Day of Pentecost and Trinity

PENTECOST (May 28 this year) is the 50th day after Easter, and for Christians marks the day when the Holy Spirit came on the disciples with great power, so that they preached in the language of everyone present.  Of course, the folks who were present in Jerusalem were there for the Jewish feast of Shavu'ot, the Feast of Weeks, which celebrates the giving of the Law to Moses.  Pentecost is also called The Birthday of the Church, because the thousands of people who came to faith in Jesus on that day, carried the message home with them all around the Mediterranean Sea, and new congregations were created in all those lands.  

The TRINITY is celebrated the next Sunday after Pentecost (June 4th this year), as we now have all three "persons" who make up God - God the Father/Creator /Source, God the Son /Redeemer /Divine Child, and God the Holy Spirit /Holy Ghost/ Sustainer.  The word "Trinity" never occurs in the Christian Scriptures, although God is spoken of with these three names.  The theology behind the word "Trinity" developed in the early writings of the Church, first used by Theophilus of Antioch in 170 CE, later by the Latin theologian Tertullion in the 3rd Century.  Tertullion also began using the words about the three "persons' of God who are one in "substance."  These words were picked up at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE (origin of the Nicene Creed) as the orthodox theology about God.  

AFTER PENTECOST
All summer, then, the Sundays are numbered as "After Pentecost."  In the church year, the spring and summer are devoted to the works and teachings of Jesus when he lived on earth.  The church year ends in November, with the celebration called Christ the King - Christ who reigns over all.  The new church year begins the cycle again with Advent, the four Sundays prior to and preparing for the birth of Christ, the nativity, which we now call Christmas.