Faith: Less-known Christian holiday coming up

Staff photo: Brooke Finch

Bonita Knox, the pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church, lights a candle to commemorate the upcoming Trinity Sunday holiday.

Some Christians say it’s as important as Easter or Christmas. Others don’t give it any attention at all.

Trinity Sunday is approaching this weekend, but not all Christian denominations will recognize it. Despite their common belief in the Holy Trinity, many Christians do not observe — or hardly know about — the day also called “Holy Trinity Sunday.”

According to the Western Christian liturgical calendar, Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost.

In the Old Testament, Pentecost refers to the “Shavuot” or Feast of Weeks, the harvest festival that occurred on the 50th day after Passover.

In the New Testament, Pentecost takes on a different shape.

According to Orthodox Church in America, Pentecost in the New Testament means “the pentecostal feast is fulfilled and made new by the coming of the ‘new law,’ the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ.”

Pastor Bonita Knox of Clovis’ Trinity Lutheran Church described Trinity Sunday as “a Sunday to remember God seeks a deeper relationship with God’s people.”

But defining this day is not easy to do, she said.

“This is a complex theological day.”

“Why do we need a day to remember the Trinity when the Trinity is who we are as Christians?” Knox said. “From Pentecost — the birth of the church — humanity has studied and sought to pass on the faith through gifted men and women. People continue through each age to talk about the diverse references in scripture to God.”

Some local churches are preparing in their own ways to celebrate Trinity Sunday and discuss the importance of it.

“It’s important to our tradition because this is the way Christianity understands the relation of God,” said Pastor Amy Jordan of Trinity United Methodist Church.

“God is relationship. As we say, ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit,’ it behooves us to bring it before our congregation to remind ourselves that we are called into the relationship and inclination of God’s spirit with humanity. That’s what we find in Christ.”

Another local church leader preparing to celebrate Trinity Sunday is Father Alan Brockmeier of St. James Episcopal Church.

“We (the church) do celebrate it because it’s a time set aside that we emphasize the Trinity itself and the importance of it,” Brockmeier said. “We follow those days that have been celebrated for centuries.”

“Our focus that day is that we have all our readings from the Bible and the sermons geared to the Trinity.”

At Trinity Lutheran, Knox said she and members of the congregation decorated the sanctuary to celebrate the upcoming holiday.

“We have a lot of red and white decorations, flowers, candles galore.”

“For me the big times are Christmas, Easter and this time — Pentecost and Holy Trinity Sunday,” Knox said. “But Trinity Sunday is not as well-known.”

She said when it comes to Trinity Sunday in today’s society, people are “consumed.”

“Culturally, I think we just lost sight of it this time of the year with graduations, weddings, people moving.”

As she and other local church leaders point out, not all Christian churches observe the holiday.

“It’s not a day that we (the church) recognize,” said Bethel Assembly of God Pastor Lemuel Perry. “We believe in the Trinity, but Trinity Sunday has not been a part of our tradition.”

“We emphasize the Pentecost Sunday and celebrate that day when the Holy Spirit was poured out, but Trinity Sunday is not something we’ve been a part of,” Perry said. “I’m not sure what Trinity Sunday really means.”

The decision of whether to celebrate the day or not is denominational preference, but it also depends on if the church follows a liturgical year. For those churches that don’t follow the liturgical calendar or Revised Common Lectionary, Trinity Sunday is not a day often remembered.

Baptist churches, for example, wouldn’t typically observe such a day.

“We don’t follow Trinity Sunday, but I’m not opposed to it,” said First Baptist Church Pastor Tom Schuj. “We support those that do recognize it, and we do believe in the Trinity, but I think it’s just that most Baptist churches are self-governing and don’t follow the liturgical calendar.”

Another local Christian church that won’t be recognizing Trinity Sunday is First Christian, a nondenominational church.

Pastor Jon Forrest said his church is among those that take a “less traditional” route.

“Certain churches have a tendency to not follow what other churches are strict about or what has been lined out by some as a church calendar,” said Forrest.

“There are a lot of church holidays. For us to try to follow every single one of them, it would be difficult to maintain a flow of what we’re doing, so we pick and choose.”

“There’s nothing wrong with celebrating the Trinity; we believe in it. But as far as church holidays go, we don’t follow very many of them, depending on what’s going on.”