High Church--Low Church (part 9) The Christian Year

 Sixth Day of Christmas

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High church observes the Christian Year extensively. Low church observes it little or not at all. For Baptists, Pentecostals, and churches from the radical or puritanical end of the Reformation, the Christian Year is something Catholic, therefore, wrong.

For Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Anglican (Episcopal) churches, the Christian Year is a way to order the life of the church, and for many a way to order the individual Christian's life. Low church denominations claim to observe only Christian holidays that are mentioned in the New Testament. They often don't realize that Christmas and Easter, which they do celebrate, are not mentioned in the New Testament. Methodists, as usual, are in the middle. Sometimes I think we would more accurately be called "Middleists" than "Methodists." 

So here is the basic test for high church and low church in regard to the Christian Year: How different is your church, in both sanctuary appearance and worship, in the different seasons of the Christian Year. The more there is difference; the more it's high church. I'm just going to lay out how high church observes the Christian Year, and you can figure out where your church fits from that. 

Advent 

Advent is the four Sundays before Christmas. Themes are waiting, expectation, the coming of the Messiah and the second coming of the Messiah. The liturgical color is blue, though purple is an option. The first rule of Advent worship is that Advent is not Christmas. Christmas carols should not be sung during Advent. Methodists tend to have a lot of trouble with this. I've noticed a number of United Methodist Churches that sing all Advent hymns the first and maybe even the second Sunday of Advent, but gradually slip into more and more Christmas carols.  It's hard for Methodists to wait. High church waits. Advent hymns tend to be minor key (or at least to my untrained ear seems like minor key),"O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus."My favorite is "Of the Father's Love Begotten," the oldest hymn in the Methodist Hymnal.

Christmas

Christmas begins at midnight, or at least on Christmas Eve. Catholics call it midnight mass. The theme is joy. The liturgical color is white. It and Easter are the biggest services of the year. Many folks, known colloquially as C & Eer's come to church only on these days. Christmas (Christmas Eve) is a joyous celebration: Big choir, Christmas carols, additional instruments, especially brass, upbeat sermon, candles, communion.

Christmas doesn't end on Christmas Day. There are twelve days of Christmas. We tend to forget the other eleven. Now is the time for Christmas carols.  The appropriate time for the Festival of Lessons and Carols is actually the first Sunday after Christmas, though I've only seen this done in one church (an Episcopal church in Knoxville).

 

Epiphany,

Epiphany begins on January 6. It's ending is controlled by the date of Easter that year. It commemorates the life and ministry of Jesus. The liturgical color is green. The major festival is the Festival of the Baptism, commemorating the Baptism of Jesus. It occurs on the first Sunday after Epiphany. The color this day is white It's a great Sunday for Baptisms and for Baptism Renewal services. Hymns for Epiphany are upbeat.

Lent

Lent is by far the most liturgically complex of the seasons. For some people it is the season of "don'ts." Don't eat chocolate. Don't eat meat on Fridays. Give up something. The church has some liturgical don'ts as well, although relatively few United Methodist churches observe them.

We'll continue the year with Lent tomorrow. 

Faithfully,

Christian