Trinity Sunday, first Sunday after Pentecost, observed as a feast of the Trinity. It was an innovation in medieval England and spread through the Western Church in the 14th cent. The Sundays until Advent are counted from either Pentecost or Trinity.

Sunday, Billy (William Ashley Sunday), 1863-1935, American evangelist, b. Ames, Iowa, in the era around World War I. A professional baseball player (1883-90), he later worked for the Young Men's Christian Association in Chicago (1891-95) and, during that time, became associated with the Presbyterian itinerant evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman (1859-1918). After leading a successful revival in Garner, Iowa (1896) Sunday became a full-time evangelist. Known as "the baseball evangelist," Sunday drew large crowds to his revivals with his flamboyant style. As the most popular American evangelist of the World War I era, he raised much of the popular support for prohibition.

Sunday school, institution for instruction in religion and morals, usually conducted in churches as part of the church organization but sometimes maintained by other religious or philanthropic bodies.

In England during the 18th cent., occasional efforts were made by charitable individuals to provide some education in religious matters as well as secular instruction to children of the poor. Probably the first to be called a Sunday school was that started (1780) by Robert Raikes for factory children in Gloucester. The curriculum largely consisted of simple lessons in reading and spelling in preparation for reading the Bible, and memorizing Scripture passages and hymns. The plan was copied in other places; sometimes Saturday instruction in writing and arithmetic was added to that on Sunday. An important educational movement was thus started; by 1795 the Society for the Support and Encouragement of Sunday Schools had helped found more than 1,000 schools.

In 1803 the London Sunday School Union was founded to promote the extension of schools with voluntary teachers. This organization published simple lesson plans, catechisms, spellers, and other aids. Unions were developed in Ireland and Scotland. In 1862 a general Sunday school convention was held in London, at which a program was initiated for extending the movement to the Continent.

In the United States there is evidence that instruction in the Scriptures was given to children on Sundays at Plymouth in 1669 and at Roxbury, Mass., in 1674, but it was not until 1786 that a Sunday school patterned on Raikes's plan was founded in Hanover co., Va., by the Methodist preacher Francis Asbury. The American Sunday-School Union, formed (1817) among various churches of the East, determined to establish Sunday schools as rapidly as possible in the pioneer communities of the Mississippi valley. This project met with wide support and considerable success.

In 1832 a national convention of American Sunday school workers was held. At the convention of 1872 a plan of uniform lessons was adopted in cooperation with the British Sunday School Union, and from that time the movement was international. The first World Sunday School Convention met (1889) in London; in 1907 its name was changed to the World's Sunday School Association, and in 1947 to the World Council of Christian Education. It has units in many countries; the North American unit is the International Council of Religious Education. The arrangement of periodic world Sunday school conventions and aid in leadership training and curriculum are among the chief concerns of the council.

Sunday: see Sabbath; week.

Palm Sunday, in the Christian calendar, the Sunday before Easter, sixth and last Sunday in Lent, and the first day of Holy Week. It recalls the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem riding upon an ass, when his followers shouted "Hosanna" and scattered palms in his path. In the Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches, ceremonies of the day are the blessing and distribution of crosses made from palm leaves and the recitation of one of the three synoptic accounts of the Passion. Many wear crosses made of the palm.

orig. William Ashley Sunday

(born Nov. 19, 1862/63, Ames, Iowa, U.S.—died Nov. 6, 1935, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. religious revivalist. He became a professional baseball player with the Chicago White Sox in 1883 and later played in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Philadelphia. In 1887 he underwent a conversion experience; he began preaching in 1897 and was ordained in the Presbyterian church in 1903. A flamboyant preacher of fundamentalist theology whose sermons reflected the social upheaval caused by the transition from a rural to an urban society, he advocated a strict morality and campaigned effectively for Prohibition. He conducted hundreds of revival meetings and reached an estimated 100 million people. His popularity faded in the 1920s, but he continued preaching until his death.

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or Passion Sunday

In Christianity, the first day of Holy Week and the Sunday before Easter, commemorating Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It usually includes a procession of members of the congregation carrying palms, representing the palm branches the crowd scattered in front of Jesus as he rode into the city. The liturgy also includes readings recounting the suffering and death of Jesus. Palm Sunday was celebrated in Jerusalem as early as the 4th century and in the West by the 8th century.

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orig. William Ashley Sunday

(born Nov. 19, 1862/63, Ames, Iowa, U.S.—died Nov. 6, 1935, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. religious revivalist. He became a professional baseball player with the Chicago White Sox in 1883 and later played in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Philadelphia. In 1887 he underwent a conversion experience; he began preaching in 1897 and was ordained in the Presbyterian church in 1903. A flamboyant preacher of fundamentalist theology whose sermons reflected the social upheaval caused by the transition from a rural to an urban society, he advocated a strict morality and campaigned effectively for Prohibition. He conducted hundreds of revival meetings and reached an estimated 100 million people. His popularity faded in the 1920s, but he continued preaching until his death.

Learn more about Sunday, Billy with a free trial on Britannica.com.