Liturgical Calendar (Lutheran) - Differences From Other Calendars

Differences From Other Calendars

The Lutheran calendar is most similar to the calendar of The Episcopal Church and thus to the Anglican Calendar of Saints, though it also bears resemblance to the Roman Calendar of Saints because it commemorates many of the same individuals. However, the Lutheran calendar differs from both in two very significant ways, aside from its emphasis on commemorating persons important to the Lutheran tradition.

First, the Lutheran calendar, while commemorating many of the same events or persons, often does so on different days from either calendar (St. Cyprian of Carthage on September 16 for Lutherans, but September 13 in the Episcopal Church). In other cases (such as St. Valentine on February 14), individuals who have long standing within Western Christianity are not mentioned in the Lutheran calendar, or are only mentioned in the calendars of some Lutheran churches. Furthermore, some Lutheran calendars (such as that of the LCMS) still venerate individuals whose commemorations have been suppressed in other Western Churches. Finally, the Lutheran calendar commemorates persons or events (such as the presentation of the Augsburg Confession on June 25) which are not commemorated in any other Christian calendar because of their specific importance to the Lutheran Church. In general, like the Anglican counterpart, the Lutheran calendar has taken on many of the precedents established by the post-Vatican II reforms of the liturgy in the Roman Catholic Church.

The other significant difference is that the Lutheran calendar commemorates a wider variety of individuals than does either of its counterparts. Included on the calendar are musicians and artists who are associated with the Church, but are not typically thought of as “saints” in the classical sense. The intent is to provide a wider venue for commemoration of outstanding individuals who have served the Church through their vocations rather than simply commemorating the outstanding among the religious.

The calendar for the ELCA is similar to many other Western Calendars in that it does not commemorate any persons from the Old Testament. The calendars of the Orthodox Churches have Old Testament individuals, and the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod has done the same. At one point there was a proposal to include a day on the Episcopal Church calendar (which was taken into consideration by the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship in developing the Lutheran Book of Worship) for Old Testament saints following the octave of All Saints (November 8), but this idea was ultimately rejected as tokenism.