In May of 2002, I travelled through parts of Germany and Austria. The trip was partly nostalgic as I sought out the places I had been when my family lived in northwestern Germany in the late 1960s because of my father’s military posting.
My father had chosen to live “on the economy” in a rural community rather than on a military base. Unbeknownst to my mother, he had found accommodation for our family in a suite of rooms on the top floor of a massive old farmhouse, on a fully functioning hog farm, on a country lane near a small village, many kilometres from other Canadians. The farm was a truly wonderful place for three kids to spend their energy and exercise their imaginations. My mother also grew to love it and eventually forgave my father. It was good to find that place again and recall fond memories.
The journey continued south to Bavaria, where the nostalgia gave way to adventure. Armed with a guidebook but without prior reservations, we realized that a long weekend was about to begin, so we stopped in an ancient town called Bad Tölz, a well-known spa since the mid- 1800s (darkly associated with the Nazis and the Holocaust during World War II).
We found a nice guesthouse and settled in for the long weekend, which I quickly realized was to mark Pfingsten, the end of Eastertide, known to us as Pentecost. This principal feast of the Church was the occasion of a two-day public holiday, celebrated in both sacred and secular ways. What a surprise!
On Sunday morning, the Day of Pentecost, we made our way to Mariä Himmelfahrt Church and were astonished to see it crowded, with a large orchestra squeezed into the front of the nave, lifting up this joyful, important feast day. I thought to myself, “This is how Pentecost ought to be celebrated.”
Pentecost is a celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. The collect in the Book of Alternative Services reads, “Almighty and everliving God, who fulfilled the promises of Easter by sending us your Holy Spirit and opening to every race and nation the way of life eternal, keep us in the unity of your Spirit, that every tongue may tell of your glory.”
The Holy Spirit galvanized the disciples of Jesus on the Day of Pentecost, uniting and empowering them to publicly proclaim the Gospel of the Risen Christ for the first time in human history. The same Holy Spirit revealed Jesus as the Son of God when he was baptized, and the same Holy Spirit is bestowed upon each one of us when we are baptized, marking us as Christ’s own forever and nurturing faith in our hearts throughout our lives.
The collect for Pentecost in the Book of Common Prayer reads, “GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort.”
When I came home from my travels in Germany and Austria and returned to my duties as the dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa, I shared the story of Pentecost in Bad Tölz. The following year, the cathedral began celebrating Pentecost as a day worthy of rich floral and fabric decorations, a full procession, lively choral and instrumental music, the gospel read simultaneously in many languages and everyone invited to wear something flame-coloured, followed by an abundant coffee hour.
That is how Pentecost ought to be celebrated—a major feast day, a joyful end to the season of Easter, filled with the promise of God’s abiding presence, kindling in us the fire of indestructible love and hope, every season of our lives.
