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Today, elsewhere

The same day, eighteen disciplines

Tikimt 9, 2019 · Monday, 19 October 2026. Here it is a day without a fast. This is what the same day asks of the other churches — not to rank them, but so the Tewahedo discipline can be seen for what it is: the oldest and the heaviest of them.

Easter is the hinge, and the churches do not share it: the West keeps it on 5 April this year, the Eastern Orthodox on 12 April, and Ethiopia reckons its own Fasika by the Bahire Hasab. Everything movable below hangs off one of those three dates.

Oriental Orthodox

  • Ethiopian and Eritrean Tewahedothis appOrdinary dayNo pork and no unclean meats, as the Law has itThe church this app keeps time with.
  • Coptic OrthodoxOrdinary dayNo pork and no unclean meats, as the Law has itEgypt; the see of Alexandria, from which Ethiopia received its first bishop.
  • Armenian ApostolicOrdinary dayNo pork and no unclean meats, as the Law has itArmenia and its diaspora.
  • Syriac and MalankaraOrdinary dayNo pork and no unclean meats, as the Law has itAntioch and India.

Eastern Orthodox

  • Eastern Orthodox, new calendarNo fast todayGreece, Romania, Antioch and most of the diaspora.
  • Eastern Orthodox, old calendarNo fast todayRussia, Serbia, Georgia, Jerusalem and Mount Athos.

Catholic

  • Roman CatholicNo obligation todayThe Latin church, by the law of 1966 and after.
  • Eastern Catholic, ByzantineNo fast todayIn communion with Rome, fasting with the East.

Historic Protestant

  • Anglican and EpiscopalNo day of obligationThe Book of Common Prayer’s table of fasts.
  • LutheranNo binding fastFasting commended, never commanded.
  • MethodistNo binding fastWesley’s Wednesday and Friday, kept by few today.
  • Presbyterian and ReformedNo binding fastDays of fasting as the church appoints themFasts appointed by the church, not by the calendar.

Evangelical and free

  • BaptistNo binding fastFasting is personalNo binding calendar; fasting is personal.
  • Pentecostal and charismaticNo fixed calendarPersonal and congregational fasts, often at the turn of the yearCalled fasts, often at the start of a year.
  • Non-denominationalNo binding fastFasting is personalWhatever the congregation takes up.

Other

  • Seventh-day AdventistNo fast calendarThe Levitical table is kept: no unclean meats, and many are vegetarianThe seventh-day Sabbath and the Levitical table.
  • Quaker, FriendsNo calendar and no fastWorship is inward and continualNo calendar at all; worship without season.
  • Anabaptist, MennoniteNo fixed calendarSimplicity, with fasts by agreement of the congregationSimplicity; fasts by agreement of the congregation.

How to read the marks

  • †A fast is binding. The day withholds something, by the discipline of that church.
  • ✦Fast-free, or a day of rest. Nothing is withheld; in some churches the day is kept as rest instead.
  • ○Commended, not commanded. The season or the day is kept by many and bound on none.
  • ·Nothing is asked today.

These are the disciplines as the churches publish them, in their ordinary form. Local use varies, dispensations exist, and a bishop may say otherwise. The Oriental Orthodox keep a fast of the same shape as this one on dates that differ from church to church, so their rows follow the Ethiopian calendar and say so. For the Tewahedo year itself, see the canon and the seven hours.