What is the Liturgical or Church Year?
The word “liturgy” comes from the Greek word meaning “Work of the People.”
Our worship rhythm, our weekly, and repetitive “work” is a tradition of worship form that brings structure while allowing for freedom and spontaneity as well. The weekly liturgical structure and sequence is thousands of years in the making, and brings with it the original intents of Hebrew, Orthodox and Roman practice, and has been seasoned by The Reformation, Counter Reformation and countless other world-wide and American theological and cultural occurrences ever since. This, in actuality, is a never ending process of births and re-births of tradition as we see it at LOCC.
The liturgical year is neither a series of ideas nor a sequence of festivals that are of greater or lesser importance, but a Person, Christ himself, who is ever living in his Church.
LOCC incorporates the events of the Liturgical Calendar, or Church Year, which divides the annual cycle into a series of seasons with corresponding color and theological emphasis. The worship and preaching theme generally flows out of this rhythm.
The preaching staff of LOCC has made the choice not to follow the Common Lectionary which completes the reading of most of the entire body of biblical text every three years. Instead, aside from larger seasonal and individual days of celebration, worship and sermon emphasis is thematic, and often structured around a particular series over several weeks.
The Church Year begins with the first Sunday of Advent, the four week period of preparation prior to Christmas, and ends each late November with Thanksgiving and Mission emphasis.
Communion is celebrated each first Sunday of the month except occasionally to accommodate large seasonal celebrations or other community events occurring on Sundays.
For more information concerning the LOCC Liturgical practice click here.