The Church Year
A guide to the seasons, colors, and rhythms of the liturgical calendar
Telling the Story of Salvation
A Year-Round Journey of Faith
The liturgical calendar is the heartbeat of Episcopal worship. Rather than following the civic calendar, the church moves through its own year — a cycle of seasons, feasts, and fasts that together tell the entire story of God's saving work in Jesus Christ.
Each season has its own character, its own scriptural focus, and its own liturgical color. For newcomers, this calendar can feel unfamiliar at first. This page is a guide to help you understand and enter into the rhythm of the church's year.
The Seasons
4 Weeks Before Christmas
Advent
The church year begins not with January, but with Advent — four weeks of patient, watchful waiting before Christmas. Advent is a season of holy longing: we wait for the coming of Christ, both his historical birth and his promised return.
The mood is quiet and anticipatory. We light candles on the Advent wreath, one each week, as the darkness gradually brightens toward Christmas morning. The music is more restrained, the "Alleluia" suppressed, the liturgy stripped back to make room for expectation.
Key Themes
Waiting, hope, preparation, repentance, longing
Liturgical Color
Purple (penitence) or blue (hope) — St. John's uses blue for Advent
Special Observances
Advent wreath lighting, the O Antiphons in the final days before Christmas, the Advent carol service
Begins
The Sunday nearest November 30 — the Sunday of St. Andrew
December 25 – January 5
Christmas
Christmas is not a single day but a season of twelve days, running from Christmas Eve through the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6. The long waiting of Advent breaks open into joyful celebration of the Incarnation — God become human in Jesus Christ.
The church is adorned with greens, poinsettias, and candles. The "Alleluia" returns. The music swells. The great Christmas hymns — many of them centuries old — fill the nave with a joy that no other season quite matches.
Key Themes
Incarnation, joy, light in darkness, Emmanuel ("God with us")
Liturgical Color
White and gold
Special Services at St. John's
Christmas Eve family service (5:00 PM), Christmas Eve High Holy Mass (10:00 PM), Christmas Day Eucharist
The Twelve Days
Christmas continues through January 5 — Twelfth Night — when the greens are traditionally taken down
January 6 – Ash Wednesday
Epiphany
Epiphany celebrates the "manifestation" of Christ to the Gentiles — traditionally marked by the visit of the Magi. The season then extends through a variable number of weeks as "Ordinary Time," a green season of growth and formation in the faith.
The Sundays after Epiphany are rich with stories of Jesus' early ministry: his baptism, his first miracles, the calling of the disciples. The season culminates with the Transfiguration, just before Lent begins.
Key Themes
Revelation, light to the nations, growth in discipleship, the ministry of Jesus
Liturgical Color
White for the Feast of the Epiphany; green for the Sundays after
Special Observances
Feast of the Epiphany (January 6), Baptism of Our Lord (first Sunday after Epiphany)
Ash Wednesday – Holy Saturday
Lent
Lent is the church's great season of repentance and renewal — forty days (not counting Sundays) mirroring Jesus' forty days in the wilderness. It is a time of self-examination, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, in preparation for the great celebration of Easter.
The liturgy is stripped back: flowers are removed, the "Alleluia" is once again suppressed, and a mood of sober honesty pervades the services. Lent is not meant to be grim, but genuine — an invitation to face our limitations and receive again the grace of God.
Key Themes
Repentance, self-examination, baptismal preparation, mortality, grace
Liturgical Color
Purple
Special Observances at St. John's
Ash Wednesday services (7:00 AM, 12:15 PM, 7:00 PM), Wednesday evening Lenten series, Stations of the Cross
Holy Week
The final week of Lent — Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday — is the most intense liturgical period of the year, culminating in the Great Three Days (Triduum)
Easter Sunday – Day of Pentecost
Eastertide
Easter is not one day but fifty — a great season of resurrection joy running from Easter Sunday through Pentecost. This is the oldest and greatest season of the Christian year: the "feast of feasts," the "Sunday of Sundays." The "Alleluia" returns with full force.
The fifty days of Easter are meant to be more festive than the forty days of Lent. Flowers fill the church, the music is exuberant, and the readings from Acts trace the spread of the risen Christ's life through the early church.
Key Themes
Resurrection, new life, the Holy Spirit, Baptism, the Body of Christ
Liturgical Color
White and gold throughout; red on the Day of Pentecost
Special Observances at St. John's
Great Vigil of Easter (Holy Saturday night), Easter Sunday services, Ascension Day, the Day of Pentecost
Pentecost – Advent
Season after Pentecost
The longest season of the church year, running from the Day of Pentecost through the Saturday before Advent — sometimes nearly six months. This is "Ordinary Time" in the truest sense: not boring, but orderly — the long season of growth in which the church is formed in the way of Jesus.
The green of this season symbolizes growth and life. The Sunday lectionary traces Jesus' teachings in a semi-continuous pattern, drawing us deeply into a single Gospel each year. Formation, service, and mission are the season's hallmarks.
Key Themes
Discipleship, growth, mission, service, the life of the church in the world
Liturgical Color
Green; white and red on major feasts
Special Observances at St. John's
Blessing of the Animals (October), All Saints' Sunday, Christ the King Sunday
The Three-Year Lectionary
The Sunday readings cycle through Years A (Matthew), B (Mark), and C (Luke) over three years, with John woven throughout
Liturgical Colors at a Glance
Purple
Lent and sometimes Advent — penitence, preparation, and the royal dignity of Christ
Blue
Advent at St. John's — hope and the anticipation of the Messiah's coming
White & Gold
Christmas, Easter, and major feasts of Christ — purity, joy, and resurrection glory
Red
Pentecost, feasts of martyrs, ordinations — the fire of the Holy Spirit and the blood of the saints
Green
Ordinary Time (Epiphany and after Pentecost) — growth, life, and the ongoing work of formation
Black or Unbleached Linen
Good Friday and Ash Wednesday at some parishes — mourning, mortality, and stark honesty
Experience It in Person
The liturgical calendar comes alive in worship. Join us any Sunday and let the rhythm of the church year draw you deeper into the story of God's love.
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