The Biblical Background for the Season After Pentecost

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.