Where did it all start....

I was brought up in a Baptist church where we celebrated Christmas and Easter. It was not that we were anti celebrations; it was just not part of our church tradition. I have many happy childhood memories of fun times with my family enjoying special times of the year and special family events. For me this is one of the greatest pleasures in parenting – creating a stockpile of great memories for my own kids, just as my parents did for me and my sisters.

As an adult I began to explore the liturgical year in more depth, drawn by my personality type to ritual and rhythm in prayer and worship. I began celebrating Advent while lodging with a friend who also enjoyed creativity in worship; we used candles and an Advent wreath, and invited friends for an evening of Advent worship. I began doing Advent and Lent meditations and tried to look beyond chocolate at Easter.

The next major catalyst was having my own children. I looked forward to teaching my children the mysteries of faith and prayer and I wanted our family worship to be fun, memorable and creative. I read and research more, not just about the church year, its history and significance but also for symbolic and imaginative ways of celebrating. So began the journey of developing a liturgical lifestyle for our family. Since then I have added more and more books to my shelves and probably waste too much time reading blogs and websites for ideas. I hope that this blog will save you some time by pooling useful resources in one place. I now have a huge file of ideas – I look forward to sharing them with you.

The first books I bought and which started me off:

A Feast of Festivals: Celebrating the Spiritual Seasons of the Year by Hugo Slim.

All through the Day, All through the Year by David B Batchelder.

More about books later.

Welcome.

Welcome to the first post of my brand new blog.

We are a family of five, currently living in the Philippines and travelling in a circle to our destination. I am from the UK; I drink tea, love the English country side and wish I could listen to Radio 4. My husband is from New Zealand and he is passionate about three things: playing sport, watching sport and coaching sport. Our three children consequently are blended from these two cultures that have much in common and are also so very different.

We live the liturgical year together, each and every year we complete the beautiful cycle of the church calendar. As the name of my blog suggests we travel in a circle and each revolution takes us closer to our destination – that of knowing Jesus better, understanding God’s story and our part in it. The church year begins at the end of November with Advent and therefore so does our year; it finishes in November on Christ the King Day. This way of counting time matches the cyclical nature of the seasons, which mirror the hope that is the golden guiding thread through all the festivals we observe. Celebrating the church year helps us to concentrate on the most important aspect of life, it helps us develop habits of worship and attentiveness and it connect us with the worshiping community who also follow the same calendar. It makes us laugh, makes us think, brings us joy and immerses us in the life of Jesus.

Connecting with others who live through the liturgical year is one of my main reasons for starting this blog.  I am planning to post about our celebrations, our reflections and what we learn as we travel this circle of celebration. I would like to hear what you do to celebrate, what you learn and where your travels take you.

For those who, like me, are not from a liturgical church background the church year in brief;

Season of Advent - Nov to Dec 24th.

Season of Christmas – 25^th Dec to 5^th January

Epiphany – 6^th January

Ordinary time until Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.

Holy Week includes Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

The Season of Easter which finishes on Pentecost.

Ordinary time until Advent.

All Saints Day - 1st November

Christ the King - 20th November.

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