Keeping Time

Since the rise of agriculture humans have made sense of time through the rhythms of the agricultural and pastoral year. These rhythms are reflected in the liturgical year but given a new content in terms of the history of Israel and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The pattern that emerges, from Advent to All Saints, gives a distinct structure to a Christian’s sense of time. Properly understood the liturgical year is a school for understanding our own time, human history, and even cosmic time. It puts all these within the framework of the sense of “God” we find in Scripture. Such an understanding is more vital than ever in addressing the global emergency. It is designed to teach us to act in urgency and hope.

Keeping Time begins by examining the basic units of time – days, hours, weeks, months, years – and looks briefly at how they have been reflected on. This leads on to an account of the liturgical year. Reforming the liturgy is an ongoing process, and Timothy Gorringe makes some suggestions for change – especially with regard to Creation Season, which has not yet been properly integrated into the lectionary. It ends by considering the “sanctoral cycle”, the calendar of those whose example has been found particularly inspiring, asking who is remembered, how, and why.