Ordinary Time
Christ the King 2
All Years
This may come as a surprise, but your church does not need to celebrate this day in any particular way. Christ the King is not mentioned in the Episcopal Church Calendar. The Feast is unofficially celebrated in many Episcopal parishes, but, if you wish, proceed as if Proper 29 were simply the last Sunday of the Church Year.
The Feast of Christ the King was originally instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 in response to the tragedy of World War I and the growth of secularism in the world. If the idea of praising Jesus’ reign in terms of monarchy doesn’t sit with your deeply held views of either Jesus or democracy, you may use other liturgical materials for the day.
However, Rev. Marion Hatchett, one of the primary liturgists of the 1979 Episcopal Prayer Book, notes that the Prayer Book collect for Proper 29, is a “somewhat free” translation of the collect of the Feast of Christ the King celebrated in the Catholic Church. This collect prays that God, “whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords,” will “Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule” (BCP, p. 236).
So, Christ the King can celebrate Christ's messianic kingship and sovereign rule over all creation. And perhaps in the face of our chaotic, divided world, that often seems ruled by the forces of darkness, Christ the King Sunday can remind us that in the end, God does reign over all things. Christ the King Sunday says our task is not only to trust in this truth, but to live the kind of lives through which the Holy Spirit can work to bring the full reign of Christ to fruition in all creation.
The material provided below via the links can be adapted to your congregation’s needs. Additional intercessions for prayer cycles and local concerns may be added, using the cue for the response “let us pray to the Lord: Let your kingdom come.”
Most of the material comes from the Church of England, and they know a few things about crowns. May this day of unofficial observance bring you joy and a sense of hope as we come to the end of Ordinary Time of our Church Year.