Happy Holy Day!

|PIC1|It has been great to have a good long break this summer. Time with the family. Time to relax away from the pressure of a busy diary and the normal demands of life. We didn't travel far this summer but we enjoyed unpressurised time in our new home in Newbury, a few trips to other places and an absolutely brilliant week at Leading Edge in Warwick.

Holidays are great and it's interesting to look back to their origin. We have become extremely generous in giving holiday these days and so we have lost the connection between the Christian festivals and time off. In pre-industrial society the only holidays were Sundays and the Christian festivals. Holy days and holidays were one and the same thing. One can only begin to imagine how precious and special these days were.

Holidays clearly cannot be seen in exactly the same way as the old holy days. However, I am sure that it is extremely important in our highly pressurised society for holidays to be crafted in such a way that they do renew and refresh us.

Amidst our busy days time with God can so easily be squeezed into tight corners. But on holiday we have the freedom to order our time differently and to find times of unhurried reflection and prayer. Time to read, to pray and to listen. For me, one of the highlights of holidays is the opportunity to worship in different places and I had some delightful experiences this summer. From charismatic worship with all the latest songs, to Book of Common Prayer Evensongs with tiny congregations that struggled to keep up or keep in tune! I found each worship experience enormously renewing and helpful ... in very different ways!

All this thinking about holy days has led me to do more thinking about our weekly holy day - Sunday. The fourth commandment is clear enough. God has commanded us to rest one day each week, and to keep the day holy. I wonder what that means for us in 2008.

When I was a boy Sundays were very different - the shops were shut, the roads were empty and churches were amongst the few places to be busy. It was very easy for Sunday to be a completely distinct day ... a day set apart for worship and fellowship. But in 2008 Sunday is an incredibly busy day and the idea of it being a "day of rest" feels like a sad joke.

In 1985 the Keep Sunday Special Campaign was launched in order to promote a positive use of Sunday and to draw attention to the potential dangers of Sunday opening. In many ways the battle was lost with the passing of the Sunday Trading Act in 1994.

However, whatever the laws of the land may decree, the fourth commandment still stands and we need to work hard to keep Sunday special - a day of rest which brings restoration and renewal. I believe that this is vital not just for Christians but for the whole of society. I would love local churches to spend time this Autumn exploring in what ways they can keep Sunday special. This is an urgent and exciting issue.

As I was saying, "Happy Holy Day!"



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