I intellectually understand that this format of time keeping may connect us to the ancient and global church or become more connected with the mysteries of God, but I see charts/calendars like this and think "I'm sure that's lovely but I'm afraid that is just none of my business."
Unless you're clergy, the only things you really need to keep track of are Christmas and Easter in case you want to dress your best for the big holidays. And Ash Wednesday if you want to be sure to attend. Everything else kind of gets handled for you.
I've never needed to know what version of the liturgy we were going to be using before I sat down in a pew.
The real difference-maker, in my Lutheran experience, is how often your congregation does Holy Communion.
do people not do it every week?
Again, limiting it to my experience. Some congregations celebrate Holy Communion every week, some less often (1st Sunday + special holidays is common in my experience). My wife's former Free Methodist congregation very rarely did when we attended. That was jarring.
huh! TIL. I always figured celebrating Communion is a big part of going to church at all! But there's a great big world out there of folks who clearly feel differently.
There is so much variation from church to church, on almost any subject. Personally, I like regular Communion, but I know my church preferences skew to liturgy and ritual.
This is bizarre to me, taking the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week is like a foundational thing in my birth church, to the point that they offer it for Sunday evening services if you weren’t there Sunday morning
Once a month for United Methodists.
As far as I know a lot of Protestants only do it once a month
Catholics offer communion every day, and most practicing folks take it once a week. The Catholic liturgical calendar has no bearing on whether communion is offered
On this? The mumblety-th week of Ordinary Time???
On the Episcopal one, Christmas is the same number of days, but it takes up half the circle.
This looks pretty standard for Protestant churches. Wait til you hear about the three-year Scripture cycle.
I remember a chart like this from when I was a kid (Catholic) and it was color coded so I could figure out why the priest was wearing x color without having to pay attention to mass.
This nonsense is literally why I never get a stat holiday in both March AND April and I'm mad as hell about it.
Really it is just about the fancy vestments being on summer break
I have ADHD! I only understand the concept of time as "now" and "not now". Brother, do you know how much Adderall I need to experience "Ordinary Time?!?"
I literally just show up to church with a vague understanding of where we are in the calendar and go “oh that’s nice”
Church... calendar?
so the priest knows which vestments to wear
We don't have priests and vestments, we have a preacher in a suit, unless it's one of those weird liberal churches where the preacher doesn't wear a tie
where's the fun in that?!
As I've been told multiple times in my life, "the church is not a social club." It's not supposed to be fun, it's church.
tired: counting from one and going up wired: counting from zero and going up (divinely) inspired:
What is this, the First Church of Time-Cube?
learning about the church of christ made my mother's quiet, staid presbyterianism (good guys - USA - not bad guys - PCA) seem boisterous by comparison. i feel re: spiritual practice like i do about most things - most parts of life should bring comfort and joy to counterbalance sorrow/struggle.
As a child I was scolded for using hymnals to make a barn for my toy tractors while playing silently in our pew during the sermon That was the moment where I learned I was expected to sit quietly and pay attention in all aspects of life
... oof, friend. that is... i struggle to find words for things like that. i am glad things are different for you now, that's for sure. ❤️
pretty much. your quality as a child was determined by how long you could sit still and shut up
Exactly. My church/liturgical calendar is “is there church?” and “is it a holiday?” and everything else is for the pastors to know and me to maybe remember
Yeah, we didn't do any of that, the only "calendar" was "is it Sunday or Wednesday?" The closest we came to a "holiday" was a special Wednesday night singing service the night before Thanksgiving that we'd do a meal with The church of Christ doesn't recognize Easter or Christmas as special days
yeah, my fundamentalist secret southern baptist churches never did any of this stuff, so it's like a fun surprise for me every week. "oh it's epiphany, that's neat!"
I went to a Baptist church VBS up the street from my church (because most of my friends were Baptist and went there) and it felt wrong and strange and weird that there was a piano and a "Christian flag"
My wife's old church for some period of its history got away from accompaniment for music, not because accompaniment was itself bad, but because it was too hard to find pianists who didn't also play at dances or in drinking establishments.
I've witnessed deep theological debates about whether a pitch-pipe constitutes an "instrument"
that’s basically what this is too the clergy uses it to determine what color vestments to use and plan Scripture readings and hymns, but for the layperson, it’s just “is this Sunday in some way special, Y/N”
my church does one 9:30 AM service with music and limited chanting during Ordinary Time, and an 8:30 AM service with no music or chanting and a 10:45 AM service with all the bells and whistles the rest of the year, but idk if this is standard practice
It's mostly to make sure the Pastors can color coordinate stolls and such. Also Lutheran wise to make sure you get the organ tuned up for Mighty Fortress on Reformation Sunday
I remember back in the day when Advent became blue instead of purple , and my pastor-dad grumbled when he had to buy a new stoll.
I’ve often wondered if ordinary time developed from “we’re busy farming, ain’t got time for that”
To be honest, from a week-to-week going to worship point of view, it isn't that important. It just breaks down into "themes" that the readings and preaching usually follows.