Re: Constructed Religions

On Tue, 5 Jan 1999, Tom Wier wrote:

> Of course, that's still well nigh worship in many Protestant circles,
> as Jesus is supposed to be the Intercessor. Most Protestants don't
> even venerate Saints -- they acknowledge their work on behalf
> of the church, but a saint, in the Bible at least, is just anyone who's
> saved, that's it ("sanctificatus" = "having been made holy") .
>
Unless I'm wrong the only Protestant denominations that preserve a
tradition of saints are Lutherans and Anglicans (Episcopalians).  I have
no knowledge of the Lutheran tradition, but in the Anglican tradition
saints are holy people whose example the liturgy prays that worshippers
may follow in.  They are more celebrated than venerated.  The NZ Anglican
prayerbook is regularly updated, for example a biography of a French
Catholic woman who came to NZ in the 19th century and founded a Catholic
order was well received in NZ and won a literary prize last year and she
has been included in the Anglican lectionary for 1999, Catholics will have
to wait until she is beatified.  I suspect only extreme Anglo-Catholics
would pray directly to the saints and I have never met any who have
claimed to doing so.

In the Reformed Tradition there is no observance of the saints beyond the
naming of churches.  In New Zealand these are named after saints from the
Apostolic age, some Celtic saints, or from important individuals in
Reformed history such as Calvin, Knox or Chalmers.

- andrew.

Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@earthlight.co.nz
Q. Why are there so many Smiths in the Phone Book?
A. Because they all have telephones!

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