Sunday Next Before Advent
Anglican Brat
Shipmate
My deacon and I were discussing the Calendar and he observed that before Anglicans adapted Christ the King Sunday, the Last Sunday of the Church Year was not a big deal in the Anglican tradition. We said that according to the Prayerbook, the Church year ended not with a bang but with a whimper.
Was that the case in other denominations such as the RC church before Vatican II? I take it, that before the Vatican II, no one thought of Advent Sunday as the "Christian New Year?
Was that the case in other denominations such as the RC church before Vatican II? I take it, that before the Vatican II, no one thought of Advent Sunday as the "Christian New Year?
Comments
Christ the King was instituted in 1925 - I certainly wasn't around then!
1st November was the beginning of the Celtic New Year and taken over by the Western Christians as All Saints Day and All Souls Day - a day of ending and beginning.
When Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King,he placed it on the Sunday before All Saints Day,keeping in mind this idea of end and beginning.
After Vatican 2 the Church placed it on the last Sunday of the Christian Year.
Before that the RC church(and I think the Anglican Church commemorated the 'Last Things' (death and judgement) on the final sun days of the ecclesiastical year.
I don't know about Lutherans in America but German Lutherans have on the last Sunday before Advent Totensonntag or Ewigkeitssonntag - (Sunday of the dead Sunday of eternity ), a Lutheran celebration of All Souls but also of the Eternity which awaits faithful Christians.
At that time there was a bit of a problem due to the movable Feast of Easter. If Easter was very earlier then there were more Sundays after Pentecost (for Anglicans and Lutherans 'after Trinity') than there was a liturgy for. After the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost earlier Sundays after Epiphany which had been miss out came in at that time until the final Last Sunday after Pentecost.
I'd question that. I think it depended on the importance attached to it by the parish priest. Don't forget, the BCP has one of the most inspiring Collects for the Sunday before Advent "STIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded ....
And of course the Sunday had added significance as "Stir up Sunday" because of the old tradition of it being the deadline for the making of Christmas pudding.
An inspiring, and indeed encouraging, prayer for the end of the Eucharist.
A note adds that it may be used as the regular Collect at the offices during the following week, after which, of course, the Advent provision is used.
When a church celebrates the beginning of the liturgical year is a matter of liturgical rite rather than ecclesial affiliation.
The marking of the new year with the Induction on the 1st of September is characteristic of the Byzantine Rite, so isn't limited to Orthodoxy or universal within Orthodoxy.
For instance, Byzantine Rite Catholics also keep the 1st of September as the church new year, while many Orthodox do not.
That's still very much the case in the Western Orthodox churches. There is no significant feast; it's just the final Sunday after Pentecost, entitled "The Consummation of the Age".
I don't think we encounter this particular problem as we have an Advent of six Sundays, beginning on the day after the feast of St Martin.
the Feast of Christ the King, neither on its earlier date just before All Saints' Day nor on its later placing at the culmination of the liturgical year,
The results were as dire as expected.
No idea. It has now lapsed. I would have to check the diocesan ordo to see if it mentioned. But the church is locked and I dont have a copy.
EDIT it is apparently a national thing
https://www.cbcew.org.uk/home/events/previous-events/national-youth-sunday-2020/
The fact that it has now lapsed in your diocese maybe says something about its success/impact...not that it's necessarily a Bad Thing in itself, of course.
More than three cheers at Alan29 Towers!
Good God! As a retired secondary school teacher ... the very idea of it makes me reach for the sick bag.
That was my first thought.
My second was a totally unworthy one about the clergy and precisely what sort of youth "fun" they had in mind.