Grace permits me to live with serious controversy in the church, but trivia annoys me.

The recent beginning of a new church year, the arrival of 1995 calendars, and the recent approval of new "trial propers" for Lesser Feasts and Fasts (LFF) all bring to mind the irritations and inconsistencies of the calendar. The important problems of the world are beyond the control of the Episcopal Church, but we might at least get right that which is entirely within our purview. They are not matters of great consequence, but probably will not be fixed in my lifetime.

Eventually, prayer book revision will be required along with cooperation among the Standing Liturgical Commission, the Church Hymnal Corporation, several commercial publishers and the unnamed arbiters of liturgical colors (perhaps the same people who decide hem length). Thus I present seven modest suggestions for consideration:

The well-motivated desire not to have saints' days usurp Sundays or Holy Week has created much confusion in the transferring of saints' days, especially after Easter and Christmas. Various editors apply different rules of precedence, so calendars do not always agree. Lesser commemorations must be omitted in some years.

In my family, when my sister's birthday falls on Easter as it sometimes does, we remember that it is her birthday, although we may have a party as late as the next Saturday if that is convenient. It seems to me that the church could follow the same expedient, with two simple rules. First, while continuing the prohibition that celebrations of days not pre-empt the celebration of Sundays or feasts of our Lord, permit the commemoration of any day on the day it occurs by a collect. Second, expand the rubric on page 17 in the prayer book to permit by local option the use of the propers for a day on "any convenient open day in the octave preceding or following the day."

In my early years of ordained ministry, I was privileged to serve on a college campus where we had a daily Eucharist. With the bishop's permission, we had propers for everything from Benjamin Franklin's birthday to votive masses "for those facing exams," and on some days used an orange chasuble. However, because the majority of our congregations are small, with perhaps one mid-week Eucharist at which any major day falling during the week is observed, I recommend flexibility in the use of the propers as suggested above, and simplicity in the use of liturgical colors as follows:

First, for all observances other than feasts of our Lord, do not display the color on the calendar, but only indicate the suggested color in type. Second, let the days after the feast of the Epiphany to the Baptism of our Lord be white days; let there be an octave of white days following All Saints'; and let the week following the feast of Pentecost be red. Such a system would actually highlight the major festivals more dramatically.

The Sunday numbers now serve no purpose whatsoever, as the propers to be used are separately numbered and determined by calendar date. It seems unnecessarily awkward to have to explain "This is the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, but the readings are Proper 24B." One set of numbers is enough. While we are at it, let's not use a numbered proper on the weekdays following the Day of Pentecost.

Two years ago, I was visiting churches during the week following Pentecost, and found all, of varied churchmanship, using propers from the Day of Pentecost in violation of the BCP rubric (pp. 896, 907, 917). I note there are 12 different readings assigned in the lectionary for the Day of Pentecost which probably don't all get read in most communities. The rubric could give permission to use any on the following weekdays. As the week following Pentecost includes the ember days and often ordinations, we also could have an octave of daily office readings which continued the ministry theme rather than plunging immediately into the middle of an ongoing sequence for Proper 5, 6 or 7.

With so many materials, including the prayer book sections, now published in loose-leaf format, why publish the Lesser Feasts and Fasts in hardback? I already have several editions on the shelf, and it seems destined to be revised every triennium. The three-ring format would allow easy revision and insertion of the appropriate pages in a service book rather than having one more book.

That quibble aside, the editors of LFF are to be praised for the biographical notes, the clear organization, legible typefaces, and dating of each page. Let's keep the same designer for the next BCP.

I suggest a General Convention resolution permitting that "any commemoration on the calendar of another province of the Anglican Communion or of a communion with which the Episcopal Church is in ecumenical dialogue may be commemorated." This would avoid further discussion of whether we need to add Charles the Martyr, Martin Luther or Ignatius Loyola to the calendar. It would also allow us to observe such things as "World Wide Communion Sunday" with other churches in our community, without putting such observances on our calendar.

If we are going to purchase liturgical calendars, let's buy only those that actually begin Advent 1. It's not an insurmountable problem as evidenced by the fact that several publishers already produce 13-month calendars. It is a marketing advantage to get people's attention before they are inundated with gift calendars, but more importantly, it would be a great educational advantage to distribute church year calendars which begin at the beginning.

While we are dreaming, we might as well plan for the prayer book of 2015 or whenever. The current two-year cycle of Daily Office readings with three lessons to mix or match with the Sunday three-year cycle adds confusion and gets in the way of people who might read the Daily Office. It would be simple enough to change to a three-year cycle, matching the Sunday ABC lectionary cycle.

My preference would be to spread the existing lessons over three years, simply assigning two lessons for each day. A primary objective of this would be to encourage widespread lay use of a simplified morning and evening office in the 21st century. My experience is that one lesson, thoughtfully read in the context of praise and prayer nourishes more than several readings with page flipping in between. I grew up on an office of two lessons, but perhaps today we are inundated with so much we have shorter attention spans.

Seven is enough serious or silly suggestions. Let's talk about it. If you have read this far, you may have guessed that, beyond this trivia, I have a vision of a simple and practical ecumenical calendar for the Western church which anyone can use to sanctify the time.

In a rapidly changing, multicultural, global metropolis, we will have local diversity, but can share some observances with others of the household of faith. We might at least agree on what lesson we will read to begin the day and pray together. The rule of prayer is the rule of faith.