THE collect for the Epiphany, a principal feast in Common Worship (CW), relies on a pre-Reformation prayer that commemorates the manifestation of Christ to the nations of the world. Although the magi aren’t mentioned, the reference to the star makes it clear that it’s their visit to Bethlehem which is being celebrated.
O God, who by the leading of a star manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: mercifully grant that we, who know you now by faith, may eventually behold your glory head to head; through Jesus Christ. . .
CW has, nonetheless, prolonged Epiphany beyond the only day (6 January) provided by the Book of Common Prayer to a period spanning 4 Sundays, although this 12 months Epiphany 4 is dropped because it could fall on 2 February, the Presentation of Christ within the Temple (Candlemas) which takes precedence.
So, under CW’s arrangement, the commemoration of the baptism of Christ and the marriage at Cana have been restored to the liturgy. Indeed, the Baptism of Christ is observed as a festival in its own right (kept on Epiphany 1, except when 6 January falls on a Sunday, through which case it’s observed on Epiphany 2). Both are events manifesting the glory of Christ’s divinity .
In Common Worship, three of the collects appointed for the 4 Sundays of Epiphany are taken from the Alternative Service Book 1980, and one (Epiphany 4) was composed by David Silk on the request of the Liturgical Commission. That they attain the standards of brevity and elegance laid down by ancient form is a tribute to the skill of our modern liturgists.
THE word “Epiphany” comes from the Greek word meaning “manifestation”. The use of Greek is a rare exception within the English calendar, which often names the Christian festivals within the mother tongue: the English words Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Whitsun were originally unofficial departures from ecclesiastical Latin or Greek.
This degree of lay appropriation of the church festivals — something that surely would have gladdened the center of our Lord — didn’t apply to the Epiphany, a title that remained stubbornly clerical. It belongs to the cloister, not the village. Perhaps, after the 12 days of feasting at Christmas, and before the approaching festivity of Candlemas, our ancestors needed a pause from merrymaking and were content to go away matters to the clergy.
Epiphany never caught the favored imagination. True, the three smart men were all the time there in our carols, but in the favored mind they’ve change into a part of Christmas, and what needs to be the day of their arrival — 6 January — has change into the time for his or her departure. With the tree, the cards, the holly and the ivy, they’re packed away for an additional 12 months.
Another reason that the Epiphany has never attracted the eye that it deserves is that it’s a fancy festival, lacking a single focus. Christmas has Bethlehem; Candlemas has the aged Simeon within the Temple; Easter has the empty tomb; Whitsun has the outpouring of the Holy Spirit within the upper room; however the Epiphany has no single focus. Rather, it has three: the adoration of the magi, the baptism of Christ, and the marriage at Cana: each individually a “sign” — to make use of John’s word — of divine grace.
THE threefold character of the festival is of ancient origin. The Thirteenth-century liturgist William Durand referred to the triple manifestation (phania) of Christ’s glory: epiphania, theophania, and bethphania. The last (“the house-manifestation”) referred to the marriage at Cana.
By extending Epiphany to a four-week season, Common Worship has given us space to focus our attention on those three distinct signs. The first of those, the adoration of the magi, is well known traditionally on 6 January (though this 12 months the CW provision to transfer it to a Sunday shall be widely taken up, moving it to the fifth). There follow the remaining Sundays during which the lectionary provides collects and readings celebrating the Baptism of Christ and the marriage at Cana.
The collect for the Baptism of Christ (adapted from the ASB 1980) is:
Eternal Father, who on the baptism of Jesus revealed him to be your Son, anointing him with the Holy Spirit: grant to us, who’re born again by water and the Spirit, that we could also be faithful to our calling as your adopted children; through Jesus Christ. . .
All 4 Evangelists record the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus, accompanied by the Father’s declaration. This biblical concurrence endorses what became the Church’s Trinitarian doctrine: that God is three and God is one. By placing this statement originally of their account of Christ’s ministry, the Evangelists intend us to read their narrative in the sunshine of that belief.
THE third sign of Epiphany — Christ’s turning the water into wine — is alluded to within the collect for Epiphany 3. The words “Almighty God, whose Son revealed in signs and miracles the wonder of your saving presence” are an echo, albeit faint, of the account in John: “Jesus did this, the primary of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory. . .” More explicit is the complete passage (John 2.1-11), which is about because the Gospel on Epiphany 2 (Year C), Epiphany 3 (Year B), and Epiphany 4 (Year A).
IT IS not clear why the Epiphany collects in Common Worship are so understated. Apart from Christ’s Baptism (mentioned within the collect for Epiphany 1), neither the magi nor the marriage at Cana are mentioned by name in any of the Sunday collects. Instead, the worshipper is obtainable only allusions to the threefold character of this season.
In other respects, now we have been supplied with a wealth of fabric by which to have a good time the glory of Christ’s epiphany (Common Worship: Times and Seasons). Among this wealthy profusion is the next triple introduction to the blessing:
May God the Father, who led the smart men by the shining of a star to seek out the Christ, the Light from light, lead you furthermore mght in your pilgrimage to seek out the Lord. Amen.
May God the Son, who turned water into wine at the marriage feast at Cana, transform your lives and make glad your hearts. Amen.
May God the Holy Spirit, who got here upon the beloved Son at his baptism within the river Jordan, pour out his gifts on you who’ve come to the waters of recent birth. Amen.
The Revd Adrian Leak is a retired priest. His most up-to-date publication is After the Order of Melchizedek: Memoirs of an Anglican priest (Book Guild, 2022).
