Photo Gallery - Seasons of Grace
The Church Year
The Christian liturgical year is divided into a series of seasons, each with its own theological emphases. This liturgical calendar was developed over many centuries, appropriating rituals common to many cultures, to tell the story of Christ's birth, death, and resurrection as the pattern for the life of the Church and its worship. The seasons of the church year are ordered around the life and work of Jesus, beginning with Advent.
These seasons are enhanced by our Liturgical Arts Guild creating an inspirational, worshipful feeling in our sanctuary through their gift of design.
The staff recently received an e-mail from a member expressing her appreciation of our beautiful sanctuary.
"Dear Staff,
Please share my thanks and appreciation for the beautiful Advent Concert and evening. It is the first one we have attended because we always seem to have tickets for the St. Olaf Concert the same day. This year we had tickets for the Thursday concert so were able to attend. The day before we had attended a Christmas brunch with a bell choir concert and the Augsburg Advent Vespers at Central Lutheran Church.
I thought I might be "advented out" but I have to say the concert at Grace was the most meaningful and worshipful. The sanctuary decorations are superior to any church or college we have ever seen. They are so worshipful and even the lack of a packed house added to the ability to get in a personal spiritual mood.
While we did not partake of much of the goodies in Koinonia Hall (we had been at a noon smorgasborg) it gave us a chance to meet some new members.
Thank you one and all.
The seasons of the church year are detailed below. Click on each season's tab under "Photo Gallery - The Seasons of Grace," to view beautiful photographs of the sanctuary decorated for each season of the church year.
Advent
The first season of the liturgical year begins four Sundays before Christmas. Advent, a four-week period when we focus on our preparation for the coming of Christ, ends on Christmas Eve. Traditionally, the sanctuary decoration of the Advent Wreath was started by Lutherans in the sixteenth century as a way to prepare for Christ's coming. Liturgical color: blue.
Christmas
The Christmas season begins on Christmas Day with the birth of Christ and extends for 12 days, concluding with the Festival of Epiphany on January 6. Liturgical color: white.
Epiphany
January 6 marks the beginning of the Epiphany season and the coming of the Magi to the stable in Bethlehem where Jesus was born. This period extends for four to nine weeks in which the Church follows the major events of Christ's life, from his baptism which marks the start of his public ministry and ending with Ash Wednesday. Liturgical color: green.
Lent
Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Christians follow Christ toward the culminating days of Holy Week in which his confrontation with the "powers and principalities" of this world came to a climax in his death. Liturgical color: purple.
Easter
Easter is the celebration of Jesus' resurrection. The date of Easter varies from year-to-year, and extends from the Easter Vigil through Pentecost Sunday. During the Easter season, Christians rememer the relatively short period during which the risen Christ appeared to the disciples on earth. According to the creeds, he then "ascended" into heaven; the church was not abandoned by God, however, but rather was blessed by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Liturgical color: white.
Pentecost
Pentecost Sunday celebrates the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church and is followed by a season of 24 weeks, in which both the Church and the individual believer focus on the work they are called to do in the world as the living "body of Christ." Liturgical color: green.
To read more about the Church year go to the ELCA website for more details:
http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/New-or-Returning-to-Church/Dig-Deeper/Lutheran-calendar.aspx
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