Happy New Year!
Wait…what do you mean, “Happy New Year?” It’s Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Are you rushing the end of this pandemic year, skipping Christmas, and trying to jump ahead to 2021?
The answer is no. Certainly, we are not skipping Christmas. The nativity of Our Lord will be observed on its traditional calendar date, as it has been done since the Roman calendar made it official in 336 A.D. But Christmas is the reason we can now say, “Happy New Year!”
This coming Sunday we begin the new liturgical church year. The Season of Advent, the time of waiting and preparation for Christmas, begins our Christian calendar. Starting on Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent, we will be focusing on a new Gospel for the Year. Most mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches follow the Revised Common Lectionary, a recommended scriptural reading list for each Sunday throughout the church year. The new year will usher in Gospel messages of Saint Mark, as we bid adieu to this year’s readings from Saint Matthew. (The lectionary is a three-year cycle: Matthew in Year A, Mark in Year B, Luke in Year C, and John sprinkled in throughout each year.)
Our new year also begins with other refreshing gifts. Our ministry is pleased to welcome our new Church Administrator/Director of Communications Jeanine Davis and a refreshed website she will manage, www.manhassetlutheran.org. Please offer warm greetings to her and visit our new site. If COVID-19 concerns limit your physical presence at worship, you can still enrich your spiritual needs via the information available on our site, including our calendar, happenings, bible readings, prayer requests, bulletins, sermons, and blogs.
For those able, please join us for our “New Year’s” worship on the First Sunday of Advent, November 29th at either half-hour service, 9:15 AM (indoors) or 10:30 AM (outdoor drive-in, weather permitting).
Happy New Year!