Commontide
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ
O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Epiphany
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took on our mortal flesh to reveal his glory; that he might bring us out of darkness and into his own glorious light.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
The Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Red Letter Day
Epiphany, from the Greek word for manifestation, keeps the showing of Christ to the world. In the West the day belongs to the Magi and the star; in the East it is Theophany, the Baptism in the Jordan, where the Father's voice and the Spirit's descent revealed the Son. It was once a single composite feast holding both, and in Armenia it still is.
Epiphany originated in the Eastern church. Clement of Alexandria (c. 200) attests followers of the teacher Basilides celebrating Christ's baptism on dates corresponding to January 6. The earliest explicit ecclesiastical reference comes from Ammianus Marcellinus in 361. In its original form, the feast was composite, commemorating three manifestations: Christ's birth, his Baptism in the Jordan, and his first miracle at the wedding at Cana.
A gradual 'exchange of feasts' occurred in the mid-to-late fourth century. As the West adopted December 25 for the Nativity, Rome adopted the Eastern January 6 celebration but shifted its focus to the Magi — Christ's manifestation to the Gentiles. The East, in turn, largely adopted December 25 for the Nativity while retaining January 6 for the Baptism (Theophany). The Armenian Church alone maintained the ancient composite celebration, observing both Nativity and Theophany on January 6 to this day.
Pope Pius XII formally separated the Baptism of the Lord from Epiphany in 1955, institutionalizing the Western Magi focus. The theological reorientation reflects Western pastoral emphasis: Christ revealed not only to Israel but to all nations, fulfilling Isaiah 60:1-6.
The three gifts — gold (kingship), frankincense (divinity), and myrrh (suffering and death) — are scriptural, but the Magi's number (three) is tradition, inferred from the three gifts rather than stated in Matthew. Their traditional names (Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar) appear no earlier than the sixth century. Epiphany water blessing is an ancient Eastern custom associated with the Baptism/Theophany emphasis. The Western practice of chalking doors ('20 + C + M + B + 26') originated in medieval Europe; the letters represent either the Magi's names or the Latin blessing 'Christus mansionem benedicat.' The King Cake tradition, with a hidden figurine representing the Christ Child, developed in connection with the feast of the Three Kings.