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It is of course not a theological reason, but a historical and church order reason. And as with most of these, there is no theological justification behind them as such.

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It is theological. The liturgical year exists for theological reasons.

But to become fundamentalist about the liturgical year is as dangerous as to become fundamentalist about the bible.

By all means, these people should dictate how we celebrate the festivals of our faith.

Of course if only we had Christmas Carol services at a time that was more convenient for the unchurched punter looking for a bit of smooshy christianised sentiment at the "holidays", why then, they would be flocking to our various altars to convert!

Christmas is the Feast of the Incarnation. If you think it is responsible to dilute the message of the Incarnation by deleting the season of Advent, why not?

It just seems to me that all these "people" who think it's Christmas already are under the impression that Christmas is about pudding, presents, and a good meal out sometime in December. Does it assist them to pretend along with them that the season of Christmas is actually an extended shopping and baking and dining out period?

Or to resist that notion and insist that, in fact, Christmas, like Easter, is a celebration of a central tenet of our Faith, and that it should be observed in a way that separates it from the secular orgy of sentimentality and commercialism.

We don't run around and pretend that it's Easter during Lent, do we?

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Originally posted by Carys:
It is theological. The liturgical year exists for theological reasons.

Carys

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First bb seems to endorse the commercialisation of Christmas (surely I have misunderstood her?).

Then Astro finds my appreciation of Advent to be a "humbug" to Christmas. Perhaps Astro has misunderstood me?

Please, do explain.

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Originally posted by Wibblethorpe:
let's just stick to the way we've always done things.

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Generally a sound policy.

HT

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Originally posted by Astro:
I even knew of a church which did not allow sex on the Sabbath.

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How could anyone possibly enforce that?

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Originally posted by Astro:
I even knew of a church which did not allow sex on the Sabbath.

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Erm, under the prohibition of doing no work on the Sabbath?

This seems fit for Prot Bizarre Practices.

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Originally posted by Wood:
How could anyone possibly enforce that?

The mind, to coin a phrase, boggles...

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probably by the same reason as the vicar who told his congregation not to buy lottery tickets or to tolerate homosexuals: he is the sort of vicar who believes he only has to utter the word and everyone obeys him.

A friend and I were touring churches here in Dublin and he asked me about the eagle lectern. Specifically, why is it an eagle everywhere (these were Anglican churches)?

Despite attending a church that has one, the best answer I could come up with was a reference to eagle's wings in Isaiah (I think). Is this correct, or is there another reason?

And yet earlier on this thread someone asserted that Protestants do not have processions (remember that I was astonished and wondered how they knew that the service was beginning). If Protestants do not have entrance processions, I feel quite certain that they do not have proper Processions round the church or round the church yard,

so what are the banners for?

I think a quick summary of the processional situation would be:

"Strongly" protest churches, such as the Baptist and Free Evangelical Churches will often not have processions of any sort. More "moderately" protestant Churches, such as the Anglican Church will often have an entrance and exit procession/recession, and may also have a gospel procession. Other denominations and individual churches may have their own arrangements, such as the Church of Scotland processing in the bible at the start of the service.

If I can outline the use of banners in my own (MOTR to slightly high) CofE church:

We have two banners, one for the Patron Saint of the Church (St Peter) and the other a Mothers' Union banner (strange, as we don't have a Mothers' Union - but we still use the banner, as it is rather pretty). Our normal processional group consists of the Crucifer, two Acolytes, Server (collectively "the serving team") and Priest. At Christmas, Easter and the Patronal Festival the serving team will be supplemented by a banner-bearer, usually with the St Peter's Banner. The banner is not used for the gospel procession, however (it would just get in the way).

At Epiphany the serving team is supplemented by a thurifer (the only day on the year we have incense). Despite making a fuss of it, we don’t have a banner at Epiphany as the only person who can perform the "dip with a half twist under the rood screen, so it ends up facing the congregation" with the banner is also the only person who knows what to do with the thurible.

The Baptist church I used to attend had a banner, despite not having processions. The banner was used for general church decoration, for large-scale outdoor events (going to Billy Graham Missions, inter-church silly sports events etc) and for processing around the district in order to reclaim the streets for Christ ( fortunately the therapy is starting to work).

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Originally posted by Stoo, the Official Quiz Champion:
banners are for hanging, or even (o, horror of horrors) waving...

(NOOOOOOOOOOOOO0000000000oooooooo...)

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The one I most commonly come across at present is thematic ones displayed at the appropriate time of the liturgical year. For a high church members a changing of vestments without the difficulty of having to remember what the symbolism of the colour of the vestment is. You might get crib scenes, stars, shepherds and wisemen appearing on these banners at this time of year. If the church is more intellectual they might well pick up the names of Christ in Isaiah or the the Advent Ohs

Other are for processing along the streets behind saying who we are (now I wonder whether we got it off the unions or visa-versa). Also used for marking your place at multi church events e.g. Songs of Praise, Rallys, Provincial days. Both for visibility and sometimes as a convenient point to congregate at.

Commemoration of an event. e.g. the Millenium or a church anniversary.

Also they are often a visual display of something important in the life of the congregation e.g. a local churches together banner I know of went around all the local churches in turn.

Light weight banners are sometimes used in liturgical dance as well as waving during enthusiatic times at worship in some traditions.

However what the original poster seems to be referring to is the creating of a banner as a method of thinking creatively about the gospel message. Just a slightly different approach to the old sunday school approach "Lets draw a picture about this story". That is lets hear the story, then create a banner, display it in church and then tell the adults about it.