Seasons
The foundation of the Christian year is the regular celebration of Jesus' resurrection by the earliest Christian every Sunday, the 'first day of the week', this was also known as 'the Lord's Day'. Key times that were also marked in the early Christian calendar were Easter, Pentecost and Epiphany.

The Seasons of the Church's year run from the First Sunday of Advent, through to the Festival of Christ the King, which rounds off the year; including and in between these the calendar is as follows:

Advent
Christmas
Christmas Day
Epiphany
The Baptism of Christ
The Presentation of the Lord
Sundays before Lent
Lent
Ash Wednesday
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday
Eastertide
Ascension
Pentecost
Ordinary Time
Trinity Sunday
All Saints' Day
Christ the King

Eastertide
The climax of the Christian Year is Easter Day and the period that follows it – Eastertide - continues the celebration.  Easter is the start of the story of our faith as far as Christians are concerned and the reason why Sunday – the first day of the week - became the day on which Christians meet together unlike their Jewish brothers and sisters who meet on the Sabbath – the last day of the week. On the evening of the resurrection and a week later – the eighth day - the disciples met in the place where they were to encounter the risen Lord. Since that day Christians have met and marked the paschal - Easter - events week-by-week, Sunday-by-Sunday. The first day of the week has become a regular celebration of the resurrection. It doesn’t matter if a Sunday falls in Christmas season, or during Lent or ‘Ordinary Time’ - it is always the fact of the resurrection that is being celebrated.

Eastertide as a specific season of the Church’s year lasts for fifty days. Pentecost is celebrated on the fiftieth day. This corresponds with St Luke’s chronology of events for he tells of Jesus ascending forty days after the resurrection and the Spirit descending upon the church ten days later. This shape to the season was not established however until the end of the 4th century. Before that the Ascension and Pentecost were celebrated on the fiftieth day as one event. The whole of the fifty days preceding it were seen as both Easter and Pentecost, taking their shape and understanding from St John’s account of these events in which the resurrection, ascension and gift of the Spirit are more closely connected in time.

Though it is difficult to maintain a sense of celebration over a long period of time it is important that we do this as far as the Easter season is concerned. The liturgy encourages us in this. The Alleluia is added to responses and greetings throughout the service, and the Paschal Candle, lit at the Easter Vigil, burns brightly in the church for reminding us of the presence of Christ among his people. This candle is then placed, after it is extinguished, on the Feast of Pentecost, beside the font to be lit at baptisms and funerals, the two rites of passage in which we are brought into direct contact with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

That encounter with the risen Jesus on the first and the eighth day is an encounter with God in which we all share.  As Thomas saw his Lord he made the declaration which we are encouraged to make during the Eucharist.  He said ‘My Lord and my God’ and as the host is shown to us, we do the same – recognising that the Eucharist is an encounter with God – not just, though principally, in the bread and wine we share, his body and blood.

St Augustine of Hippo described Christians as an ‘Easter People’.  In saying this he was clearly identifying us with the reality of Christ’s resurrection and its implications for our daily living.  In these fifty days we explore together what being children of the resurrection, Easter People, actually means and as always we look for ways to bring that faith alive in the community in which this Cathedral is set and in the places where we live and work.

With St Barnabas and with all generations of Christians who have gone before us we share in the reality Easter claimed through our baptism. In every generation the Easter proclamation ‘Alleluia! Christ is risen!’ has been made from this holy and ancient place.  With confidence and with joy we join our voices with all who have gone before us.