Monday, January 22, 2024

Warning = The 'Gesima Services Have Been Replaced By More Epiphanies

 


Various church bodies that use a liturgical calendar have dropped the Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sunday service names. I will follow those minor changes and remain with the historic readings for those Sundays as named, following Luther.

This link from Vanderbilt University provides a good summary of the liturgical calendar, as it is this year.

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=B&season=Lent

There are many liturgical calendars followed by Lutherans and other groups in the past.

From a Concordia Lutheran Confeference congregation:


THE HISTORIC PERICOPES
The most familiar series of texts for the Church Year are the ancient or historic pericopes, which include lessons from both the Gospels and the Epistles. These have been in use from the earliest times and with only slight variations are still used today in the Lutheran, Episcopalian, and Roman rites. These were read in The Service and usually formed the text for the sermon so that in time they became a sort of Bible for the worshiper containing a great sotre of priceless truths made living through serial preaching upon them. They are supplemented here by a series of Old Testament selections made by the Commission on a Common Liturgy. These Old Testament selections, paralleling the Epistle and the Gospel selections, add variety and stimulation for the preacher without changing the essentials.

THE THOMASIUS SELECTIONS
For seventeen years Gottfried Thomasius was an active pastor in Erlangen and Nurember. In 1842 he accepted the position of professor of dogmatics at the University of Erlangen and exerted an influence equalled by few teachers of his time. In 1865 the General Synod of Bavaria approved a pericope system arranged by him and recommended it for use in the churches in Bavaria. The selections offer a series of Gospel, Epistle, and Old Testament texts

THE WUERTTEMBERG SELECTIONS
The Wuerttemberg Selections date back to 1843 when they were published in the Kirchenbuch (Church Book) of the Evangelical Church of that province. As in other provincial churches, the historic pericopes were supplemented by newer selections which take the entire Scriptures into purview although the Wuerttemberg Selections include only three texts from the Old Testament.

THE HAMBURG PERICOPES
Four series of pericopes were introduce in 1843 in the provincial Church of Hamburg. Of these, two were based on the historic Epistle and Gospel selections with only slight variations and are therefore not listed. Those here given consist of Epistle and Gospel selections with the addition of fifteen texts from the Book of Acts in the non-festival half of the Church Year. In addition, five texts from the Psalms and the Prophets are interspersed among the Gospel selections. The Epistles also contain a number of texts from the Prophets as well as one from the Book of Revelation.

THE EISENACH SELECTIONS
The Evangelische-Kirchliche Konferenz,formed in 1852, became the official bond between the Evangelical State Churches of Germany. Although its decisions were only advisory, the Eisenach Conference accomplished much in the field of hymnology, liturgiology, administration, and policy. In 1896 the Conference approved the work of a committee which had been named to revise the historic pericopes and to supplement them with a series of Epistle, Gospel,and Old Testament selections. These Eisenach Selections came into quite general use in Germany and later also in America. They are included in the General Rubrics of the Common Service Book and will appear also in the Common Lutheran Hymnal.