I wrote yesterday that not many Presbyterian churches would be observing a Three Hours Devotion tomorrow but I learned last night that they might be more common than I thought. Apparently many South African churches in the Reformed tradition will observe it in some form or another and there are more than just a few parish churches in Scotland where something similar will take place.
A strict observance of the Christian Year was abandoned at the Reformation in Scotland. There were good reasons for this but in course of time it was considered valuable to have designated times of the year when particular aspects of the Christian story were highlighted.
Martin Luther never had any problem with the Christian Year and in fact much of his preaching was based on prescribed readings from a lectionary which followed the ancient liturgical rhythms.
The good thing is that in the Church of Scotland we have the freedom to observe as much or as little of the Christian Year as we deem appropriate. It should never be forgotten, however, that a dramatic step forward in Reformed practice occurred in Switzerland in 1519 when Ulrich Zwingli was appointed to the pulpit of the Great Minister in Zurich and announced that he intended ‘with God’s help to preach the Gospel according to Mathhew in full and consecutive order and not divided into the prescribed extracts.’ This he did for a whole year.
This was not new. This was the method applied by men such as John Chrysostom who was Archbishop of Constantinople in the fourth century AD. ‘Chrysostom’ means ‘Golden Mouth’. That’s him on the left. His preaching was regularly acclaimed by great outbursts of applause and it wasn’t unknown for him to be carried from his Church shoulder-high. Ah, them were the days . . .
