holy week relevant pictures from St Giles' to go here! |
The entire week between Palm Sunday and Holy Saturday is included in Holy Week, and some church traditions have daily services during the week. However, usually only Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday are times of special observance in most churches. |
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Easter or Resurrection Sunday is the day Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus the Christ from the dead. Even before theologians explained the death of Jesus in terms of various atonement theories, the early church saw his resurrection as the central witness to a new act of God in history and the victory of God in vindicating Jesus as the Messiah. This event marks the central faith confession of the early church and was the focal point for Christian worship, observed on the first day of each week since the first century (Acts 20:7; Sunday was officially proclaimed the day of Christian worship in AD 321). Easter as an annual celebration of the Resurrection that lies at the centre of a liturgical year has been observed at least since the fourth century. Even in churches that traditionally do not observe the other historic seasons of the church year, Easter has occupied a central place as the high point of Christian worship. |
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Pentecost was originally an Old Testament festival, since the time of Josephus calculated as beginning on the fiftieth day after the beginning of Passover. In the Christian calendar, it falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter. It was called the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), and in the Old Testament was originally an agricultural festival celebrating and giving thanks for the "first fruits" of the early spring harvest (Lev 23, Exod 23, 34). |
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Fathers
Day at St Giles' was celebrated this year by a presentation of Joseph and
the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Who came up with the idea of Father's Day? |
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On a
wild winter’s night, over 150 years ago, a very remarkable looking man was
running towards the cliffs of the Cornish village of Morwenstow. |
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The man in the frock
coat appeared to be ushering the villagers, seeing that each had their fair
share of the driftwood, but no more than their fair share. (They were not wreckers in the bad old sense for they had all helped the stranded crew but, that done, they were getting what they might from the doomed vessel). When each had collected as much of the precious wood as they could carry, the strange party clambered up the cliff-face and returned home to their cottages. The leader on the other hand, still carrying his beaver hat, let himself into the front door of the vicarage. He was in fact the vicar of the parish; none other than the famous Robert Hawker, of whom Charles Kingsley once said, “He is the most extraordinary parson I have ever heard of”. Certainly it may be doubted whether the Church of England has ever produced a vicar more eccentric, more outspoken, yet more dearly loved by his flock. Robert Stephen Hawker, son of a Cornish parson, (who was also a country doctor), was born on December 3rd, 1803, in the Devonshire village of Stoke Damerel. He was intended for the Law, and had indeed become apprenticed to a solicitor, when he changed his mind and went to the grammar school in Cheltenham, whence in 1819 he went up to Pembroke College, Oxford. After a wild career there he took his degree. In the same year 1823, while still a boy of twenty, he married a woman old enough to be his own mother. He lived with this lady, Charlotte L’Ans, for forty-one years. At first it seemed that a brilliant career lay ahead of him, for in 1827 he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry at Oxford, and his friends supposed that he would follow an academic career. To everyone’s amazement he took Holy Orders and soon afterwards became vicar of the remote Cornish parish of Morwenstow where, declining all the temptations of fame and fortune, he laboured for nearly half a century. And yet his own fame became a national fame. And it is possible that by remaining at Morwenstow he became more widely known than many a Bishop or fashionable city preacher. His most enduring achievement, (and certainly the one that has done most to win him our affection), was his “invention” of the Harvest Festival service, which now we take for granted. However, we must use the word “invention” carefully. The medieval Catholic Church, of course, had observed that festival, following closely the course of nature and the farmer’s year, but her ancient feast days and services, such as Lammas and Rogationtide, had fallen into abeyance, except for a few enthusiasts; so when Robert Hawker came to Morwenstow, he and his church had no harvest festival such as we now enjoy. In the summer of 1843 he issued a notice to his parishioners inviting them to receive the Sacrament on the following Sunday, “in the bread of the new corn”, as the Catholic Church had recognised Lammas. More than that, he decided to decorate his church with the visible tokens of the harvest - bread, vegetables, flowers, fruit - and these were piled high before the altar and under his pulpit. News of these strange occurrences got broadcast and many churchgoers, ignorant of the traditions of their own faith, supposed that the vicar had initiated some new rite; whereas he had merely given life to an old and very beautiful custom. Within a decade however, Robert Hawker’s Harvest Festival Service had been copied in almost every English parish church; today it is observed as closely as Easter and Christmas. For more pictures of Harvest 2007 at St Giles click here. |
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This page last updated on Sunday October 07, 2007 at 20:47:16 |
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This
involved the Drama Club and members of the choir.
