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Re: Constructed Religions

From:Andrew Smith <hobbit@...>
Date:Thursday, January 7, 1999, 22:17
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! -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GL d+ s-:+ a32 C+ UL P? L E? W++ N+ o-- K- w O M+ V PS++ PE- Y+ PGP- t+* 5+ X- R tv b+++ DI+ D-- G e++ h- !r y- ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------