The veneration of saints in the Episcopal Church (United States) is a continuation of an ancient tradition from the early Church which honors important and influential people of the Christian faith. The usage of the term saint is similar to Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Episcopalians believe in the communion of saints in prayer[1][2][3] and as such the Episcopal liturgical calendar accommodates feasts for saints.[4]
This is the liturgical calendar found in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, Lesser Feasts and Fasts and additions made at recent General Conventions; the relevant official resources of the Episcopal Church.
The Episcopal Church publishes Lesser Feasts and Fasts, which contains feast days for the various men and women the Church wishes to honor. The 2018 version of Lesser Feasts and Fasts was formally approved at the 2022 General Convention. It and the prayer book are the only authorized calendars for the church.[5]
There is no single calendar for the various churches making up the Anglican Communion; each makes its own calendar suitable for its local situation. As a result, the calendar here contains a number of figures important in the history of the church in the United States. Calendars in different provinces will focus on figures more important to those different countries. Different provinces often borrow important figures from each other's calendars as the international importance of different figures become more prominent. In this way the calendar of the Episcopal Church in the United States has importance beyond just the immediate purpose of supporting the liturgy of the American church. It is one of the key sources of the calendar for the international daily office Oremus.[6]
Because of its relation to the Episcopal Church of the United States, the Episcopal Church in the Philippines follows this calendar rather closely.
The Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer identifies four categories of feasts: Principal Feasts, other Feasts of our Lord (including Sundays), other Major Feasts, and minor feasts. Two major fast days are also listed (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday). In addition to these categories, further distinctions are made between feasts, to determine the precedence of feasts used when more than one feast falls on the same day. In addition, Lesser Feasts and Fasts gives further rules for the relative ranking of feasts and fasts. These rules of precedence all establish a ranking, from most to least important, as follows:[7]
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are appointed as major fast days with special services. "Days of special observance" or lesser fast days include all the weekdays of Lent and every Friday in the year, with the exception that fasting is never observed during the Easter or Christmas seasons, or on Feasts of our Lord. The Episcopal Church does not prescribe the specific manner of observance of these days.
Other days for prayer and optional fasting include rogation days, traditionally observed on April 25 and the three weekdays before Ascension Day, as well as the sets of Ember days four times each year.
The Great Vigil of Easter, Pentecost, All Saints' Day, and The Baptism of our Lord, are appointed as baptismal feasts. It is preferred that baptism be reserved for those occasions.
When the Episcopal Church separated from the Church of England, it created a new version of the Book of Common Prayer.[8] It listed only 25 holy days assigned to a specific date, nearly all of them honoring New Testament persons or events. This was similar to the 16th century prayer books and in contrast to England's prayer book in use at the time of the American Revolution. That prayer book had 93 holy dates, including the feast of Charles I, martyr, and the feast of the Restoration of Charles II. It added a feast to honor Civil and Religious Liberty on July 4.[9]
The calendar changed little in the 1892 revision of the Book of Common Prayer.[10]
In the early 20th century, the Episcopal Church planned a revision to the book. The Commission of the Book of Common Prayer made official reports in 1916,[11] 1919,[12] and 1922[13] recommending the addition of 45 to 54 holy days. None of those were accepted, and the 1928 prayer book included none of the recommendations.[14]
Starting in 1950, the Standing Liturgical Commission released sixteen Prayer Book Studies during the process of creating what eventually became the Book of Common Prayer (1979).[15] Two of those studies proposed new sanctoral calendars for the church.
Prayer Book Study IX was published in 1957. It proposed more than 80 new feasts to the calendar, including new major feasts for the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, Saint Mary Magdalene and Holy Cross Day.
Prayer Book Study XVI was published in 1964 as Lesser Feasts and Fasts.[16] It was the first publication to bear that name, and also marked the first time feasts were approved for "trial use." It included more than 25 feasts that were not part of the 1957 publication. A second edition of Lesser Feasts and Fasts was published in 1973, added more than a dozen additional feasts. It was also authorized for trial use.
The first Lesser Feasts and Fasts calendar given final approval was the 1980 edition. Its calendar was published in the Book of Common Prayer's list of optional observances.[16]
Lesser Feasts and Fasts was revised every three years when the General Convention met. Delegates to the convention submitted names to the calendar in the form of resolutions. The convention then voted to either reject a proposed feast, refer it to the Standing Commission on Liturgy to consider, add it to the calendar on a trial basis, or give it final approval. For example, the General Convention asked the committee to consider a feast for Hildegard of Bingen in 1991.[17] It approved her feast on a trial basis in 1994[18] and gave it final approval in 1997.[19]
In 2003, the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music began extensive work on calendar revision. It was charged with increasing the cultural diversity of the church's calendar. At the time, women made up about 7% of commemorations and most dates honored white male clergy.[20]
In 2009, the General Convention authorized a new calendar for trial use, called Holy Women, Holy Men.[21] The book had more than 100 additional commemorations to honor a variety of historical persons such as poet Christina Rossetti, astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, and the Dorchester Chaplains.[22] It increased the percentage of women represented by only 9 percentage points and was less racially diverse than past calendars.[20]
Holy Women, Holy Men was approved with additions for three years of trial use again in 2012,[23] with additions. It was never given final approval.[24]
In 2015, the commission submitted a new volume, A Great Cloud of Witnesses.[25] It was envisioned as a replacement for Holy Women, Holy Men, and was introduced after study and collection opinion from Episcopalians online.[26] The text of A Great Cloud of Witnesses stated that it was not intended to be a calendar of saints, but "an extended family history." The 2015 General Convention voted to make it available, but did not authorize it for trial use.[27]
In 2018, the commission released a report saying the calendar had been thrown into a "situation of great confusion."[28] It proposed a new calendar that updated Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2006, the last publication that had met with final authorization. It increased the percentages of women and laypersons to roughly 50%.[20] The 2018 General Convention approved Lesser Feasts and Fasts for trial use.[29]
The 2022 General Convention gave final authorization to the more than 90 feasts days that had been added as part of the Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018 trial use calendar.[30] This represented the largest number of additions to the calendar at a single general convention since 1979. The calendar in this Wikipedia article reflects those official additions.
The general convention also authorized the trial deletion of William Porcher DuBose from the calendar[31] and authorized five feasts for trial use.
Principal Feasts are in BOLD, ALL CAPS. Feasts of our Lord are in bold italics. Other Major Feasts and Fasts are in bold. Appropriate Collects and Prayers for use in celebrating the commemorations are in brackets.[32] [33]
The following observances occur on different dates depending on the date of Easter.
Thanksgiving Day is a feast on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States which may be celebrated on another day elsewhere. In addition, every Sunday in the year is observed as a "feast of our Lord".
The 2022 General Convention authorized five feasts for trial use.
It also authorized the trial deletion of William Porcher DuBose from the calendar.[37]
