Easter Sunday is only the beginning! A great fifty-day feast (known as “Eastertide,” “Easter Season,” or “Easter Time,” as well as “Paschaltide,” “Paschal Season,” or “Paschal Time”) kicks off on Easter Day. In the Church Year, this is quite literally fifty days of feasting. Easter is the high point of the Church Year. It makes…
Holy Week: A Rookie Anglican Guide
Starting on Palm Sunday, Holy Week begins. As I put it in my overview of the Church calendar and the Christian liturgical year, The last week of Lent, Holy Week, remembers the last week of Christ’s earthly life, beginning with Palm Sunday’s commemoration of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Holy Week is the week between…
Lent: A Rookie Anglican Guide
Beginning on Ash Wednesday and lasting for 40 days, Lent is a season of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter. The Church year revolves around two “cycles,” one for Christmas and one for Easter. As the Christmas cycle begins with Advent, the Easter cycle does likewise with Lent. The season has a penitential character….
10 Ways to Preach the Easter Sunday Sermon
Talk about pressure—the Resurrection is the biggest event in the history of the world. Individuals and families who rarely darken the doors of a church will find their way into your sanctuary on Easter. While our culture has morphed the moment into lilies, butterflies, eggs, and bunnies, people still desire to hear this story. And why not?…
The Whiplash of Holy Week
Holy Week is the “Week of Whiplash.” The highs in the Story of Palm Sunday are followed all too quickly by the shouts from the crowd calling for His death. Then He slow-walks the next days: from the Garden to the Courtyard to the Praetorium to the Streets to the Calvary Hill to the Cross to…
I’m not an Anglican During Holy Week
I love being an Anglican Christian. This Communion is my home, these are the people I’m called to serve with, and I’m thankful for the beauty of this tradition. But during Holy Week, I’m not an Anglican. I’m not a Baptist either. Or a Presbyterian. Or a Roman Catholic. Maundy Thursday On Maundy Thursday, my feet…
Holy Week and the Cross of Christ: Notes and Quotes
Here is a small collection of quotes and comments about the Cross and Holy Week that I have collected over the years. They are sermon starters, devotional nudges, and deep expressions of our faith and love of Jesus Christ and the Cross He endured. May the Lord richly bless you all in the Holy Week. …
The Church Calendar: A Rookie Anglican Guide to the Christian Year
What time is it? At first glance, it might not seem like it, but this is one of the most important questions a human being can ask! Thankfully, there’s an Anglican answer! Or, better, there is a Christian answer that the Anglican tradition helps proclaim! While the secular calendar organizes life around civic holidays, national…
Fasting & Feasting in Lent
The penitential and preparatory season of Lent includes 40 days of fasting. However, if you look at the calendar closely enough and do the math, you’ll see that the actual season is a bit longer. Why? Within those 40 days, we exclude those Sundays. Sundays are feast days and cannot be fast days. These Lord’s…
Last Minute Instructions for Lent
Lent is drawing near! The word “Lent” comes from the Old English “lencten,” meaning springtime, when the days lengthen. You’ve probably already noticed that! Lent spans the 40 days, excluding Sundays, leading up to the great Paschal Feast of Easter. It is always celebrated in the Western Church on the First Sunday after the first…
