The Feast of the Epiphany, always on January 6, falls this year on a Monday. As such, we celebrate with said services in the Chantry Chapel at 8am, 12:10pm and 5:30pm.
Our choristers return from the Christmastide break in time for the Epiphany Procession on Sunday, January 12. The full choir sings at 11am and 4pm.
The Epiphany Procession involves two processions in one:
First, it is a physical procession of the choir through the church, beginning with the responsory sung from the Great Stairwell, and proceeding to the back of the nave, near the narthex, where more music is sung. The procession includes the journey of the three Magi (probationers from the choir school), who carry their gifts down the center aisle to the crèche as the choir sings from the back of the nave.
Second, this service is a procession of three texts from Holy Scripture of the manifestations of Jesus as the Christ; three week’s worth of Gospel lessons are rolled into one Sunday service. And so you will first hear of the visit of the Magi (which we also heard on January 6), and then of the Baptism of our Lord (the assigned Gospel for today), and then of his first miracle at the wedding at Cana.
These manifestations and others (the Presentation and the Transfiguration among them) form a bridge that connects the dots, because they tell us who Jesus of Nazareth is. Positioned as we currently are in the liturgical year between Christmas and Lent, we are invited in this season of the Epiphany to see that the baby born in Bethlehem is indeed the promised Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the world. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and was full of grace and truth…and the world accepted him not.
