Dear Cathedral Family,
Looking at this season after the Epiphany, its scripture readings and themes, I can see the common thread of our time. We’ve considered the call to faithfulness in living well our time in the “4000 weeks” each of us may have in an average lifespan. Last Sunday, we looked as how the biblical story begun so long ago enacts its events in the dailiness of our lives now, and how our time is just as important to God as those times long ago. In the collect for this Sunday, we will ask God, “in our time grant us your peace.”
Our time seems compressed this season here on the corner of St. Emanuel and Church Streets. It’s still January. We’ve just caught our breath from Christmas. Already it’s Mardi Gras. The barricades are up. Parades begin to roll this Friday. Our annual family parade party is this Saturday. Mardi Gras Day is February 13. Ash Wednesday is February 14.
The earliest possible date for Easter is March 22. Easter last came on that day in 1818, four (or five) years before Christ Church was founded. It will come again on that day in 2285, 467 years later, a day you and I will certainly not live to see! We were close to that earliest date in 2008, when Easter was March 23. This year, we will celebrate the Resurrection on March 31. We won’t see Easter this early again until 2027, when it will fall on March 28.
So, we make the most of our time. This week will be our last “regular” Sunday after Epiphany. The next week, Sunday, February 4, will be our third annual Black History Month Celebration, and we will welcome the Stillman College Choir, the Excelsior Band, and the Mobile Kappa League and their families. And the next, February 11, will be what is known in the wider Church as Last Epiphany, and is known here as Joe Cain Day.
I hope that you and your families have a fun and safe Mardi Gras “season,” and that you can be here for all or some of our time at the close of the Epiphany season. Soon you will be hearing more about our life together during Lent, but for the present, enjoy our time now.
Faithfully,
Beverly+
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