...of England and Wales tried to steal part of our Christmas? They have nicked three days of it this year. MEAN. Horrid. They announced unilaterally a couple of years ago that the Epiphany would be "moved to the nearest Sunday", thus robbing us of a proper celebration of today's feast. We had an Epiphany Mass in our parish on Sunday, and as it is a splendid parish we had a glory of Epiphany liturgy, with suitable vestments, hymns and music, and all this week we've been having readings and sermons that have kept up the Epiphany message and mood. But why did the Bishops rob us of the actual feast - in the teeth of opposition from priests and people alike?
I know that, on a technicality, we can attend an Extraordinary Form Mass using an older calendar. But that misses the point. The Epiphany can and should be celebrated by everyone, across the nation, and it's all there in the universal Church calendar and we share it with the Church of England and everything. Please, please, dear Bishops, GIVE US BACK OUR HOLY DAYS!!!
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6 comments:
Dream on Joanna
Have you ever known a liberal who admitted that he/she was wrong?
Hear hear. We went to Mass anyway, ate Galette des Rois, exchanged small presents. Oooh, so subversive.
I believe there is a slightly greater possibility of the Holy Days being restored under Abp Nichols than ever before.
Even if we only get the Epiphany and Ascension back to their Biblically correct times we will have won the major battle.
Other Feasts like SS Peter & Paul and even Corpus Christi are on 'artificial' dates anyway and don't suffer so much by being moved to the Sunday.
I watched the glorious Epiphany Mass from St. Peter's last night on EWTN. The chanting of the Table of Moveable Feasts was absolutely stunning, but, at the same time, infuriating, because of the awareness of the days not shared with the universal Church (I know other countries use the 'neaest Sunday' option, but that's not the point).
Vernon - the Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul is not affected, unless it falls on a Saturday or a Monday; it is only Feasts of the Lord other than Christmas Day. And I'm sorry - I can't agree that it doesn't matter about Corpus Christi.
I would love it if Archbishop Vincent Nichols were more in favour than his predecessor of keeping Epiphany on 6th January, but I fear he isn't.
I organised an on-line petition to that effect when he took over at Westminster which had about 560 signatures (and would have had many more if I'd organised an off-line petition in all the parishes...but that was beyond me I'm afraid).
Archbishop Vincent's reply left no room for a re-think and when I wrote a further letter with several suggestions as to how it might be done, I received an even more categorical "No" and he'd consulted a liturgical theologian for some of his arguments!
So, Vernon, for the moment I think not but we must pray + VN has a change of heart.
The Orthodox Churches and the Anglicans still keep this feast on the correct day. I nearly went to one of theirs! But I was lucky enough to find an Extraordinary Form Mass instead.
We are in the same boat here in Australia - Holy Days moved to the nearest Sunday :(
When is the traditional time to pull down our home Christmas trees and nativity scenes and decorations?
Is it after Epiphany, the Baptism of the Lord, or Candlemas?
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