Tag: universalist

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Universalists using Mastodon?

Greetings all: I know the best way to find people in the Fediverse, using the microblogging software Mastodon, is by using hashtags. And I have found a few people with and . Plus some joking with and .

But if you use Mastodon and we’ve not connected, find me at @Wells@mastodon.social.

It’s so much a better environment than Twitter, and the only real problem with it now are growing pains.

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Universalist holidays: a 1857 list

So I have this 150 year old prayerbook, The Gospel Liturgy: A Prayer-Book for Churches, Congregations and Families. Prepared by direction of the General Convention of Universalists. Apart from Sundays, what observances does it commend? Well, many are always on Sunday and I bet the rest got transferred to Sunday, but so I suppose I mean “apart from ordinary Sundays.” (Oh, and visiting Quakers should read to the bottom.)

Listed exactly as they are in the book.

  1. Beginning of the Year
  2. February Twenty-second
  3. Day of Fasting
  4. Good Friday
  5. Easter Sunday
  6. Ascension Sunday
  7. Whitsunday
  8. John Baptist, June 24
  9. Fourth of July
  10. Transfiguration
  11. Thanksgiving Day
  12. Treaty of Peace
  13. Advent Sunday
  14. The Pilgrims, Dec. 22
  15. Christmas Day
  16. Ending of the Year

Some observations:

  • Why congregations and churches in the title? The book was commended for use by preaching stations (in the absence of a preacher), loosely-organized societies and occasionally-meeting congregations, what we would call worship groups and lay-led fellowships today.
  • Neither Maundy Thursday and All Souls Day — later to be well loved — are present in the list.
  • Whitsunday is Pentecost.
  • Two national holidays are noted — surely fewer than would become common in later years — though cited only by date.
  • The list is evidently in chronological order from January 1, but the Day of Fasting, Thanksgiving Day (not our modern holiday of course) and Treaty of Peace aren’t given particular days of observance. I’m assuming an August 6 observance of Transfiguration.
  • That last one is particularly interesting, as it refers to the “Great Treaty of 1682” (specific date unknown I gather) between William Penn and the Lenape (Delaware) Nation. More about that one later this week.
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The scope of the lectionary review

As you may know, I write the day’s blog post the night before and I came home a bit tired on Monday, so the post I planned with have to be parsed out over a few days.

  1. I have been comparing the collects and “Mass readings” — appointed Epistles and Gospels — in several prayerbooks: American Episcopal prayerbooks from 1786 (proposed) to 1928, the Church of England 1662, the King’s Chapel 1918 and 1986 (latter collects only), the 1862 Christian Worship by Unitarians Charles Osgood and Frederick A. Farley, and the Evangelical and Reformed Church lectionary (lessons only) plus references to the medieval Salisbury use and Tridentine use.
  2. I’d like to find what James Martineau used, as he was an accomplished collect writer and liturgist in his own right.
  3. Of interest, the Unitarian propers (readings and prayers) were closer to all to all the other propers — even the medieval ones — than the Episcopalian propers of 1979 were to earlier Episcopalian sets!
  4. None were Universalist, though I suspect there were some borrowings in those liturgies where collects were appointed by month, rather than the traditional church year.
  5. But at 10:20 p.m., after looking for such a thing for years and years, I found a set of period Universalist propers — and it may disprove my point. Will keep you posted.