Seventeen82

  Around this time last year I wrote a piece about why women, and unordained men, should not be leading worship either by the reading of Scripture or by speaking authoritatively from the pulpit in the Lord’s Day morning and evening service. As part of that I spoke about church authority and how Presbyterians have understood this since the Reformation. To touch another third rail on a matter related to that for Seventeen82 I’d like to posit the same principle only applied this time to the creature known as Advent. Proponents of such will tell you that these extra-biblical holy moments are adiaphora, or to put it into hillbilly English, none of my business. However, before we get into my annual “Ben Glaser hates fun and pretty things” lecture we need to revisit the question about church authority and what it means when the Session calls for worship. To do that we will hit the ARP Directory of Public Worship first, and yes before someone posts it I know the ARP directory allows our ...

We’ve all heard the jokes about Presbyterian’s being anti-fun, the so-called frozen chosen. The seen, but not heard denomination. The post you are about to read is going to sound like it came from the official spokesman of the “Presbyterians against anything nice” coalition. Maybe it’s true, maybe I am the grumpiest Presbyterian alive, but my goal here today is not to get hits or cause trouble. Rabble rousers are boring people. Men who seek out controversy don’t have enough to do and they aren’t really seeking to win converts to their position. They just like to see the fight.  At the end of the day I’m really a harmless little fuzzball who just wants Presbyterians to be Presbyterians, Baptists to be Baptists, and Anglicans to be Anglicans. Good fences make good neighbors. If you know where the other person stands it makes it easier to know where you stand. The topic I’d like to get into today is about the meeting space. Some call it the “sanctuary”, others the “preaching hall”, ...