Delaying Trinitytide - Rector's Rambling for June 29, 2014

With Eastertide, Ascensiontide, Whitsuntide, and The Feast of Corpus Christi all in our rearview mirror, we begin the long Church season of Trinitytide, also known as the Ordinary Season.

The church calendar began back in December with the Sundays in Advent.  Christmastide was the 12 days of Christmas, then the Epiphany season leading up to the pre-Lent gesima Sundays, and then Lent.  The entire year is marked by church time, with fluctuations in the number of Sundays in Epiphanytide and Trinitytide based on when Easter is celebrated.  Easter Day is set with a lunar calendar formula and can range from as early as March 22, to as late as April 25.

Trinitytide is a long season of orderly teaching about the Faith (which is why it is also called Ordinary Time).  The Sundays are numbered as Sundays after Trinity.  This year there are 23 Sundays between Trinity and when Advent begins a new Church year on November 30.

One way to break up the long stretch of this green vestment season is that we can celebrate the Prayer Book Holy Days if they occur on Sunday.  Today is one of those days.  The Feast of St. Peter the Apostle is June 29, so we are celebrating that Feast today.  Other special Feasts falling on a Sunday in Trinitytide this year include St. Bartholomew (August 24), Holy Cross (September 14), and St. Matthew (September 21).  All Saints’ Day is always celebrated on the Sunday after November 1 (November 2 this year), and with the Bishop’s permission we also celebrate St. Michael and All Angels on the Sunday following September 29 (October 5 this year).

If you are someone who is interested in how all this works, the information about finding feast days, and when Easter occurs, is found near the front of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer on pages l–lvii.

Today is red for St. Peter, and next week into the green of Ordinary Time.