Church Year

The Church’s worship revolves around a number of anniversaries (Christmas, Easter, etc.), arranged into a sequence of seasons beginning in Advent and ending in the final Sundays of the season of Trinity. They are determined as follows:

  • Advent - 4 weeks: the first Sunday of the season is the Sunday closest to November 30th

  • Christmas - 12 days, December 25th-January 5th

  • Epiphany - January 6th and following, until an end determined by the date of Easter

  • Pre-Lent - 3 weeks, beginning 10 weeks before Easter

  • Lent - 40 days before Easter (not counting Sundays) beginning with Ash Wednesday

  • Easter - 7 weeks beginning with Easter Sunday; Ascension falls 40 days (including Sundays) after Easter

  • Pentecost - Sunday 50 days after Easter

  • Trinity - up to 27 weeks, beginning with Sunday after Pentecost, ending before the next Advent; the last 3 Sundays are the “mini-season” of End Time

Divine Service

The chief service of the church, the “Mass” in the Roman Catholic Church. This is the service offered to the people regularly on Sunday morning, and normally includes the service of Word and Sacrament (the Lord’s Supper, Eucharist, Holy Communion). The term “Divine Service” is distinct from the Services of the Hours (see below). There are 4 Rites of Divine Service in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, each selected for use based upon tradition and particular liturgical day.

Lectionary

A system of readings for the entire year. In the Lutheran Church there are two major traditions: the Historic Lectionary (traced in large part to the 4th century), which is a 1-year system of readings, and the ILCW Lectionary (from the 20th century), which is a 3-year cycle. Some supplements and complements have been made for the Historic Lectionary: