Though heir to the Calvinist Reformation which eliminated worship practices not specified in Scripture, the Reformed Church in America has in recent decades turned toward fuller usage of the Christian year. Increasingly, congregations are discovering that the liturgy, music, symbols, and education connected with the church year do not threaten the primacy of Scripture but dramatize the biblical story and help connect faith to all aspects of human experience.
The extent to which congregations in the Reformed Church in America (RCA) practice the church year varies widely. A few churches observe only Christmas, Easter, and Palm Sunday. More than 80 percent keep Advent, Lent, Maundy Thursday, and Pentecost. About three-quarters observe Good Friday, around 40 percent celebrate Epiphany, Ascension, and Ash Wednesday, and almost a quarter mark Trinity Sunday.
Modes of Observance
The mode of observance similarly varies. Some churches pattern all of congregational life on the church year. For others, the most noticeable variation is changed paraments.
Using liturgical colors is in fact the most common way to mark the seasons. Varying paraments and vestments visibly affect worship space. Banners reinforcing seasonal color and symbol are especially popular during Advent, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. They may be fixed or used in procession, especially with children waving palms on Palm Sunday. Color drapes are used on crosses or as dossal cloths.
Some congregations schedule the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper at the beginnings of seasons, most often Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and All Saints’ Day.
Music helps set the seasonal tone. Brass instruments and bells give a celebrative mood to Easter and Pentecost. The “Hallelujah Chorus” may be sung on Easter or Ascension. Hymn festivals are used on Trinity, All Saints, and Christ the King Sundays. Services of lessons and carols find a place at Christmas.
Candles, flowers, and other accouterments enrich worship at various points in the year. Advent wreaths use candles. Some churches light a Christmas Christ candle, have services of Tenebrae (darkening) on Maundy Thursday, and use a Paschal candle. One congregation lights its candelabra chandelier annually on Pentecost.
A profusion of lilies are common on Easter and poinsettias at Christmastide. The absence of flowers during Lent provides contrast. A bare, gnarled tree might be used during Lent. A rough-hewn cross for Holy Week turns around filled with lilies for Easter.
One congregation has a chancel-height, airy fabric sculpture for Ascension Sunday. Chrismons are widely used, appearing at the beginning of Advent or just before Christmas. On Pentecost in some congregations, worshipers wear red and children receive wind gifts—balloons, windsocks, pinwheels. One congregation has a Pentecost fair to recruit folks for mission tasks.
Special services mark the church year. On Christmas Eve early services are held for families as well as eleven o’clock services. Other special services include Ash Wednesday (with the imposition of ashes), Maundy Thursday, Good Friday (often ecumenical), and Easter sunrise.
Liturgy reflects the church year. For example, some churches omit confession of sin during Christmas and Easter celebrations. Multiple languages may be used for Pentecost readings. The year’s necrology is read on All Saints’ Day.
Beyond worship, some congregations schedule all-church events. Wreath-making and activities with fellowship suppers accent Advent. Lent offers intergenerational learning opportunities. New member classes take place during Lent in preparation for a reception at Easter, or during Easter for Pentecost.
The Reformed Heritage
Such a wide variety in practice is remarkable for congregations originating in the Calvinist Reformation. Historically, this tradition sought to recover the primitive simplicity of the early church by patterning worship in “only what is ordained by God in the Scriptures.” (Horton Davies, The Worship of the English Puritans [Westminster, U. K.: Dacre Press, 1948],16). Distracting or presumptuous innovations are avoided. Reformed worship was often bare in comparison with other forms (M. Eugene Osterhaven, The Spirit of the Reformed Tradition [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972], 58). Most accretions to the church calendar were eliminated.
Some shape and pattern to the year were preserved, however. The 1907 revision of Liturgy and Psalms (RCA constitutional liturgy) contained the year’s Scripture lessons divided into three seasons: the Advent of our Lord, the Death, and Resurrection of our Lord, and the Mission of the Holy Comforter. “Certain occasions” had appointed prayers and Psalms: Advent, Christmas Day, Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter Day, Whitsunday, and All Saints’ Day. In 1953, Reformed liturgical scholar Howard Hageman stated that the seasons of the Christian year “have always been observed by our Reformed church.” (Howard G. Hageman, Lily Among the Thorns [New York: Reformed Church Press, 1953], 115).
Movement toward the Whole Church Year
Several factors contributed to a gradual, but logical, movement from observing days—Christmas, Good Friday, Easter—to keeping the church year as a whole. One influence has been the liturgical renewal movement. Increased availability of resources encourages enrichment of worship through symbol, sense, color, and season.
The RCA Commission on Worship also encouraged this movement. Significantly, the 1968 revision of Liturgy and Psalms introduced a fuller version of the Christian year. It contained a “church-year calendar” with the three seasons further defined: Advent (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany), Death and Resurrection (Ash Wednesday, Lent, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension), and Mission of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost and Sundays after). It provided prayers and canticles for the Christian year. It used terminology common to the wider church, such as Ash Wednesday, Lent, Ascension, and Pentecost. These changes in language and amount of material gave the church year new prominence.
Perhaps the most important development encouraging this shift was the addition of Common Lectionary texts and the naming of liturgical days and colors on the RCA plan calendar in the early 1980s. A tradition of lectionary use, historically based on lectio continua—continuous readings—made the introduction of the church year-based Common Lectionary logical. A 1988 resource, Pray to the Lord, offered corporate prayers organized by liturgical day and season.
The wide adoption of “Children and Worship” a church year-based program, encourages churches to reinforce children’s experiences by following the church year in congregational life.
Why is the RCA observing more of the Christian year? There is a growing appreciation that the church year provides a dynamic annual curriculum that dramatizes the biblical story. As it unfolds, we celebrate historic events that form our faith foundation. These themes also embrace our experiences of longing, waiting, fulfillment, joy, doubt, and growth, so familiar texts are fresh each cycle. Following the church year enables Christians to understand all experiences in the light of the Christian faith.
What is the future of the church year in the RCA? Surely wide variation will continue among congregations. However, more probably will observe the church year in deeper ways. Doing so will form congregational life and ensure a full presentation of the Christian story. The role of the arts is apt to expand. Traditional liturgical objects like Advent wreaths and Paschal candles will find increasing use. More congregations will develop distinctive practices.
Understanding of seasons may deepen. When change is new, sometimes only outward trappings change. As the experience of the church year in the RCA lengthens, understanding will deepen. Lectionary texts will increasingly inform season understandings. For example, a tradition of living more than half a century with “The Season for the Death and Resurrection of our Lord” makes it difficult to see that Lent is really about discipleship, priorities, and growing in faith and that Holy Week is the time to meditate on Christ’s passion. Maybe the prevalent confusion between Advent and Christmas will abate and more churches will celebrate two distinct seasons.
Increasing observance of the church year has enriched worship in the RCA, complementing the Reformation understanding of the primacy of Scripture.