liturgical calendar

The Biblical Background for the Season After Pentecost

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The liturgical calendar, which sequentially presents events in the life of Christ, ends with Pentecost. The season between Pentecost and Advent is called the “season after Pentecost” in most Christian traditions. Although it does not feature any major festivals of the Christian year, many lesser feasts and fasts fall in this period. Two of these, standing at the beginning and end of the season, are Trinity Sunday and the Festival of Christ the King.

Trinity Sunday

Beginning in the Middle Ages, the first Sunday after Pentecost began to be designated in honor of the Holy Trinity as a kind of capstone to the portion of the liturgical year that celebrates the major events of the Christian revelation. The observance of Trinity Sunday became especially popular in England, and the Anglican community has traditionally observed only a brief Pentecost season, followed by a long Trinity season lasting until Advent. Although the “season after Pentecost” has more recently been restored, the Festival of the Trinity continues as part of the liturgical calendar. It is the only major observance of the Christian year dedicated to a doctrine, rather than to an event.

Christ the King

The feast of Christ the King was initiated by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and assigned to the last Sunday of October. Subsequently, it has been moved to the last Sunday of the season after Pentecost (the Sunday before Advent). In its position at the end of the liturgical year, this festival proclaims the goal toward which human history moves: the universal reign of Jesus Christ. The Festival of Christ the King has its foundation in the biblical vision of God’s purpose, “to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ” (Eph. 1:10). In some denominations, “Kingdomtide” is an alternate name for the greater part of the season after Pentecost.

World Communion Sunday

Nonliturgical churches have traditionally limited their observance of festivals to major events such as Christmas, Holy Week, and Easter. Those churches that follow the seasons of the liturgical year usually celebrate the Eucharist or Holy Communion each week. In other Protestant denominations the Lord’s Supper is generally observed periodically (a common practice being the first Sunday of each month). World Communion Sunday developed in the twentieth century as a device to encourage nonliturgical churches of all types to celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the same day at least once annually. While the day is not part of the traditional calendar, it has special value for many churches as a reminder of the local congregation’s oneness with the “catholic,” or universal, church. The New Testament holds the unity of the church, in faithfulness to the purposes of God, in high esteem. Jesus prayed for such unity among his own in all eras, as a reflection of his own unity with the Father (John 17:20–22), and Paul proclaimed “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:5). In relationship to the Lord’s Supper, he declared that “we who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor. 10:17). World Communion Sunday is a reflection of this truth.

The Biblical Background to the Christian Festivals

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Emerging from its Judaic background, the Christian church did not continue the observance of the festivals of Israelite worship but developed a liturgical calendar of its own, based principally on major events in the life of Christ.

The Pentateuch mandates the observance of three annual feasts (Exod. 23:14–27; Lev. 23; Deut. 16:1–7): Passover, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, and the Feast of Ingathering, also called the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus and the earliest Christians were familiar with this Mosaic calendar, and the New Testament records occasions when they took part in these festivals. Jesus cleansed the temple during a Passover observance (John 2:13–17), taught in the temple during the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:14–39), and instituted the Lord’s Supper during the Passover (Matt. 26:17–30). It was on the day of Pentecost that the apostles, together in Jerusalem, were filled with the Holy Spirit and first preached Jesus as the Christ (Acts 2:1). Paul, on what was to be his final trip to Jerusalem, expressed the desire to be there by Pentecost (Acts 20:16). The Jewish Sabbath was not a festival but a day of rest and of assembling in the synagogue for the study of the Scriptures. The Gospels record Jesus’ participation in the Sabbath service at the beginning of his ministry (Luke 4:16). Later, however, his attitude toward the Sabbath often drew the ire of the Pharisees, for he opposed their rigorous prohibition of all forms of “work” when it would prevent doing good to people, especially healing the sick.

As the church expanded out of the orbit of Judaism, the Jewish festivals were virtually laid aside. The church could not continue their sacrificial aspects, for Christ himself had offered the only efficacious blood sacrifice (Heb. 9:11–14; 10:1–10) and in his death and resurrection had canceled the decrees of the ceremonial law (Col. 2:13–14). The New Testament draws on the vocabulary and symbolism of the Israelite feasts and of the Sabbath to interpret God’s action in Christ. The Lord’s Supper, as the covenant meal of the Christian ekklēsia, partly absorbed the significance of the Passover; however, it was not an annual festival but, apparently, a weekly observance. The Jewish Sabbath was supplanted by the Christian worship on the Lord’s Day.

The New Testament records no liturgical calendar and gives no directives for observing annual feasts. The apostle Paul expresses indifference to the observance of special days; whether a believer keeps them should be a matter of personal conviction, for the purpose of glorifying and thanking the Lord (Rom. 14:5–6). Historically, however, the Christian church has found a special value in the annual festivals as encouragements to the believer’s identification with God’s action of deliverance in Jesus Christ. Within some segments of the evangelical church, there is a growing desire to return to aspects of the biblical festival calendar; some churches and groups, for example, have begun to observe an annual “Feast of Tabernacles,” a time of heightened celebration of the glory and presence of the Lord.

The following is an introduction to the Lord’s Day and to the major feasts of the church. Omitted in this survey are days that have no scriptural foundation, such as saints’ days, events peculiar to one denominational tradition (e.g., Reformation Day or Aldersgate Sunday), or the events of the civil or popular calendar that may be celebrated in churches (e.g., Mother’s Day and Thanksgiving).