Trinity Sunday

Color: White Sunday / Principal Feast Season: Trinity Season

Next occurrence: May 23, 2027

Theological Note

Trinity Sunday, the Sunday after Whitsunday, is the only feast in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer calendar dedicated not to a redemptive event but to a mystery of the divine being: the eternal truth that the one God subsists as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three Persons in one undivided substance. It falls at the close of the great cycle of saving acts — Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, and the gift of the Spirit — and invites the Church to contemplate the God whose inner life those acts have disclosed.

The appointed Epistle from the Revelation of Saint John sets before the worshipper the heavenly throne room, where the four living creatures cry unceasingly: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. The trisagion is itself a Trinitarian acclamation, and the vision frames what the intellect cannot contain: that God's holiness is not a solitary attribute but the radiance of his triune love. The appointed Gospel from Saint John recounts the nocturnal conversation between our Lord and Nicodemus, in which Christ speaks of new birth through water and the Spirit, of the love of the Father who sends the Son, and of eternal life as the purpose of that sending.

The Collect of Trinity Sunday is among the most ancient in the Anglican inheritance, praying that the faithful, in acknowledging the glory of the eternal Trinity and worshipping the Unity, may by God's majesty ever be defended from all adversities. It unites doctrine and devotion in the pattern the Prayer Book always commends: right belief issuing in joyful and thankful prayer.

Collect

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 that thou wouldest keep us stedfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.

Epistle

Revelation 4:1-11

Gospel

John 3:1-15

Study Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Trinity Sunday celebrate?
Trinity Sunday celebrates the mystery of the Holy Trinity: one God eternally subsisting as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three Persons in one undivided substance.
Why is Trinity Sunday unique in the 1928 BCP calendar?
It is the only principal feast dedicated to a doctrine rather than a saving act of God. Falling after Pentecost, it gathers up the entire cycle of redemption and acknowledges the triune God who accomplished it.
What Gospel is appointed for Trinity Sunday in the 1928 BCP?
Saint John chapter three, recounting the nocturnal conversation with Nicodemus, in which Christ speaks of birth through water and the Spirit and of the Father's love for the world.