Christ the King Sunday, also known as the Feast of Christ the King, is a really new thing in terms of liturgy. It was instituted in the Roman Catholic Church in 1925. It became part of the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). Based on the Roman Catholic Cycle of Readings for each Sunday, the RCL was created in the 1970s and 80s. It was adopted by many mainline protestant denominations, but not officially adopted by the Episcopal Church until 2006. (Before that we followed our own lectionary.)
Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday of Ordinary Time (Green), and the last Sunday of the church year. Next Sunday, December 2, is the First Sunday of Advent which marks the beginning of a new liturgical year, and a new year in the three year cycle of the lectionary. This new year is Year C, which focuses on the Gospel of Luke. So today we finish Year B, which as you know has been focused on the Gospel of Mark. Since there’s only 3 years in the cycle, and Year A is assigned to Matthew, the Gospel of John doesn’t have a year of its own, so it is interspersed into all three years of the cycle.
We are very happy to have one of our own parishioners, Jeremiah Mustered, preaching today to close out the liturgical year. Jeremiah recently completed a process of discernment for the priesthood in our parish. He has been accepted into the diocesan discernment process (the next step) and will be continuing on the long path toward ordination. Keep him in prayer!
James+
Church of the Holy Apostles 