STANTON H. WILSON,
is a Western Australian and received his ministerial training at the Federal College of the Bible, Glen Iris. Mr. Wilson has had successful ministries in South Australia, New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, and is now serving the church at Brighton, Victoria. He has served as a member of the faculty of the Federal College of the Bible.

      An isolated member of one of our churches, obliged to worship with a congregation of another communion, said: "I do miss our regular weekly observance of the Lord's Supper, but on the other hand I've come to love the orderly worship following through the Christian Year. To me now, Churches of Christ worship seems 'just thrown together' without pattern and without plan." Our first reaction, naturally, is to rise up and defend our freedom (?) of worship. But when we think again we are obliged to ask ourselves seriously and in all honesty: "Is our worship throughout the year 'just thrown together'?"

Are We Rag-tag?

      Is there a plan at all, underlying our public worship and public instruction? We believe in local congregational government, which, as far as our public worship and instruction are concerned leaves each congregation "free" to be led by the personal likes and dislikes of the "preacher" or "those on the plan." Too often it is apparent that neither the minister nor the "brethren on the plan" have given even superficial thought to the real nature and purpose of public worship and instruction. Else we would not have "Talks at the Lord's Table" centred on an Annual Offering or some subject of topical interest, nor would we have such expressions as "Now brethren and sisters to stretch our legs let us stand and sing hymn No. so and so"--as if we were a lot of crickets!

Where Are Our Aids for Public Instruction and Worship?

      We have our Bibles, our Churches of Christ Hymn Book with Responsive Readings and Supplement, our Calendar featuring 7 "Special Offerings" and each given a date, then 8 "Observance Days" some of which accord with the Christian Year (Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, etc.) and some selected from the multitude of man's more recent devising (International "Shut In" Day, Mother's Day, etc.). A complete list of the latter celebrations would be impossible because they are being created all the time! Then the Calendar has suggested hymns for Morning Services and suggested Sunday Bible Readings. It is thought that the Bible Readings are a brave attempt to read progressively through certain books of the Bible, making frequent expurgations and interrupting the pattern to pay deference to certain seasons of the year. There is sometimes a textual affinity recognisable between the O.T. and N.T. passages selected.

So Then We Do Have a Liturgy!

      We have already a liturgy "of a kind." We shall use for the present this definition of "liturgy": "an established form of public worship and instruction." We follow through a rotation of events in our Church Year. This rotation is variously made up of Annual Offering Sundays, international, national and civic commemorations. Visiting Churches of Christ one is likely to find any one of the following being observed (some churches to cope with the glut observe two on the one day, as well as the Lord's Supper): Hospital Sunday, Red Cross Sunday, Remembrance Sunday, Civic Sunday, United Nations' Sunday, Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day Men's Sunday, Boys' Sunday, (Girls' are not yet accorded a "Day"), Youth Sunday, "Shut-In" Sunday, ad infinitum! Usually, in addition to

the Lord's Supper, some religious observances such as Easter, Pentecost and Christmas are also included. We do have a liturgy, a Church Year, if not markedly a Christian Year. Seriously, it is high time that responsible persons in the Church called a halt! We must realise that there are scores of quite worthy organisations outside (and a few inside) the Church willing to exploit the assembling of Christians for the worship of God, instruction of believers, and the testimony of the Gospel, for their particular organisation's financial gain. Not all the commercialisation of Sunday has its origin outside the Church. We have come to the ludicrous position where almost every Sunday (and there are never more than 53 in a year) is a "Special" for 2 or 3 and sometimes 5 or 6 good causes! When Jesus cleansed the Temple and called it a house of prayer for all nations, it was the commercialisation of the sacred which He violently and incisively condemned. We have a Church Year which varies from place to place and time to time because it is based on Annual Offerings, Special Appeals, and an increasing number of Special Days each year. Really, it is time we called a halt and asked ourselves: "What shall the end of these things be?"

What Is Special About Sunday Itself?

      Following the Resurrection of Christ the first day of the week came to be regarded as the day of worship and rest for Christians. There was an appropriateness about this; on the first day of the week:

      Jesus rose from the dead (Matt. 28:1).

      Jesus reappeared to His disciples (John 20:26) .

      The Holy Spirit came (Acts 2:1-4).

      The Church was established (Acts 2:14-47)

      Christians met together to break bread (Acts 20:7).

      It became known by them as the Lord's Day (Rev. 1:10). In his book: "The Early Christian Worship" (pp. 14-20) Prof. Oscar Cullman points out that for the Early Church, the observance of the Lord's Supper, on the first day of the week, was not only to commemorate Christ's death, but also His Resurrection, His daily Presence with His disciples, and His Second Coming. We seriously ask: "Are these great facts, and the Supper which proclaims them, and the Gospel which is derived from them, to be made subservient to some infinitely lesser celebration, financial appeal or promotional publicity?" Remember--Jesus had to cleanse the Temple because those responsible had, if not perpetrated, at least allowed the commercialisation of the sacred.

But, Isn't Every Day Sacred?

      Yes--not just Sunday only, although Sunday has special associations and provides particular opportunities. Every day should be dedicated to God and every season sacred. Each year for us should be a Christian Year. The function of the Church is to live to the glory of God by edifying itself--the Body of Christ--in love and to declare God's love in Christ to the world, and no other cause or commemoration however worthy, should be allowed to supersede or even compete with our essential purpose of declaring in word and life the whole counsel of God to the whole world.

Where Do We Begin to Clear Away What Has Cluttered Up Our Church Year?

      This writer considers that we may best help ourselves out of the morass of "Specials" by a wise observance of the main seasons of the Christian Year.

What Is the Christian Year?

      The Christian Year is an arrangement whereby particular days and seasons of the Calendar Year

are observed to commemorate the mighty acts of God in history and to proclaim the great doctrines of the Christian Faith.

      The Christian Year is divided into two parts of approximately 26 weeks each. The first half of the Christian Year commemorates the historical events in our Christian Faith; such as the Birth of Christ, His Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, Second Coming, The Giving of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of the Christian Church. These seasons are known as Advent, Christmas, Epiphany Christmas, Lent, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost (or Whitsuntide). All these names have interesting and significant meanings. The second half of the Year is known as Trinity and is that portion of time reserved for the systematic proclamation of the nature of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (i. e. the Trinity) and of all doctrines that are derived from the fact of the Triune God. (It should be remembered by the reader that this is not a pamphlet on the Christian Year but about its use. There are excellent and informative books and booklets on the Christian Year itself available from leading Religious Bookshops. Some of these are listed at the end of this pamphlet).

Is This Suggesting That We Become "High Church"?

      Certainly there is a need to confront our people with that highly exalted doctrine of the Church which the New Testament sets before us. Church membership means almost nothing to many people today. But such "high doctrine" of the Church should, even as in the New Testament, be derived only from the pre-eminence of Christ Himself. Systematic and sustained Christ-centred teaching is one of the greatest needs of our time. Not the spasmodic and impassioned bursts of oratory at Conferences, Conventions, Rallies, and Missions, but the purposeful, persistent, and progressive week-by-week teaching such as, this writer believes, can be most effectively promoted chiefly by our Colleges, Federal and State Departments of Christian Education, and the elders and ministers of our congregations.

      This teaching should be given in the context of true worship; for as the late Dr. W. E. Sangster once said: "There is a divine mystique in worship--which cannot permeate the printing press." It is at this point--the fusion of worship and instruction, that the observance of the Christian Year encouraged, promoted and supported and "inspired" by trained leaders graduating from our Colleges can help to bring us back to be known again as a "people of the Book."

      But to return to the question above about becoming "High Church"--if by this term, tendencies towards "Anglo-Catholic" worship is meant the answer is an emphatic "NO". Neville Clark, a Baptist, in a recent publication: "Call to Worship" (S.C.M. Press) makes this pertinent comment: "Neither the indiscriminate borrowing of elements generally associated with Anglicanism and the 'catholic' tradition, nor the introduction of an eclectic profusion of introits, vespers, anthems, sung Amens, begins to come to grips with the root of the disease (unsatisfactory and unsatisfying worship)."

      Then he quotes Bishop Leslie Newbigin as saying: "It is one of the tragedies of the situation that the Churches which have given their ministers the maximum liberty of liturgical improvisations are those which have given them the minimum training in liturgical principles."

      To this Neville Clark--a Baptist--adds the comment: "This fact constitutes at one and the same time our problem and our opportunity; our opportunity because we have freedom to improve, to experiment, to advance; our problem because sheer ignorance often makes our innovations disastrous.

      The failure of our theological colleges at this crucial point has worked more mischief than can ever be calculated."

      There is a great need to coordinate and systematise the teaching programme of our churches and this is not to underestimate what has already been done at great personal cost and often on pitifully inadequate financial resources. We owe an incalculable debt to the Federal College of the Bible with its Correspondence Course, the Federal and State Departments of Christian Education, the Federal Literature Committee with its Provocative Pamphlets, the Committee for the Promotion of Christian Union with its "Schools for Christian Unity", and "The Australian Christian" and its publishers The Austral Printing and Publishing Co., Ltd. These organisations have not by any means disregarded the "Christian Year" and it is hoped that the future plans which they have (with the necessary financial backing of the Australian Brotherhood) will be closely allied with the observance of the Christian Year. This expressed hope brings us to the question:

Why Observe the Christian Year?

Because:

I. It is a Systematic Rehearsal of the Mighty Acts of God.

      One good reason for observing, at least, the major seasons of the Christian Year is that it provides a systematic rehearsal of the mighty acts of God in our redemption. We must, here, enlarge on the earlier definition--a working definition--of liturgy as an "established form of public worship and instruction." We are of the "free-church" tradition, super-sensitive to the words "form" and "formal."

      It is agreed that we must "let all things be done decently and in order," yet it is for more than such reasons that liturgy has and must continue to have its place in our public worship and instruction. For as Neville Clark the Baptist writer points out in "Call to Worship", there is "a complete misunderstanding of liturgy", and he continues: "The essential mark of liturgy is not that it enshrines fixed and unvariable forms of words in an endlessly repetitive cycle, but that it possesses a theologically grounded structure and pattern, based on the fullness of the Gospel and expressive of the wholeness of the Church's response in worship to that Gospel. Every church that takes seriously its reason for existence has, and must have liturgy--be it never so "free!" Liturgy in its widest sense must be the effective medium of God's approach to man and of man's approach to God."

II. It is Bible Based.

      At a time when people in our churches no longer know their Bible and what it teaches, as once they did, the "following through" of the Christian Year affords invaluable opportunities for instructing the uninformed. During Trinity the provision is made to teach the practical implications and involvements in being a Christian. At this season in the Christian Year one may stress that faith without works is dead and thus correct the widespread attitude that religion is just a week-end excursion. Prof. James Stewart of Edinburgh commends the observance of the Christian Year to the Church and especially to his preaching brethren by saying: "The great landmarks of the Christian Year--Advent, Christmas, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Whitsunday, Trinity--set us our course, and suggest our basic themes. They compel us to keep close to the fundamental doctrines of the faith. They summon us back from the bypaths, where we might be prone to linger, to the great highway of redemption. They ensure that in our preaching we shall constantly be returning to those mighty acts of God which

the Church exists to declare." There is little need to stress the need in our time for Bible-based expository preaching and for systematic expository preaching the Christian Year commends itself as a tried and proven pattern.

III. It Reminds Us that our Faith is Rooted in History.

      God has worked through history. He led our fathers in the wilderness. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Yet his action is eternal. And all history derives its significance from what is eternal. The Christian Year with its declaration of the acts of God in history, does not leave us in the past but points us to the eternal significance and culmination of all history in God. History is seen as His-story.

IV. It is a Frame-work for the Coverage of the Whole Counsel of God.

      D. Roy Briggs in an excellent little book: "The Christian Year" (Independent Press) deserves to be quoted in entirety on this point. He says: "We must note that a characteristic of the contemporary religious situation is the unhappy multiplicity of strange sects, each teaching a distortion of one facet of the Faith to the practical exclusion of everything else. The amazing fact is that, if the history of those periods in which they arose is examined, it will be discovered that at that time, the Church was ignoring the very tenets of her belief which they now stress. Church historians agree in the view that the failure of the Church to be true to the whole Gospel committed to her has been a major factor in the rise of the sects. The spirit abhors a vacuum as much as nature does, and so we have the fanatical excesses of the sectarians. This is a fierce indictment of the Church, but one she will have to face, until she realises that the sects will continue to increase if she remains halting in her exposition of holy truths. The observance of the Christian Year does not, of course, provide an automatic redress, but it does lessen the awful possibility that in the course of a year the Church will not deal with all the great and historic facts of her Faith. Here we have an extremely urgent reason for a revival of the Christian Year."

      We who are preachers need constantly to guard against our casual, personal whims in our choice of preaching subjects. It is perilously easy to preach on the passages and subjects which we like, and which we find relatively easy to prepare. The observance of the Christian Year is a salutary discipline against taking "short-cuts."

V. It Makes Provision for Spiritual Preparation for the Observance of the Great Events of our Faith.

      Christmas has its deepest meaning for those who have thoughtfully observed the season preceding it which is called Advent. Easter is full of significance and sacred rejoicing for those who have, with sympathy entered into the sufferings of our Lord, as remembered in the season of Lent. Nothing worthwhile is achieved (or received) without discipline. There is no true celebration without due preparation. This is true whether it is the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper or the annual recognition of the great Festivals of the Faith as observed in the Christian Year.

VI. It is a Practical Expression of our Desire for Unity.

      We believe that the Church is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one. The observance of the Christian Year affords us an inspiring opportunity of bearing witness to that fact by uniting from the heart with .the Church throughout all the world, in celebrating the fundamental certainties which are held in common by all true Christians everywhere. To quote Prof. James Stewart again: "The observance of the Christian Year has no small ecumenical

value: it is one way of asserting through all differences and divisions our essential unity in Christ."

VII. It Affords Unique Evangelistic Opportunities.

      The major seasons of the Christian Year are recognised by the "world"--by the secular authorities and commended in many cases by public holidays, at Christmas, Easter, and on Good Friday. The Christian Church would be remiss in its responsibility if it left these seasons with little more than their secular associations. These occasions afford the Church an "opening" for impressing upon the public mind the true Christian significance of these occasions and what they meant in the life of Him Who died for "us men and our salvation." These commemorations, at least, can be used to serve a great evangelistic purpose. "Such commemorations", writes Dr. Millar Patrick, "ensure that the basic truths of the faith once for all delivered to the saints, shall be adequately proclaimed, not by preaching only, but, on these occasions, by the whole cast and substance of the Church's worship."

FINALLY BRETHREN:

      It must be appreciated that the full benefits of observing the Christian Year will not be realised until one has actually done so, and even then, perhaps more benefits accrue in the second year than the first and so on. It guarantees nothing. It is a tried and proven method used by the Church universal in endeavouring to proclaim the whole Gospel to the whole world.

      The writer acknowledges his debt to the writers and compilers of the following books:

"The Evolution of the Christian Year" A. A. McArthur (S.C.M.)
"The Christian Year and Lectionary Reform" A. A. McArthur (S.C.M.)
This book contains the Peterhead Lectionary.

"Early Christian Worship" Oscar Cullman (S.C.M.)
"The Christian Year" A. A. Fleming (Iona Series)
"The Christian Year" D. Roy Briggs (independent)
"Heralds of God" James S. Stewart (H. & S.)
"Bible Readings and Collects" Church of South India (O.U.P.)
This book contains the lectionary of the Church of South India.

"Additional Bible Readings and Collects" Church of South India (O.U.P.)
"Prayers for the Christian Year" Church of Scotland (O.U.P.)
"A Book of Services and Prayers" (Independent)
This book contains a two year Table of Lessons (Morning and Evening Readings)
and also the lectionary of South India.

"Call to Worship" Neville Clark (S.C.M.)