THE CHURCH CALENDAR—THE LITURGICAL YEAR

The Apostles’ Creed is used alike by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, and many other Christian groups with only slight variations. Eastern Orthodox Christians express their principal beliefs in the longer Nicene Creed. Some Christian groups, the largest being Baptists and Congregationalists, accept no binding creed. SACRED CHRISTIAN LITERATURE The Bible is central to sacred Christian literature. The Bible is actually a collection of books. The King James, also known in England as the Authorized version, is perhaps the most widely used Bible among non- Catholic Christians. Other English language Bible editions are the Douay- Rheims, the New American Bible, a New Translation from the Latin Vulgate (Knox), the Jerusalem Bible, the Anchor Bible, the Living Bible, and the Roman Catholic edition of the Revised Standard version. The Revised version of the Bible is the first edition to be generally accepted by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and other major Christian faith traditions. The choice of Bibles to be utilized in any particular service is determined by the chaplain. If any doubt exists concerning which version is to be utilized, the RP should ask the chaplain. THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR From the beginning of recorded time, calendar makers have used events great and small as a starting point for their date guides. Early Christians dated events from the birth of Jesus, which they called “the year 1.” All dates before that year are listed as B.C. or “before Christ. ” Dates after that year are listed as A.D. or Anno Domini, meaning in the year of our Lord. Non-Christians often write B.C.E. for before Christian era (B.C.) and C.E. for Christian era (A.D.). THE CHURCH CALENDAR—THE LITURGICAL YEAR Fixed days on the church calendar include Christmas and such feasts as the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. These feasts were set according to the solar calendar. Such days as Easter are called movable feasts because their dates vary from year to year, according to the phases of the moon. The other principal movable feasts of the church year are Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Ascension, and Pentecost. Knowledge of the liturgi- cal year or cycle will be helpful in the planning and preparation for holy days and other special religious observances. The liturgical year, also known as the church year or Christian year, is based upon Sunday or the Lord’s Day and the following six festivals: Christmas, Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost or Whitsunday. The liturgical year may be based upon The Byzantine (Eastern) System The Jerusalem (Western) System 2-28 one of the two systems: