GR Press on the liturgical year
A story earlier this month from the Grand Rapids Press, including comments from CICW director John Witvliet:
Countless pastors, priests and congregations will read this portion of Scripture Sunday as they celebrate Epiphany, the church’s first liturgical celebration of the new calendar year. The event celebrates the coming of the Magi to visit the Christ child. More than that, Epiphany celebrates that Christ was made manifest to the nations; that Christ came for all people.
The liturgical year—a system of public worship used in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, some Methodist and other Christian denominations—is the church’s way of celebrating and understanding the mystery of Jesus Christ, from his birth to Pentecost, and the expectation of his return in glory. ...
“All of us orient ourselves to particular dates such as birthdays, when school ends, or even the Super Bowl,” said John Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College. “The practice of the Christian calendar orients us to certain events in the life of the church. It’s a way for modern people to orient their lives around the life of Jesus.” ...
Said Witvliet, “The calendar gives engaged congregations a way to think about where they are in the year. It sanctifies time, and orients time to the Christian message.”
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