Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in United Methodist Churches

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Methodism began as a movement led by John Wesley (1703–1791), a priest of the Church of England who followed the Christian year as set forth in The Book of Common Prayer. When the Methodists in America set up the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1784, Wesley sent them an adaptation of The Book of Common Prayer, entitled Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America. In this work, he simplified the Anglican version of the Christian year to include: Sundays of Advent (four), Nativity of Christ (Christmas), Sundays after Christmas (up to fifteen), Sunday before Easter, Good Friday, Easter Day, Sundays after Easter (five), Ascension Day, Sunday after Ascension Day, Whitsunday (Pentecost), Trinity Sunday, and Sundays after Trinity Sunday (up to twenty-six). Every Sunday was, of course, the Lord’s Day, and all the Fridays in the year (except if one fell on Christmas Day) were “days of fasting or abstinence.”

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Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in the United Church of Christ

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The United Church of Christ stands in the tradition of the apostolic church and the Protestant Reformation. Drawing on these deep historic roots, its congregations practice the Christian year in public worship.

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Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in Southern Baptist Convention Churches

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Historically, Southern Baptists have observed parts of the Christian calendar, including Sunday as the Lord’s Day—the Christian Sabbath set aside for the worship of the risen Lord, and Easter Sunday. Special seasonal services, mostly of a musical character, have been customary at Christmas time, but there was no set liturgy for Christmas services or for a season of Advent. Another annual tradition was the spring revival—preaching services with evangelistic intent.

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Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in the Salvation Army

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Worship in the Salvation Army does not include sacraments or observance of the traditional church year. Salvationists regard these practices as unnecessary to the life of consecration to God, experienced through the inward power of the Holy Spirit. They do, however, believe in the importance of ceremonies such as child dedication, enrollment of soldiers (members), and commissioning of officers (clergy), events that recognize and celebrate decisive moments in an individual’s spiritual life.

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Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in Roman Catholic Churches

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The practice of the church year, which has developed over centuries in the Roman Catholic tradition, underwent major revision as a result of the Second Vatican Council. The changes were designed to recover the primacy of the “paschal mystery” of Christ’s death and resurrection in both of the major cycles, the Christological and the sanctoral.

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Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in the Reformed Episcopal Churches

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The Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) embraces the English liturgical tradition as expressed in The Book of Common Prayer. The denomination has retained the Christian year primarily because of its commitment to the Word of God, first and foremost. REC worship leaders take the Pauline injunction to “redeem the time” (Eph. 5:16) to mean that the daily, weekly, and seasonal cycles of time created by God should all be sanctified through worship.

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Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in the Reformed Church in America

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The extent to which congregations in the Reformed Church in America (RCA) practice the church year varies widely. A few churches observe only Christmas, Easter, and Palm Sunday. More than 80 percent keep Advent, Lent, Maundy Thursday, and Pentecost. About three-quarters observe Good Friday, around 40 percent celebrate Epiphany, Ascension, and Ash Wednesday, and almost a quarter mark Trinity Sunday.

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Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in Progressive National Baptist Convention

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Churches in the Progressive National Baptist Convention follow a worship calendar reflecting the African-American experience of God as liberator and sustainer, rather than the conventional Christian year. Annual observances include Christmas and Easter, but most Sundays are designated to focus on aspects of the church’s ministry and role in society.

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Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in the Presbyterian Church in America

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Ministers in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) hold the preaching of God’s Word in the highest possible regard. Given their denomination’s creedal stance, this outlook is understandable! The Westminster Confession of Faith declares: “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture” (I:6). Since in part it is the nature of Scripture to convey the eternal purposes of God and his gracious plan for redemption, it is only logical that the confession emphasizes the importance of preaching the Scriptures: “The reading of the Scriptures with godly fear, the sound preaching and considerable hearing of the Word … are all parts of the ordinary worship of God” (XXI:5).

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Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in the Presbyterian Church (USA)

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Presbyterians have been gradually recovering the Christian year and most congregations now observe at least Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. Observance frequently takes the form of family-centered activities, study programs, and a wide variety of artistic and cultural expressions.

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