If your congregation tends to celebrate Epiphany on a Sunday rather than on the weekday on which it falls, your first challenge will be deciding on which Sunday to celebrate.
Celebrate on January 8 and either omit the Baptism of the Lord or one of the Sundays After Epiphany.
Celebrate on January 1 and pay only scant attention to the fact that it is New Year’s Day.
Last choice: Celebrate the visit of the magi on December 25 and leave the arise shine Epiphany for another year.
Because the Epiphany readings are the same for all three years of the lectionary cycle, you will find all my resources at Year A - Epiphany.
We're definitely going with January 8th, shifting Baptism of the Lord to January 15th, and then cutting one of the Sundays after Epiphany. The holidays get the priority in my book, especially since my (new) congregations aren't used to celebrating the minor liturgical holy days (excepting Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost). Epiphany & Baptism of our Lord are going to be a lot of fun!
ReplyDeletePS. Have you posted anything on All Saints yet? No rush... you are excellent in getting things out super-early... but I'd love to find some good children's resources as we plan our first All Saints service at my church!