In his AÂ Companion for the Book of Common Prayer, Containing an Explanation of the Service (1859), Bishop John Henry Hobart, the third bishop of New York, included an outline of the church year. He addressed each season and holy day of the church calendar as outlined in the Book of Common Prayer. His brief commentaries on the calendar are useful for understanding the seasonal feasts and fasts, and for understanding the background of the appointed readings from the lectionary.
This book has long been out of print, though it can be procured from sellers of used books. In order to provide brief notes of educational and devotional instruction, the Society will be publishing here on its website Bishop Hobart’s commentary on the church year. Each item will be published on the day beginning the season or on the respective holy day, covering the entire church year. We hope these snippets of information will be enlightening for Anglicans and non-Anglicans alike.
Bishop Hobart’s commentary includes a few footnotes. Where we have found them to be important for the understanding of his particular remarks, we have included them; when we have found them to address marginal matters not explicitly necessary for understanding his comments, we have omitted them.
As we are only now publishing the series, we begin with the Sundays after the Epiphany and will continue until we have finished next year on the feast of Epiphany.
