Happy New Year in November?

“The churches in North America today are pushed around by a number of calendars: agricultural seasons, school terms, Hallmark moments, patriotic memorials, sporting championships, and waves of entertainment and commerce. All these are pressed onto a calendar of twelve roughly lunar months, all pressing for the churches to correspond to their patterns. But for a church captivated by a gospel that sees things otherwise, the rhythms of time and hours and days and seasons take a radically particular form.“–George Hunsberger

Recently, a friend of mine gave me an extra copy of the 2009/2010 Christian Seasons Calendar. I had heard of these calendars a few years ago at an Ekklesia Project gathering, but hadn’t given it much thought since then. Now that I have one in my hands however, I see it as a small but nonetheless impressive daily reminder of who we are and to Whom we belong as Christians and anarchists.

In a very concrete way, the Christian Seasons Calendar challenges how we tell time. The new year begins on November 29, 2009, the first Sunday of Advent, (hence the title of this post). And instead of months, the calendar is ordered according to seasons of Christian worship, moving from Advent to Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Season After Pentecost. Admittedly, a calendar of this kind takes a little getting used to, but perhaps that is one of the ways it exposes how our minds are colonized by empire in even the most basic ways. Another thing that I appreciate about it is that there are no national holidays listed anywhere in its pages. In place of Independence Day or the dreaded Columbus Day are Scripture texts from the lectionary, signaling in a quiet way that the church goes beyond national boundaries. Finally, with illustrations, paintings, photos from various, artists the calendar is just really beautiful to look at.

As the new, new year comes in a couple of weeks, I look forward to trying this new way of counting the days. It will be interesting to see what kind of difference a liturgical year makes.

Tags: Christianity, resource