Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Thursday, January 1, 2015

1 January. 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The Circumcision of Christ


1 January.  1662 Book of Common Prayer.  The Circumcision of Christ.


The Circumcision of Christ. The date of this Festival is, of course, determined by Christmas. But it is not till some time after the establishment of the Christmas Festival that the day has any designation except as the octave of Christmas. Possibly anti-Judaic feeling might shrink from dwelling on Our Lord's Circumcision; and the day seems for some time to have been observed as a fast, in protest against the riotous heathen celebration of the 1st of January; of which protest there is perhaps still an echo in the Collect. The earliest notices of it as "the Circumcision" appear to be Gallican. With us now it blends with the idea of New Year's Day, tending to solemnize the opening of the year by the thought of responsibility and struggle against sin. -- January 1st.

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