Commontide
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The 1st Sunday of Epiphany (Baptism of Our Lord)
Eternal Father, at the baptism of Jesus you revealed him to be your Son, and your Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove: Grant that we, who are born again by water and the Spirit, may be faithful as your adopted children; 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 1st of Epiphany (Baptism of Our Lord)
The Feast of the Confession of St. Peter
Red Letter Day
On this day the Church remembers Simon Peter's answer at Caesarea Philippi: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." The feast keeps the confession itself, not the office Peter held. Its date is older than its content. January 18 carried a Roman commemoration of Peter's episcopal chair from at least the eighth century until Rome struck it in 1960; the Episcopal Church supplied the vacant day with new propers under a new name in 1973, and the Prayer Book has kept it since. It opens the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The confession at Caesarea Philippi is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 16:13-20, Mark 8:27-30, Luke 9:18-21). Jesus asks his disciples who people say he is; they relay various opinions—John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets. Then he presses the question: 'But who do you say that I am?' Peter answers: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
In Matthew's account, Jesus responds with the famous declaration: 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'
The confession marks a turning point in the Gospel narrative. Immediately afterward, Jesus begins to teach openly about his coming suffering and death—a revelation that Peter himself resists, earning the sharp rebuke, 'Get behind me, Satan.' The juxtaposition captures the paradox of apostolic faith: genuine revelation and stubborn incomprehension coexisting in the same person. Mark's version is simpler and omits the 'rock' saying; Luke's is intermediate. The January 18 date has been observed in the Western Church since at least the sixth century.
The Confession at Caesarea Philippi has been central to ecclesiological reflection across all major Christian traditions since the patristic era. Matthew's version, with its 'rock' saying, became the foundation of Roman Catholic theology of papal primacy, though other traditions (Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican) interpret the saying differently. Augustine, Chrysostom, Aquinas, and the Reformation commentators all devoted extensive attention to parsing the meaning of 'this rock' and the bestowal of the keys. The event is interpreted not only as Peter's personal faith but as a revelatory moment in which the Father himself unveiled the identity of Jesus.