Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018 i ii Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018 Conforming to General Convention 2018 iii Copyright © 2019 by The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018 includes only the text included in resolution A065 and passed by the 79th General Convention in Austin, Texas. Attendant material (weekday propers for Advent, Christmas, Lent, and the Easter Season, and the six-week and two-year Eucharistic lectionaries) may be found in Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2006 and in Weekday Eucharistic Propers, both available from Church Publishing Incorporated. Portions of this book may be reproduced by a congregation for its own use. Commercial or large-scale reproduction, or reproduction for sale, of any portion of this book or of the book as a whole, without the written permission of Church Publishing Incorporated is prohibited. Church Publishing 19 East 34th Street New York, NY 10016 www.churchpublishing.org Typeset by Linda Brooks ISBN-13: 978-1-64065-234-7 (pbk.) ISBN-13: 978-1-64065-235-4 (ebook) iv A Note from the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music In 2015, following the 78th General Convention, the Standing Commission on Liturgy Music was asked to “receive and evaluate requests for consideration of individuals or groups to be included in the Calendar of the Church year and make recommendations thereon to the General Convention for acceptance or rejection.” This mandate from General Convention followed the provision for trial use, during previous triennia, of the volume Holy Women, Holy Men. The SCLM prepared a new volume, A Great Cloud of Witnesses, which was intended as a replacement for Holy Women, Holy Men. This new text was designed to reflect a broader inclusion of individuals in the Calendar. However, the 78th General Convention declined to authorize A Great Cloud of Witnesses, directing instead that the resource only be “made available” to the Church. What is the difference between a text being made available and being authorized? Lesser Feasts and Fasts was authorized for use throughout the Church in 1979. Subsequently, additional commemorations were approved by several General Conventions for trial use and then given a second reading for full inclusion in the Calendar. These commemorations then become a part of the Calendar of the Church Year. This action constitutes the volume being authorized for use; it has canonical standing and may be used throughout the Episcopal Church. However, if a text is made available, by action of General Convention, it has no official authorization for use, and may not necessarily be given canonical authority. We recognize that this distinction may be confusing to the Church. v During the last triennium, to provide a less ambiguous canonical authority for the Calendar, and to fulfill the mandate of General Convention, the SCLM worked at a revision of the Calendar. As with A Great Cloud of Witnesses, we hoped that this Calendar would reflect the diversity of the Church. We understood that this work was critical; our diversity as a Church is one of our great strengths. Welcoming commemorations of those who look like, talk like, and live like us in our diversity gives new ways of hearing the Gospel, and new ways for us to speak Gospel in the world. Remembering a more diverse company of saints gives us new stories by which to live, new ways to understand the world around us, and new ministries to take up in the world. The result is this volume: Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018. This volume, along with the commemorations and feasts of our Lord in the Book of Common Prayer, comprise the authorized Calendar given to the Church for use in the current triennium, from the end of the 79th General Convention through the 80th General Convention in 2021. It includes all of the commemorations from Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2006. As with previous editions of Lesser Feasts and Fasts, this volume is “for optional use throughout the church.” These commemorations may be used at weekday Eucharistic celebrations, at the Daily Office, or for private devotion, though the lectionary readings for each commemoration are intended to be used at the Eucharist, and not the Daily Office. In this volume, the following typographic conventions are used to distinguish certain dates. All feasts of our Lord and major feasts are titled in CAPITAL letters; commemorations from the 2006 edition of Lesser Feasts and Fasts are in capital/lowercase letters; commemorations for trial use are in [square brackets]; names changed because of monastic vocation are in (rounded brackets). This volume is an interim step; the 79th General Convention instructed the SCLM to “provide the 80th General Convention with a clear and unambiguous plan for a singular Calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts.” We look forward to fulfilling this mandate. —Paul Fromberg, Chair, SCLM vi Preface Christians have since ancient times honored men and women whose lives represent heroic commitment to Christ and who have borne witness to their faith even at the cost of their lives. Such witnesses, by the grace of God, live in every age. The criteria used in the selection of those to be commemorated in the Episcopal Church are set out below and represent a growing consensus among provinces of the Anglican Communion also engaged in enriching their calendars. What we celebrate in the lives of the saints is the presence of Christ expressing itself in and through particular lives lived in the midst of specific historical circumstances. In the saints we are not dealing primarily with absolutes of perfection but human lives, in all their diversity, open to the motions of the Holy Spirit. Many a holy life, when carefully examined, will reveal flaws or the bias of a particular moment in history or ecclesial perspective. It should encourage us to realize that the saints, like us, are first and foremost redeemed sinners in whom the risen Christ’s words to St. Paul come to fulfillment, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” The “lesser feasts” provide opportunities for optional observance. They are not intended to replace the fundamental celebration of Sunday and major Holy Days. As the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music and the General Convention add or delete names from the calendar, successive editions of this volume will be published, each edition bearing in the title the date of the General Convention to which it is a response. vii viii The Calendar of the Church Year 1 2 The Calendar of the Church Year The Church Year consists of two cycles of feasts and holy days: one is dependent upon the movable date of the Sunday of the Resurrection or Easter Day; the other, upon the fixed date of December 25, the Feast of our Lord’s Nativity or Christmas Day. Easter Day is always the first Sunday after the full moon that falls on or after March 21. It cannot occur before March 22 or after April 25. The sequence of all Sundays of the Church Year depends upon the date of Easter Day. But the Sundays of Advent are always the four Sundays before Christmas Day, whether it occurs on a Sunday or a weekday. The date of Easter also determines the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, and the feast of the Ascension on a Thursday forty days after Easter Day. 1. Principal Feasts The Principal Feasts observed in this Church are the following: Easter Day All Saints’ Day, November 1 Ascension Day Christmas Day, December 25 The Day of Pentecost The Epiphany, January 6 Trinity Sunday These feasts take precedence of any other day or observance. All Saints’ Day may always be observed on the Sunday following November 1, in addition to its observance on the fixed date. Calendar 3 2. Sundays All Sundays of the year are feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to the dated days listed above, only the following feasts, appointed on fixed days, take precedence of a Sunday: The Holy Name The Presentation The Transfiguration The feast of the Dedication of a Church, and the feast of its patron or title, may be observed on, or be transferred to, a Sunday, except in the seasons of Advent, Lent, and Easter. All other Feasts of our Lord, and all other Major Feasts appointed on fixed days in the Calendar, when they occur on a Sunday, are normally transferred to the first convenient open day within the week. When desired, however, the Collect, Preface, and one or more of the Lessons appointed for the Feast may be substituted for those of the Sunday, but not from the Last Sunday after Pentecost through the First Sunday after the Epiphany, or from the Last Sunday after the Epiphany through Trinity Sunday. With the express permission of the bishop, and for urgent and sufficient reason, some other special occasion may be observed on a Sunday. 3. Holy Days The following Holy Days are regularly observed throughout the year. Unless otherwise ordered in the preceding rules concerning Sundays, they have precedence over all other days of commemoration or of special observance: Other Feasts of our Lord The Holy Name Saint John the Baptist The Presentation The Transfiguration The Annunciation Holy Cross Day The Visitation 4 Calendar Other Major Feasts All feasts of Apostles Saint Mary the Virgin All feasts of Evangelists Saint Michael and All Angels Saint Stephen Saint James of Jerusalem The Holy Innocents Independence Day Saint Joseph Thanksgiving Day Saint Mary Magdalene Fasts Ash Wednesday Good Friday Feasts appointed on fixed days in the Calendar are not observed on the days of Holy Week or of Easter Week.