19 August 2008

The Year of Festivals!

Doing some worship planning it struck me how many festivals and feasts will fall on Sundays in the coming months:

Holy Cross Day, St. Matthew's Day, Holy Innocents, Confession of St. Peter, Conversion of St. Paul.

Then there are the days we usually transfer to Sundays: St. Michael and All Angels, Reformation, All Saints, and Epiphany.

16 comments:

906Lutheran said...

We use the CPH pre-printed bulletin inserts and I'm leaning towards going away from them... (sorry, Paul McCain)

Do you know why they printed St. Mary Magdalene last summer when it fell on a Sunday, but this year they've neglected all the festivals that are also on Sunday?

Rev. Charles Lehmann said...

I for one am glad that they're "neglecting" those festivals. The Sunday Propers trump the saints. I am not so happy that Reformation Day and All Saints have been moved to Sundays in the inserts this year.

I don't know what liturgical justification there is for either.

William Weedon said...

"The observances listed in boldface are principal feasts of Christ and are normally observed when they fall on a Sunday. The other festivals may be observed according to local custom and preference." Altar Book p. xiii

Brian P Westgate said...

Somewhere I read that anciently the feasts of Apostles are equal to Sunday. Zion Detroit celebrated St. Lawrence last week, and will be celebrating St. Bartholomew, Holy Cross, and St. Matthew in the coming weeks. Holy Innocents even has some changes in the Mass between weekdays and Sundays (the Divine Service for the Sunday after Christmass is historically only said on December 29, 30, or 31).
At any rate, 27 Sundays in a row of green gets awfully boring!

Rev. Charles Lehmann said...

Holy Innocents has traditionally been considered a Christological feast, so I have no problem celebrating it on a Sunday. Otherwise, LSB's rubrics seem to be best.

Rev. Luke T. Zimmerman said...

We'll be commemorating Saints Bartholomew and Matthew in Mechanicsburg, PA. These Second Class Feasts trump non-privileged Sundays, which August 24 and September 21 will be this year. So that is the liturgical rationale for doing so in our parish.

As for "Reformation Sunday" and "All Saints Sunday," not quite sure the liturgical rationale behind those, but local custom likely demands their celebration.

LTZ

Rev. Charles Lehmann said...

Here local custom = CPH Bulletin Inserts.

Chris said...

Is there any such thing as a Lutheran typicon or has everything been relegated to pastor's discretion? Even when their day falls on a Sunday, the saints and their resepctive commemoration days are still honored and invoked with hymns though the Resurrection is given primary focus throughout.

Anonymous said...

makes one think that the historical lectionary isn't of much value when it is "ok" for substitutions to be made so often...

Brian P Westgate said...

Well the old feast days/commemorations are PART of the historic lectionary. And 27 Sundays of green are awfully boring . . .

Rev. Charles Lehmann said...

"27 Sundays of Green are awfully boring" does not seem to me to be a well thought rationale for abandoning the historic practice of the church, which from my study would affirm the 27 Sundays of green and celebrate the saints at prayer offices or weekday masses... not for the Hauptgottesdienst on the Lord's day.

Brian P Westgate said...

It was a joke, a bad joke perhaps, but a joke nonetheless, though I do agree with Rev. Zimmermann, as the high festivals are equal to Sundays in honor. (Perhaps a joke also informed by Zion Detroit having more than one set of green paraments/vestments.) The thing is, if you only have Sunday services, then you'll never celebrate the feasts, but if you celebrate the feasts, well that Sunday will probably come around next year. At the same time, I admit the problem as you see it, especially since celebrating St. Bartholomew means we'll be losing the Thankful Samaritan, who follows the Good Samaritan in the lectionary, even as we thankful Samaritans follow the Good Samaritan in real life.

William Weedon said...

Ah but the Thankful Samaritan makes an appearance again on Thanksgiving - so we get him twice a year anyway; losing him to St. Bart every once in a while is not a bad thing.

Christopher Esget said...

I'm thinking about transferring St. Michael to Sunday, 9/28 this year, and noticed that you always transfer it. I'd like to know your rationale for that to help my decision one way or another.

William Weedon said...

I think the doctrine of angels is so screwed up in popular culture and so denied by church liberals, that there should be one day set aside each year to proclaim the comforting doctrine of the angels. Since if it is held on a weekday, this comforting doctrine would be proclaimed to a mere handful, we always move it to Sunday, the last of September. The people have come to cherish the day when they celebrate and "give a nod to" those who worship with us constantly and who attend us as God's command.

Christopher Esget said...

Thanks - that's helpful.

I might be crazy, but sometimes when I use the complete (mostly) version of the litany of St. John Chrysostom as the Prayer of the Church, it seems that the response to the petition, "For the protection of the holy angels, let us pray to the Lord," is attenuated. My theory is that people don't quite know what to make of it.

I've transferred the festival to our regular Wednesday evening service, but never to a Sunday. I think I will provisionally try that this year.