Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday is celebrated in all the Western liturgical churches: Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, and Methodist.

Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost and is celebrated by many Christians in the United States. It is one of the few feasts that are celebrated as a doctrine of the church rather than an event in its sacred history. It is also symbolic of the unity of the Trinity.

On Trinity Sunday many Christians around the world remember and honor the belief of an eternal God, consisting of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Many churches have special prayers on Trinity Sunday. The Athanasian Creed, named after St Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria, is recited in some churches on Trinity Sunday because of its strong affirmation of the Triune nature of God.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, Trinity Sunday was a grand celebration. Churches and homes were decorated with wreaths, fresh flowers and grass and saplings. It was a time of weddings, and young unwed women would sometimes toss fresh wreaths during the next year. If a wreath floated the woman was destine to marry. If it sank, she would remain unwed.  With the coming of communism came the belief that holidays were a way of exploiting the masses and preventing productivity. This particular holiday was turned into an arbor day.

In traditional Methodist usage, The Book of Worship for Church and Home (1965) provides the following Collects for Trinity Sunday:

Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the unity: We beseech thee to keep us steadfast in this faith and evermore defend us from all adversities who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.

Almighty and everlasting God, who hast revealed thyself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, ,and dost ever live and reign in the perfect unity of love: Grant that we may always hold firmly and joyfully to this faith, and, living in praise of thy divine majesty, may finally be one in thee; who art three persons in one God, world without end. Amen.

Johann Sebastian Bach composed a number of cantatas for Trinity Sunday. Including:

• O holy bath of Spirit and water –  O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad, BWV 165
• There is something defiant and fainthearted –  Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding, BWV 176
• Most highly desired festival of joy –  Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott, BWV 129.

Collected from various sources