A New Year and New Season Starts Nov 1

This blog will be under some construction and redecoration today.

I am doing something different. I am about to track the Christian year and align with it as much as possible. My preaching in churches will be linked in with the seasons of the Christian calendar and this blog will be a place for me to jot thoughts and post images of the feasts, celebrations, historical occasions, etc. I have been in transition for a while and I think this is a time to make some changes and make some changes official. Time for my blog to get some new life as well.

The Celtic Year starts tomorrow so I will jump into the Christian calendar with All Saints Day. Want to track with me?

Comments

[Ranger]

Thanks! This should be cool. Do you know of a site that has an RSS feed for the calendar?

[andrew]

not yet. i have some books but i havent yet done the google thing and seen whats there

if you find something, can you let me know?

[kent]

I look forward to see how this plays out, because this may be the most unifying element we have in the church, how we shcedule our time and rhythms. All believers emergent, evangelical, traditional, all can move in the same pace.

[andrew]

actually, i will be using ourdailyblog.com as a daily feed and blog so that might be worth following.

[gavin]

i'm doing my own new year thing tomorrow, which i'll probably get around to talking about tomorrow. i like the idea of a walk through the Christian calendar. those ordinary times can get, well, rather ordinary. ideas on sprucing that up?

[dave]

Aye. My birthday is the 1st and has been observed as my personal new year for a long time- didn't know til recently that it was the church new year as well. Would love to track thru with you on this one and see where this coming year takes us.

[Bill R-H]

Looking forward to this, Andrew. Since our missional order conversations at Seabeck, I'm on the road often. Connecting in this way with the larger Body of Christ is a great gift. Thanks.

[Jake Bouma]

Looking good so far!

[Brother Maynard]

Now this is very different.... are you up to your ears in CSS?

I love the idea of tracking together in the journey, but wonder if I'm missing something... the Lectionary year begins with Advent, and starts "Year A" on December 2nd this year. Of course you can start marking seasons any time...

One of the ways this interests me is that I have just been looking at Walter Brueggemann's book, Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom with thoughts out of the Seabeck Gathering and the idea of extending peace from Luke 10 etc. Interestingly, he includes "A Shalom Lectionary" as an appendix. I haven't dug into all the texts yet, but essentially it appears to be a way of digging into a selection each week, always centered around the concept of shalom. I've been considering doing something with this over the coming year alongside the Common Lectionary since it feeds so well into our conversations around a missional order.

[andrew]

bro m.

sorry for the confusion. two things - celtic new year which starts tomorrow and christian calendar which has many dates. i am jumping in tomorrow and just edited the post to show that.

css? no - i just chose a basic template for typepad and am starting from the beginning.

[Bill Kinnon]

Andrew,
Very much liking this look - even as you redesign. Nice and clean.

[Brother Maynard]

Ah, there you go getting all Celtic again...! I'm still getting the hang of if, being so distant as we are from the Celtic homeland ;^) It clicks now, and a happy Samhain be upon ye and thine. (Sorry, I'm not sure on the standard well-wishes for the season!)

[cloudburst]

well, firefox puts everything in a column, aligned to the left. very 1994 :)

[Churchless Christian]

Don't know if I am just being fussy, but I prefer a less dark back ground. I find lighter back grounds make me happier. I read your blog at breakfast time when I need all the lightness and happiness I can get :)

[andrew]

we will go back to white or iight really soon

this is black because today is a fast day.

[Tom Allen]

Andrew - love the commitment to the Christian year and lectionary - it has sustained many of us and even many times over something renewed emerges - ordinary time can seem 'ordinary' or a merciful relief from having special days or events or thinking "what text shall I use this Sunday" which helps people focus through the lectionary readings on the actual biblical text including the ones we do not choose - sure that the white on black is very hard to read - used to have it myself (kind of "looks" cool in a design way) but is hard to read for any period of time and is a disaster for people with dyslexia

as for lectionary there is an explanation of the Revised Common Lectionary here:
http://www.montreal.anglican.org/comments/faq.shtml
but note that the Anglican lectionary in the UK and elsewhere deviates from the standard pattern.

I am intrigued with the increasing use within Evangelical Anglican churches who used to have thematic Sundays - matched by a re-discovery of the commitment to the Daily offices.

Tom

[Steve K.]

Andrew,

As a born and bred evangelical, I feel somewhat anchor-less without having received any spiritual formation that ties me to Church tradition. I've tried to tune into the Church calendar from time to time, but it's never "stuck." So I'm really hoping to track with you and stick with you ;-)

Oh and that Brueggemann book sounds nice too! It's going on my wishlist fo shizzle.

Shalom,
Steve K.

[Peggy]

I will be following along, Andrew, with great interest...We're all just kind of feeling our way along, eh?