Christ and Calendar

My name’s Ed. I’m a Church of England priest serving as curate of a church in Newbury. After training at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, I got ordained deacon in 2022 and priest in 2023. Apart from the liturgical calendar, I enjoy watching cricket, rugby and the NFL, listening to folk music, going to the pub, learning languages and reading history.

This is Christ and Calendar, a space where I hope to:

Reflect a bit about the liturgical calendar. I’ll be thinking about questions like What are all these seasons about? Why do I find them valuable? What have they taught me about the Christian life and how have they led me to a deeper enjoyment of the Gospel?

Share a bit of how I observe the fasts and feasts at home with my wife. When I first started following the calendar, I had no idea how to make the various fasts and feasts a part of my spirituality. I certainly won’t be claiming that the way we do it is the right way – for one thing it’s continually developing – but I know friends have often enjoyed hearing what we find works for us.

Share some resources I’ve found helpful. Lots of this has been coming up with traditions of our own – personal ways we mark the year. But it’s not a journey we’ve made alone. The calendar (in slightly different iterations) belongs to the whole Church. I’ll be sharing some of the resources that have help me celebrate better.

And I want to do all of that within a historic Reformed frame of reference. Most (though not all) of the resources I’ll be sharing are from outside the evangelical and reformed branch of the Church. In one sense that’s natural because the calendar is catholic in the best sense of the word. But I also want to show that it’s Evangelical in the best sense of the word – focused on the saving work of God in the Gospel. The calendar I’ll be blogging through is (with a couple of additions) the one in the Book of Common Prayer – the calendar of the English Reformation – and while I hope it benefits you whatever your tradition, I especially hope, in some small way, to stir up some evangelical enthusiasm for the liturgical calendar.