Whitsunday

This coming Sunday - June 8th - is Pentecost, or as Anglicans tend to refer to it, Whitsunday. Our services will be Morning Prayer at 11am and Sung Communion at 5pm, and we would be very happy to see you at either or both. BUT - why the funny name?

Although Pentecost is often associated with red these days, but the name name Whitsunday means 'White Sunday' so does this indicate a change in liturgical use? Well, yes and no. The Early Mediaeval Church did not know anything about fixed liturgical colors like we have in the Anglican Church today. There would have been a tendency to use the prettiest and most valuable vestments on the Great Feasts such as Christmas and Easter, whilst dark and worn-out vestments would have been used in Lent. Liturgical colors as such did not appear until the twelfth century (c. 1150AD) when a very simple sequence - basically white for festivals, red for ordinary, and blue/black/violet for penitential seasons - starts to appear in western Europe under the influence of the customs of the Jerusalem Patriarchate. So, it was not the liturgical color that influenced the name.

Until the middle of the Anglo-Saxon period it was common for baptisms to occur at the two main spring feasts - Easter and Pentecost - both of which had special services called 'Vigils' which occurred on the evening before and were the traditional times for baptisms. In northern Europe these Vigils consisted of readings, psalms, and hymns, and culminated in the Baptism of converts. As the Anglian and Saxon kingdoms of lowland Britain were in the process of converting to Christianity in the seventh century, there were a lot of adult baptisms at that time, and given the climate, Pentecost was favored over Easter. Thus there would be a number of newly baptized persons in church at Pentecost, which led to the popular name 'Whit' or rather 'white' Sunday, thanks to the number of white christening robes in the congregation. In continental Europe Dominica in Albis - "white Sunday" - is the Sunday after Easter as baptism at the Easter Vigil was dominant there in Patristic and early Mediaeval times which is why the term Whitsunday is confined mainly to the British Isles, and to places where the British wandered. Whitsunday is, of course, the feast on which we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit some fifty days after the Resurrection to empower the Church in the proclamation of the Gospel, and it also should be an occasion for giving thanks for the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Since the rise of Pentecostalism a century ago, people have increasingly forgotten that the work of the Holy Spirit is most clearly to be seen in the lives of ordinary Christians who are united by the Holy Spirit to Christ through the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. It is this mystical union with Christ that should form the basis of our spiritual lives, and provide us with the impetus to grow in grace and holiness. St Paul warns us in I Corinthians that the more spectacular gifts of the Holy Spirit were given for a time and a season to bring unbelievers to repentance, and that gifts such as tongues would eventually cease and that the three great theological virtues - Faith, Hope, and Love would continue. It is the Holy Spirit that strengthens us in those virtues, and in the many other graces that we receive through Christ our Savior, but most of all, let us rejoice that we have been called to salvation in Jesus Christ, who has reconciled us the Father through His own body, and sanctifies through the Holy Spirit.