This from the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland (1935) about the Church Calendar: "Moreover, such commemorations serve a great evangelic purpose. They 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." I.e. - the Church's worship is served by more than just preaching, with a few hymns before the sermon (in frontier revival style) to "prepare the heart" for that same preaching. And this was published with an acknowledgment that the Church Calendar had been set aside at the Reformation in Scotland, but that the conditions which prompted such action were no longer present in the country. The Church is better served, in the long run, by the use of the Calendar. Happy First Sunday in Advent!

My friend, Dr. David Calhoun, of Covenant Theological Seminary, published a piece on Bishop Moule back in 2012. You can find it here .

Police dept. chaplains care about the souls of those in their charge; of course they do.  Yet we citizens have for some time been reading over and over again of atrocities committed against our fellow citizens by police SWAT teams and other forms of militarized police activity.  I'm sure there's a place for SWAT teams; we may be glad for them when they are needed.  But they are being used for all kinds of situations that do not need that kind of invasive force and could be handled differently.  Such situations have been handled differently before; they can be handled that way again.  This is a great opportunity for police chaplains to take the lead in an important issue for our country.  Will we continue to degenerate into a state where its citizens will be regularly traumatized with barbaric and unjust cruelty by those we are supposed to be looking to for protection?  But more to the point, should we as clergy not be concerned for the souls of thes...