The words, especially the historic ones, are brilliant and written by reformers and puritans (like the Westminster confessions, which was mostly put together by Anglicans!)
I accept the wider point about us not liking to wait, but it’s not as if any of this is commanded or even mentioned in God’s Word. It’s all just a man-made invention.
Thanks for this, David. But I'm not quite sure what you mean. What is not commanded? I take the point that 'the best things come to those who wait' is not in the Bible. But the sin of Adam was a very basic unwillingness to wait for permission to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, although that is probably implicit rather than explicit.
I was thinking about how in Reformed circles, some people barely celebrate Christmas - because of the view that the only “high days” Scripturally are every Lord’s Day. So for those people, celebrating Twelfth Night would be completely off the radar. I’m not saying I agree with that, but I don’t know if the argument from history is all that persuasive either. Then again, I am speaking as someone who was previously Anglican and is now Presbyterian. At the end of the day it’s probably a Romans 14:5 issue.
Ah yes. To be honest, these days, those reformed circles are usually fairly pro-Christmas as it's a rare occasion when the secular west actually pays attention to a Christian festival. I don't sense much appetite for a Cromwellian curmudgeonly Regulative Principle Christmas Ban. Clearly the idea of Christmas being 12 days is an addition from a few hundred years later and is purely a tradition. As long as we're clear that it's a tradition and not scripture, I'm in favour. I think Reformed-types (like me) are constantly fighting a temptation they are unlikely to succumb to, which going back to Roman Catholicism. Five hundred years after the Reformation, we should probably take a fresh look at the places where we are actually likely to sin.
For what it’s worth, there’s still a fair bit of anti-Christmas sentiment in the American Presbyterian circles in which I move, although it doesn’t seem to amount to much other than things like not having a Christmas Eve service (unless it falls on a Sunday like this past year).
Fascinating, thank you. As a free church man, I don't often see Anglican Collects, but they do contain excellent words!
The words, especially the historic ones, are brilliant and written by reformers and puritans (like the Westminster confessions, which was mostly put together by Anglicans!)
I accept the wider point about us not liking to wait, but it’s not as if any of this is commanded or even mentioned in God’s Word. It’s all just a man-made invention.
Thanks for this, David. But I'm not quite sure what you mean. What is not commanded? I take the point that 'the best things come to those who wait' is not in the Bible. But the sin of Adam was a very basic unwillingness to wait for permission to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, although that is probably implicit rather than explicit.
I was thinking about how in Reformed circles, some people barely celebrate Christmas - because of the view that the only “high days” Scripturally are every Lord’s Day. So for those people, celebrating Twelfth Night would be completely off the radar. I’m not saying I agree with that, but I don’t know if the argument from history is all that persuasive either. Then again, I am speaking as someone who was previously Anglican and is now Presbyterian. At the end of the day it’s probably a Romans 14:5 issue.
Ah yes. To be honest, these days, those reformed circles are usually fairly pro-Christmas as it's a rare occasion when the secular west actually pays attention to a Christian festival. I don't sense much appetite for a Cromwellian curmudgeonly Regulative Principle Christmas Ban. Clearly the idea of Christmas being 12 days is an addition from a few hundred years later and is purely a tradition. As long as we're clear that it's a tradition and not scripture, I'm in favour. I think Reformed-types (like me) are constantly fighting a temptation they are unlikely to succumb to, which going back to Roman Catholicism. Five hundred years after the Reformation, we should probably take a fresh look at the places where we are actually likely to sin.
For what it’s worth, there’s still a fair bit of anti-Christmas sentiment in the American Presbyterian circles in which I move, although it doesn’t seem to amount to much other than things like not having a Christmas Eve service (unless it falls on a Sunday like this past year).