Tuesday, June 2, 2009

When the day of Pentecost had come: Questions regarding Friends and Pentecost

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent winds, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:1-4)

Lately spending time with other Christians has made me wonder why Pentecost doesn’t hold a greater significance for Friends. After all Pentecost is one of the most important events in Christian tradition and as a denomination that focuses so much on revelation by the Spirit, one would think Pentecost should be particularly reveared by Friends.

I don’t see a lot of talk about Pentecost though. Certainly Friends don’t celebrate it the way other Christians do. When talking with a Friend about it, she pointed out to me that we as Friends did not celebrate Pentecost because we traditionally did not celebrate Holy days, expecting every day to be a Holy day.

But modern Friends celebrate Christmas, and my family at least has always celebrated Easter. I know this is mostly because Christmas and Easter have become more secular events than religious holidays. Yet I draw great emotional and spiritual strength and power from celebrating the birth and resurrection of my Lord Jesus Christ. For me celebrating these Holy days even though I am not strictly following Quaker tradition is an important part of my religious life. I think the same can be said for a lot of Friends.

I am now wondering that if we as Friends, and I know not all Friends do this, break our religious traditions enough to celebrate Christmas, why not celebrate Pentecost? Why not celebrate Lent? Might we as a religious community benefit from the rich traditions and spiritual meaning offered by celebrating all Christian Holy days?

It feels weird to for me to be suggesting actually going against a Quaker tradition, but I feel like this one might be one we might actually benefit from leavi

10 comments:

forrest said...

We celebrate Christmas because most of us today are more closely associated, for more of our actual lives, with non-Quakers rather than with Quakers. And thus the old traditions, with much of the thought behind them, have slipped away.

We don't celebrate Pentecost for much the same reason, because most of the people we know do not consider either it, or the Spirit itself, significant realities in their world, at least not going by what they say, think, or do...

Sad, yes?

Hystery said...

When I was growing up, it is fairly safe to say that I was one of the only kids around who even knew about Pentecost. Dad was a minister and so we were aware of the liturgical year. For one thing, the vestments changed. Why, that's a stole of a different color! To be honest, my sister and I never cared for Pentecost. It drags on forever. We used to joke. "This is the four hundred eighty third week of Pentecost..." It was the nothing-much-interesting-is-happening part of the Christian year.

Anna said...

Forrest: thank you so much for your comment. I realize that the reason Friends celebrate Christmas and Easter is societal, but I thought since we already do celebrate religious holidays we maybe should start being more intentional about it. We might find it spiritually enriches our community.

Hystery: thanks for commenting. I think your comment is really interesting because a lot of the other Christians I know not only know about but do celebrate Pentecost. Also one of the cool things about being about to intentionally choose to celebrating it is we might find more meaning in it.

Hystery said...

Anna, that is interesting that most of the Christians you know have a greater awareness of it. I brought it up to my father yesterday on a walk with him and we chatted about it for awhile. I suppose the people in our church were aware of it because it was printed in the bulletin and I imagine Dad chose scriptural readings that fit the season. We were mainline Protestant. What churches do your friends belong to? I wonder if that makes a difference?

Anonymous said...

Isn't any gathered Meeting a pentecost experiance? I know I have felt the spirit moving in meeting.

Yes pentecost needs to be acknowlaged, but hopefully every meeting is a pentecost experiance.

Glenn

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