The Trinitytide Skip

As we approach the end of the Church Year, the unity that we enjoy according to the one, true, historic lectionary of the church becomes somewhat fractured due to various schemes for observing the final Sundays of Trinitytide. When Easter comes early, there can be up to twenty-seven Sundays after Trinity (including Last Sunday). But this is rare—only twice in the last 25 years. Usually, we’ll need to skip a few Sundays of Trinity (up to five) in order to arrive at Last Sunday the week before Advent. But which occasions should be skipped? This is where the confusion arises, as there are generally three answers:

·         Michaelmas Skip
·         Last Three Sundays Skip
·         Last Sunday Skip

Which of these is to be preferred? Let’s look at each scheme in turn.

Michaelmas Skip

Immediately following the feast of St. Michael (September 29), the calendar skips forward up to five weeks so that the remaining Sundays can continue in sequence until Last Sunday (Trinity 27). The omitted occasions begin at Trinity 19 and extend backwards up to Trinity 15.

As seen above Trinity 19 gets the short end of the stick, being omitted 11 out of 12 years on average. In our research for The Lutheran Missal, my colleagues and I have not encountered anything to suggest that this ought to be done. In fact, I’m not aware of any mention of the Michaelmas skip prior to the 20th century. (If any of our readers know something of its origin, I would be grateful to learn of it. Otherwise, I am prone to suspect that it is an invention of Ralph Gehrke.)

For many years the Gottesdienst calendar observed the Michaelmas skip. But due to lack of historical evidence, this practice was abandoned in 2023.

Last Three Sundays Skip

The last three Sundays have a distinct end-of-days theme which segues nicely into the season of Advent, particularly Populus Zion (Advent 2). For this reason many choose to skip forward to these three Sundays as a unit. This is strengthened by the idea that Advent may once have been a seven-week season, though evidence for this is somewhat scarce. (The earliest lectionaries omit Advent entirely.) According to this scheme, the passed over occasions are as follows:

But a bit of history is in order. None of the late-medieval missals included propers for all twenty-seven weeks after Trinity, since the final weeks occurred so infrequently. Instead of Trinity 26 followed by Last Sunday, as is our custom now, the missals went no further than Trinity 24, and some of them stopped a week or two short of that. The rubrics that are present generally indicate that propers from the previous week would have been repeated as necessary until Last Sunday.

The Lutherans Reformers, being both Germans and systematicians, added the “missing” two weeks to the end of the calendar: Trinity 25 (Abomination of Desolation) and Trinity 26 (Sheep and the Goats), followed by a modified Last Sunday. These Gospel texts are well appointed for the end of the Church Year, but they are newly invented by the Lutherans. Given what we know of the Reformers’ distaste for innovation, it would seem that these propers were intended to fill the infrequent, extra Sundays at the end of Trinitytide, not to supplant the widely attested and historic occasions of Trinity 23 and Trinity 24.

Last Sunday Skip

As best as can be deduced from the late-medieval missals, the prevailing practice was simply to proceed through the Sundays of Trinity, making a single skip to Last Sunday at the end of Trinitytide. This Last Sunday, but not any before it, was permanently fixed to the week before Advent. In some sense, one might consider Last Sunday as a fifth week of Advent, as is evidenced by the first words of its historic collect: “Excita Domine…” — “Stir up, O Lord…” In one of the earliest lectionaries, Le Comes de Murbach (c. 800 AD), this day is titled: “Incipiunt lectiones de adventu Domini. Hebdomada quinta ante natale Domini”—"Here begin the readings of the Advent of the Lord: Week 5 before the birth of the Lord.”

The end-of-days theme is already strongly present in Advent. And one out of every four years, according to the Lutheran addition, the Abomination of Desolation will extend that theme, and the Sheep and the Goats one out of every twelve. Meanwhile, the traditional text of Jairus’ Daughter (Trinity 24) will be read, as intended, every other year, and Render to Caesar (Trinity 23) three years out of four.

Conclusion

Which version of the Trinitytide skip should you observe in your parish? I recommend that the Michaelmas skip be ruled right out. Unless someone can prove otherwise, it appears to be a fabrication of the 20th Century. The skip to the last three Sundays has more going for it thematically, with its focus on the end of days and the return of Christ. Even so, it seems inconsistent for those following the historic lectionary to prioritize the more recently added occasions. I recommend that you keep it simple and skip forward only for the final Sunday of Trinitytide. This is most consistent with the historic practice of the church. So, no Sheep and Goats in 2024, but when the Abomination of Desolation comes around this Trinity 25, it won’t be set up where it ought not to be.