Janice Love Blog

How the Christian Calendar Came To Be

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Written by Janice Love

How the Christian Calendar Came To Be

* An important resource for what follows is James F. White's 1990 revised edition of Introduction to Christian Worship.

How we now celebrate the calendar is not in fact how it came to be, though the length of each season actually gives a good indication of their importance and the order in which they developed in the church.

The shocking and unexpected resurrection of Jesus is the defining moment in the Christian calendar. It is from this point that the Christian way of marking time began.

About the Christian Calendar

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Written by Janice Love

About the Christian Calendar

* An important resource for what follows is James F. White's 1990 revised edition of Introduction to Christian Worship

The narrative of Jesus' earthly life, his death, resurrection, ascension and gift of the Spirit at Pentecost forms the backbone of the Christian calendar. This backbone gives the church its identity, its mission, its reason for existing.

About the Christian Calendar

We begin with the four weeks of expectant waiting that is Advent (from the Latin adventus, "coming"). We wait for two events, one of which we celebrate for already occurring in history - the birth of Jesus - and the other an event we wait for still - the return of Christ and the full completion of God's redemption in and for the world, when the earth is renewed and restored to God's full intention. Advent leads us to the 12 days of celebration that is Christmas (short for "Christ's mass").

The Gift of Worship

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Written by Janice Love

The Gift of Worship:

The Importance of the Worshiping Church and Nurturing Our Connection to It that is our Work at Home...

What Worship Is...

Worship (from the old English weorthscipe, "worth-ship") is our gift to the Triune God who has created and redeemed us. Finding that this God, who has found us, is worthy of our devotion, service and very lives, we gather at least weekly on Sunday, the day of Christ's resurrection, to offer our adoration, our love-song, our love-letter in response to God's love that has so generously been poured out.