The Concept of the Liturgical Year

Abstract This chapter discusses the liturgical year as it developed through the centuries and as Anglicans experience it today. It centers Christian remembrance in the anamnesis of the paschal mystery, asserting that the liturgical year offers an important vehicle for shared recollecting of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Identifying the liturgical year as a means of sanctifying time, it emphasizes the relationship between intentional remembrance and eschatological hope and the bonds between past, present, and future. The role of initiation practices in the development of liturgical seasons is highlighted. The chapter explores how a simple unified Sunday remembrance of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection expanded into a full year of specific, doctrinally driven commemorations. Included is a discussion of Anglican efforts to expand the liturgical year in response to current cultural and doctrinal issues, including a creation season, celebrations of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and an extended Advent.