Christian Practices and Holy Days

How do Christians worship?

Catholic, Orthodox, Presbyterian, and Southern Baptist teaching all name Sunday the Lord's Day, the main day of worship, kept because Jesus rose from the dead on that day.¹²³⁴

Catholic and Orthodox worship centers on the Eucharist, which both churches hold is the body and blood of Christ. Christians trace the meal to the night of Jesus's last supper.⁵⁶³ Catholics call the service the Mass and are required to attend on Sundays and holy days of obligation.⁷ The Orthodox Divine Liturgy has two parts: a gathering around the reading of scripture, and the offering and receiving of communion.²

Lutheran and Reformed churches join the preached word and the sacraments.³ The Lutheran Augsburg Confession defines the church as the assembly where the Gospel is rightly taught and the sacraments rightly given.⁸ At the Reformation, Lutherans kept the Mass, celebrating it with German hymns added to the Latin.⁸ Evangelicals, a movement found across many denominations, stress a personal experience of being born again, the authority of the Bible, and sharing the Christian message. Pentecostal and charismatic Christians, in many churches, practice gifts they hold come from the Holy Spirit, such as prophecy, divine healing, and speaking in tongues.⁹

What are the sacraments?

Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican teaching hold that Christ gave the church certain rites, called sacraments, as signs of God's will and grace; Orthodox teaching calls them holy mysteries, and Southern Baptists call baptism and the Lord's Supper ordinances.^1081164 Catholic teaching holds that Christ instituted all seven sacraments.¹⁰ The Church of England's Thirty-Nine Articles call sacraments effective signs of grace, through which God works unseen in believers.¹¹

Church	Number	The rites
Catholic	Seven	Baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony12
Orthodox	Usually seven, called holy mysteries	Baptism, chrismation, Eucharist, penance, matrimony, holy orders, and the unction of the sick6
Lutheran (Apology of the Augsburg Confession)	Three named, though the Apology does not fix a number	Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and absolution13
Reformed and Anglican confessions	Two	Baptism and the Lord's Supper311
Southern Baptists	Two ordinances	Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as acts of obedience4

The churches also differ on what happens in the Lord's Supper. Paul's account of the last supper records Jesus saying, This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me. (1 Corinthians 11:24)¹⁴ Lutherans teach that the body and blood of Christ are truly present and given to those who eat.⁸ The Westminster Confession teaches that believers receive Christ really but spiritually, by faith, not in a bodily way.³ The Baptist Faith and Message calls the meal a symbolic act that remembers the death of Jesus and looks ahead to his return.⁴

How do Christians pray?

Christians pray alone, in families, and together in church; the Westminster Confession calls for daily prayer in families and in private.³ The model prayer of the Gospels is the Lord's Prayer, which Jesus taught his followers, according to Matthew. It begins Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Let your Kingdom come. (Matthew 6:9-10)¹⁴ The Catholic Catechism, quoting the early writer Tertullian, says the Lord's Prayer is truly the summary of the whole gospel.¹⁵

The branches differ on whom prayer may address. Catholic and Orthodox Christians ask Mary and the saints to pray for them, as intercessors rather than mediators.¹⁶¹⁷ The Catechism calls the rosary, a Marian prayer developed in medieval Western piety, an epitome of the whole Gospel.¹⁸¹⁹

The usual form of unceasing prayer in Orthodox tradition is the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.²⁰ Orthodox churches also hold icons, sacred images, to be a proclamation of the gospel in color and line.²⁰²¹

The Westminster Confession directs worship and prayer to God alone, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through Christ as the only mediator, not to saints or angels.³

Do Christians follow food rules?

Many churches keep seasons of fasting rather than fixed food laws. Catholic teaching holds that Jesus perfected the dietary law and declared all foods clean, and the Reformed Westminster Confession teaches that Israel's ceremonial laws are set aside.²²³

Fasting rules differ by branch. Catholic church law sets every Friday and the season of Lent, the time of preparation for Easter, as days of penance.²³²⁴ It asks Catholics to abstain from meat, or another food set by their bishops, on Fridays, though bishops may allow other forms of penance in its place. Catholics fast and abstain on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, within age limits church law sets for each rule.²³

The Orthodox Lenten fast covers more foods. It follows monastic rules: no meat after Meatfare Sunday, and no eggs or dairy after Cheesefare Sunday, until Easter. The Orthodox Church in America presents these rules as an ideal to strive for, not an end in themselves.²⁵ The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church describes its own fasts as the longest and most austere in the world; every Wednesday and Friday is a fast day, and fasting means abstaining from food and drink.²⁶

What are the rites of passage?

The first rite of passage is baptism, a washing with water that marks entry into the church.²⁴ Catholic teaching holds that baptism forgives all sins and makes a person a new creature; Orthodox teaching calls it a new birth by water and the Spirit; Lutherans teach that it offers the grace of God.²⁷²⁸⁸ Southern Baptists hold that it is a sign of faith the believer already has.⁴

The churches also differ on who is baptized. Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches baptize infants.²⁸²⁹⁸³ Catholic teaching holds that infant baptism is an immemorial tradition, and the Catechism points to explicit testimony from the second century on; it adds that infants may also have been baptized from the apostles' time, when whole households received baptism.²⁹ The Baptist Faith and Message defines baptism as the immersion of a believer.⁴

The Orthodox rite immerses the person three times, followed at once by chrismation, an anointing with holy oil for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Orthodox infants receive communion from that day.²⁸³⁰² In the Latin Church, the reference point for confirmation is the age of discretion.³¹

Marriage and ordination are sacraments in Catholic and Orthodox teaching.¹²⁶ The Thirty-Nine Articles do not count them as sacraments of the Gospel.¹¹ At death, Catholic and Orthodox Christians pray for the departed; a Catholic funeral held in church centers on the Eucharist, and the Orthodox Church keeps a vigil over the body.³²³³³⁴ The Anglican burial service centers on scripture and the hope of resurrection, beginning with Jesus's words in John 11:25 that he is the resurrection and the life. The Westminster Confession teaches that prayer is not made for the dead.³⁵³

How does the Christian year work?

The Christian year runs on two cycles, one built around Easter and one around Christmas. Catholic teaching calls Easter, the feast of the resurrection, the Feast of feasts. The Christmas cycle, with the Annunciation, Christmas, and Epiphany, recalls the beginning of salvation.¹ The Church of England's calendar, for example, runs from the four Sundays of Advent before Christmas through Lent, Easter Day, and Pentecost.³⁶

The Orthodox church year officially begins on September 1, but its real center is Easter. Great Lent and Holy Week lead up to it, and fifty days of celebration follow until Pentecost, which recalls the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Orthodox Church keeps twelve major feasts besides Easter, and a forty-day fast before Christmas.²⁴³⁰

How is the date of Easter set?

Easter falls on a Sunday set by the moon, so its date changes each year. Catholic teaching holds that at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, the churches agreed to keep Easter on the Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox.¹ Lawrence Farley, an Orthodox priest, notes that the rule does not appear in the council's 20 surviving canons, though most historians, he writes, hold that the council ruled on the date in some form.³⁷ Most churches compute the date from tables, not from the sky.³⁸

In 1582, a reform under Gregory XIII, then pope, produced the Gregorian calendar and new Easter tables. Most Western churches use it, while many Eastern Orthodox churches still figure Easter by the older Julian calendar, so the two Easters can fall on different Sundays.³⁸ One Orthodox Church in America parish calendar notes that Orthodox churches keep Lent and Easter on the same schedule, whichever calendar they use for Christmas, though practices among the Eastern churches vary.³⁹³⁸

Christmas is usually kept on December 25, and many Orthodox Christians keep it then along with other Christians.²⁴³⁷ Orthodox churches that keep the Julian calendar for their feasts also celebrate on December 25, but that day now falls on January 7 of the civil calendar.³⁷ The Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates the Nativity and the Theophany together on January 6, with a blessing of water that recalls the baptism of Jesus.⁴⁰ The Ethiopian church's calendar came from Egypt and follows the Coptic calendar's method.²⁶