June 9, 2011

Summer as its own Liturgical Season

This week we enter one of my favorite seasons of the church year.

I don’t mean the Season of Pentecost. I mean the Season of Summer.

While not strictly its own color-coded calendar section, the liturgical Season of Summer probably represents the most drastic change in practice that our congregations experience in the year. Bigger than Lent. Bigger than Easter.

Here’s what happens in June at my place.

We go from three chalice bearers to one and from three acolytes to one. The choir goes on hiatus. The size of the evening service music team is cut in half. Our children’s program is reduced to children’s chapel alone. Attendance is reduced by 25%.

If we tried any of these same changes at any other time of the year, the place would go up in arms. But the Season of Summer has established its own traditions.

I, for one, appreciate the change. Having a bit more fallow time during the warm months lets a sense of anticipation grow for the coming program year. I have even gone so far as give people permission during the announcements to “play hooky.” How do you call people back to a Homecoming Sunday if they don’t go away?

Besides in Seattle if we tried to keep going with full tilt boogie church, the people would vote with their feet anyway. When you live somewhere that has 90% of its sunny days in this short three-month season, you can count on the fact that people will be saying their prayers on mountain trails or along Puget Sound’s shores.

Summer is a time to clean out closets, restock supplies, and jot down hopeful notes for a program year that will hit like a ton of bricks all too soon. It can be a time of reflection on what has come before as well as looking ahead to what will happen next. I always use this season to do my annual reviews for my staff and my own mutual ministry review with the vestry.

The program year is so fast and full that takin' a little summertime when the living is easy ain’t such a bad thing. I hope you all have wonderful summers of refreshment and renewal. It is one of the best seasons of the church year.