The historic liturgical calendar is a tool that Imago Dei uses to help organize Sunday worship services around a holistic participation in God’s community and story. Rather than centering services on a sermon, or any other necessary means of grace to the church, liturgical seasons root the community’s worship in the rhythms of the whole Gospel: God’s acts of creation, humanity’s fall, God’s covenants with Israel, the coming of Christ to redeem the world, the establishment of Christ’s kingdom on earth. Each calendar season presents the church with a fresh opportunity to explore God’s truth while pressing deeper into God’s life and work.
Here is the general church calendar:
Advent
The forty days before Christmas, intended for focus on the incarnation of Christ.
Epiphany
The season following Christmas, in which the church proclaims Jesus to the world as Lord and King.
Lent
The forty days beginning on Ash Wednesday, and concluding the day before Easter, intended for preparation and anticipation of the Resurrection.
Easter (or Eastertide)
The fifty days from Resurrection Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. Easter season recognizes God's ongoing work of establishing new creation through the Forerunner, Christ. It also celebrates the hope of that work being culminated in a new heavens and a new earth.
Pentecost
The season used to celebrate the reality that God, through His Spirit, is at work through and among His people. Literally meaning “50 days after,” the day of Pentecost falls 50 days after Easter.
Ordinary Time
This season’s name comes, not from ordinary, but the word ordinal, which means counted time. The time, beginning on the first Sunday after Pentecost, is used to focus on specific themes of interest or importance to a local congregation.
