Should Michaelmas be celebrated this year as Soup Kitchen Sunday?
Michaelmas used to be a major Christian feast day celebrated in the western church, Catholic and Protestant, on September 29th and November 8th among Eastern Orthodox.
Since Christianity was a northern hemisphere faith until recent centuries, in many lands, Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox, the honoring of St. Michael, somehow both a saint and chief archangel and all angels coincided with a celebration of the end of the harvest season.
In various ways, in different places, it became a time for celebrating a verdant planet, its bounty, and its creator. Partying, settling accounts, healing, and sharing (especially of geese) were all part of this Feast Day.
Nowadays, harvest season celebrations have been subsumed under national Thanksgiving celebrations, which are often tainted by the legacy of colonialism.
Since Michaelmas falls on a Sunday this year I propose that it be revived, partially to address the ancient duty to feed the poor, as Soup Kitchen Sunday, with churches throughout the land offering bounteous meals to all who would come. Michaelmas differed in the various countries where it was celebrated but all recognized it as a day for feasting.
Soup kitchens, especially in residential areas, have faced difficult times of late, as well as other ministries to the poor. St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church of Brookings OR, with strong support of the Western Oregon Diocese, had to win in Federal court in fighting what Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke called an “ill-conceived” ordinance by the city to limit and control feedings at a church long known for its ministries to the poor.
Robert “Silky” O’Sullivan, a longtime resident of the Oakland/Berkeley area, has retired to a beautiful garden home in Brookings on the Oregon coast. He lost his wife of over 51 years, Alice Wildermuth O’Sullivan, in April 2020. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?n=alice-wildermuth-o-sullivan&pid=196211294 She had distinguished careers as a musician and attorney. Hear many examples of her musical gifts on the Alice Wildermuth O’Sullivan YouTube channel: https://religionnews.com/2021/01/12/alice-wildermuth-osullivan-youtube-channel-features-music-of-church-classical-jazz-musician/ Two German Shepherds help to keep him appreciating the wonders of creation. After many career involvements (including politics and media, high school teaching and pastoring), he has discovered a new vocation as a “Left Coast” ‘poet and writer, deeply influenced by William Blake and Dag Hammarskjold, who both embodied brilliant Christian visions while working in remarkable ways for justice and peace. O’Sullivan’s new words to Christmas carols and other hymns, incorporating peace and justice themes, and a Blake-inspired “unofficial international anthem” have been published in Progressive Christianity, along with civil rights and other writings. He has recently become an advocate for St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in its fight with the City of Brookings OR over issues of feeding and providing social services to the poor.