Church Matters: Retrieving the Great Tradition

232

Chur ch Mat ter s : Ret r i ev i ng the Great Trad i t i on

Appendix 40 Calendars Discarded

Baptist theology and practice, particularly in worship, are rooted in Scottish and English Calvinism. Thus most early Baptists followed the Calvinists in discarding calendars of “feasts and fasts,” and in deemphasizing liturgical ceremony. This approach became so deeply entrenched that, even into the early twentieth century, some Baptists of North America declined to observe Christmas and other Christian festivals and continued to uphold the related principle that every Lord’s Day (Sunday) was just like any other. Yet, there has always been a minority who maintain that the worship book, the Christian year, and a more formal liturgy do have an authentic place among Baptists. Discarding religious calendars created two great voids which profoundly influenced Baptist worship. Loss of a lectionary related to a religious calendar led to topical, situation-dependent sermons, resulting in some of the best – and the worst – of Protestant preach ing. Loss of the calendar itself encouraged many churches to drift toward civil religion, substituting an American civil calendar for a distinctly Christian calendar.

~ Robert Webber. The Services of the Christian Year . Nashville: Star Song Pub. Group, 1994. p. 5.

The American Civil Calendar

The American civil calendar combines patriotic holidays such as Memorial, Independence, and Labor Days with commercially oriented celebrations such as Mother’s, Valentine’s, and Grandparents’ days. Three explicitly religious days have a prominent place for Christians – Palm Sunday, Easter, and Christmas. Thanksgiving, the American holiday, is distinctive as a civil holiday with a religious theme. All of these observances became the core calendar for many Baptist congregations. Denominational “promotions” were added to the core – fund drives for various missions and days of “recognition” such as graduation, Rally Day, Off-to-College Day, and Camps and Conferences Sunday.

~ Ronald K. Freyer Nicholas, in Robert Webber. The Services of the Christian Year . Nashville: Star Song Pub. Group, 1994. p. 6.