The season of Epiphany!

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Happy Epiphany!

The twelfth day has finally come, and we move into the ‘second’ season of Christmas – now
until the Feast of the Purification (Candlemas – Feb. 2) when we mark the revelation in the
temple of Jesus as the promised Messiah.

The church calendar is sometimes a mystery – rarely linear, but often both inspirational and
aspirational. Many ‘days’, of course, are on fixed dates – Christmas being a good example;
also, Candlemas (Feb. 2); All Saints (Nov. 1), Epiphany (Jan. 6) and most saints’ days –
usually commemorating the date of their death. Others, however (Advent Sunday, Easter
Day, The Baptism of the Lord) are on variable dates, depending on calendars and,
sometimes, on lunar cycles.

The immediate post-Christmas weeks are always interesting. This year, January 1 (one of
those ‘fixed’ feasts – The Naming of Jesus) – was on a Sunday so we could observe it in a
more comprehensive way than we sometimes do when it is on a weekday. Technically, the
Sunday after Christmas is just that – ‘Christmas 1’ – but this year we kept the proper feast for
the day. Epiphany (6 January) is a ‘fixed’ day but such an important feast that most will
transfer it to the nearest Sunday, on January 8 this year. The next Sunday is the Baptism of
the Lord which ‘takes precedence of a Sunday’, so we will keep this feast on January 15 –
next Sunday. This means that this year (it often happens…) we ‘miss’ the second Sunday
after Epiphany and will move, on January 22, right to the Third Sunday after Epiphany.
Some would have kept Epiphany on January 1, but then we would have missed The Naming
of Jesus!

Such are the things that bedevil a liturgist!! Luckily, we still can sleep……
Have a wonderful Epiphany and make sure that the Magi make it to the stable! The
Epiphany season is great and will carry us through Candlemas to the Transfiguration and
into Lent.

Epiphany (and continued!) Christmas blessings.
The Very Reverend Peter Wall
Interim Dean & Priest in Charge