19 Jan 2020
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
Here is the Collect for this week from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States. The prayer draws together (in the following order) several texts from the New Testament Epistles: 1 Peter 2.9; 2 Corinthians 4.4; Ephesians 4.3; Ephesians 4.1-2; and Romans 6.22. The Second Sunday...
Read more → 14 Jan 2020
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
In a previous post, we looked at Melanchthon’s response to the birth of Joachim Camerarius’s daughter and to the death of his own son, Georg, in August of 1529. Two days after that event, Martin Luther wrote to his friend Justus Jonas about Georg’s death and Melanchthon’s grief. (The letter...
Read more → 13 Jan 2020
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
(This is the final essay in a series on the Federal Vision. The first installment, a general introduction to the state of the conversation, can be found here. The second installment identifies the various personalities and their history. The next three essays explained the FV theology in more detail:...
Read more → 10 Jan 2020
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
From the vantage-point of centuries, it can be difficult to remember that the magisterial Reformers--or, indeed, any other historical figures--were actual human beings, made of the same stuff as we are, subject to the same joys and sorrows we share. In Act 3 of The Merchant of Venice, Shylock says, of Jews...
Read more → 08 Jan 2020
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
(This essay continues a series on the Federal Vision that I have been writing since November, 2019. The first installment can be found here. The second is here. The third is here, and the fourth is here. Though I earlier stated that this essay would be my final one, I see the need for one more to come....
Read more → 07 Jan 2020
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
I’m a couple of days late with this, but here is the Collect for the Second Sunday after Christmas from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States. It turns on the same general theme as the Collect for this Sunday in The Book of Common Prayer, but is slightly longer and draws...
Read more → 03 Jan 2020
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
Douglas Wilson is the embodiment of “RIP my mentions.” His controversies range from politics to theology to literature. People laud him as a visionary leader, and people deride him as a cult leader. To some he is too conservative. To others, he has departed from the true Reformed tradition. Wilson...
Read more → 01 Jan 2020
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
New Year's Day traditionally coincides with the commemoration of the circumcision of the infant Christ, in whom "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," on his eighth day, as recorded by Luke. Below is the Collect for that occasion from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United...
Read more → 29 Dec 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
The Collect for the First Sunday after Christmas from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States is below. Whereas The Book of Common Prayer repeats the Collect from Christmas Day, the Order gives a different prayer that takes its beginning from John 3.16. The prayer then...
Read more → 28 Dec 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
December 28 marks the commemoration of Herod's slaughter of the Holy Innocents. Particularly in light of circumstances here and around the world, it would perhaps be prudent for all Christian churches to observe the Festival of the Holy Innocents as a matter of public testimony. (One of the best and most...
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