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ON THIS DAY: DECEMBER
This month we remember, among others, celebrated authors
and hymn composers, influential reformers, an American
Evangelist and the saint said to be at the origin of
Santa Clause.
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3 December: Robert Louis Stevenson
| Robert Louis Stevenson
was the writer of Kidnapped,
Treasure Island
and other books which are as fresh now as when they
were written in the second half of the nineteenth
century. One commentator has said that: "the
Scotch Presbyterian was the truest strain in his
character", and his themes had a strong moral
streak running through them, a morality "founded
in the faith of his fathers", as the same commentator
remarked. When in Samoa, Stevenson taught in the
Sunday School and it is while there that his
Prayers Written at Vaimila and A
Christmas Sermon were written.
Dr Jekell and Mr Hyde portrays the
|
Robert Louis Stevenson: renowned author
|
tension between good and evil in human nature but it also
addresses society as a whole. Stevenson was a fine writer,
to whom the internationally famous author Henry James
once gave a book saying he was "the only Anglo-Saxon
capable of understanding how well it is written."
He died in 1894.
Also on this day: 3
December is observed as the United
Nations International Day of Disabled Persons.
6 December: Nicholas
Nicholas is the original of ‘Santa Claus’
(from the Dutch Sinter Claes) but that is probably the
only sure thing we know about him! As often happens, stories
grew round this (probably) Mediterranean saint later in
life, making him patron saint of sailors (churches with
his name are often found near enough the coast to act
as a landmark for those at sea) and of children (the raising
to life of three pickled boys is one tradition –
captured in Benjamin Britten’s wonderful Cantata
St. Nicholas. He was bishop of Myra and is thought
to have lived in the fourth century. He is also the patron
saint of Russia.
7 December: Edward Irving
Edward Irving was a colourful Church of Scotland minister,
born in Annan in Dumfries and Galloway, who with a magnetic
personality and great rhetorical power became a sensation
in London attracting many people of distinction to the
small Scottish chapel in Hatton Garden and building up
a huge congregation which subsequently built a bigger
church in Regent Square. He developed strong views about
the imminence of the Second Coming, but his clash with
the Church of Scotland of the time was not this but over
his teaching that Christ had sinful tendencies, albeit
neutralized by the Holy Spirit dwelling in him and he
was deposed. In retrospect, commentators suggest that
he wanted to do no more than emphasise how like us Christ
was and how accessible to us, and that it was the way
he put this that caused offence. Some years later he clashed
again, this time with his own elders, when he championed
those in his congregation who were practising what they
saw as the spiritual gifts of speaking in tongues, prophesying
and healing. Leaving, he became a part of the new Catholic
Apostolic Church, precursor Pentecostalism and the charismatic
movement, but died in 1834 in poor health of body and
spirit and almost in obscurity, a ‘blinded eagle’,
the title given to his biography by Harry Whitley. Well
known contemporary the Rev Murray McCheyne wrote: "I
look back on him with awe, as on the saints and martyrs
of old. A holy man in spite of all his delusions and errors.
He is now with his God and Saviour, whom he wronged so
much, yet, I am persuaded, loved so sincerely." 8
December: Richard Baxter
| Richard Baxter was a
highly influential Puritan (who believed the church,
even after the reformation in England, still needed
purified from unscriptural practices in its worship,
its life and its government). He is valued in Scotland
both for his support of views which were current
there but also for his very successful books, which
seemed to strike a chord with his contemporaries.
The Saints’ Everlasting
Rest became a devotional classic while his
|
Richard Baxter
|
St Mary and All Saints Parish Church, Kidderminster
|
Reformed
Pastor advocated an organised approach to
pastoral ministry which was taken up with enthusiasm.
In a popular ministry amongst the clothmakers of
Kidderminster, England, he successfully persuaded
all denominations to co-operate in the church’s
work of care in the community. His preaching was
effective because it was as "a dying man to
dying men". He was an advocate of tolerance
and moderation in religious opinions and suffered
persecution as a result. In the end, being against
government through bishops, he lost even the right
to serve as an ordinary clergyman. His hymns, like
Ye holy angels bright
and He wants not friends
that hath thy love, are still much sung.
He died in 1691 . |
9 December: Karl Barth
Karl Barth: Protestant theologian
|
Karl Barth was born Swiss but served
most of his very distinguished academic career in
Germany. Early on, his Commentary
on Romans had a similar impact to Honest
to God in the Britain of the Sixties, challenging
dearly held views. Courageously he was one of those
who formed the Confessing Church which opposed the
views of Hitler and largely wrote the famous Barmen
Declaration. He lost his chair, and later
his German doctorate, continuing his work in Basle.
His monumental multi-volumed theological work, Church
Dogmatics, advocated a return to the principles
of the Reformation, stressing the finiteness of
humankind, the |
sovereignty of God, and the need for his grace. His style
was graphic and forceful and his views now colour the
theological discussion in the church, even amongst those
who are not ‘Barthians’, and his influence
on Scottish academic theology has been profound. The Oxford
Dictionary of the Christian Church describes him as "perhaps
the most notable Christian prophet of our times".
He died in 1968.
12 December:
Peter Waldo
| Peter Waldo was a twelfth
century merchant of Lyons who - struck by the words
of Matthew 19:21, If you
would be perfect, go, sell what you possess - did
just that, becoming an itinerant preacher, begging
for his bread. His followers (for whom he produced
a New Testament in the Provencal language ) were
known as 'the poor men of Lyons' and might well
have become an order in the mediaeval church but
for their opposition to the worldliness of the Church
of the day. Thus they organised themselves into
a separate church with their own ministers, always
incurring the suspicion of the dominant religious
authorities of the day and suffering much persecution
(Milton’s well known sonnet, Avenge,
O Lord, thy slaughtered saints referred to
a particularly bloody event). Their principles resonated
with the continental reformers and alliances were
formed. As the Waldensian Church, they now flourish
in peace in Italy. Waldo died in 1217. |
Waldensian Church emblem
|
17 December: Ignatius
Loyola
Ignatius Loyola grew up in Basque high society, "a
man given up to the vanities of the world", as he
himself put it. After being wounded in battle, he decided
after much prayer and study to become a 'soldier of Christ'.
 |
With six others he formed a little
company pledging themselves to lives of poverty
and chastity. In 1540 they were acknowledged by
Pope Paul III, ultimately becoming known as the
Society of Jesus – a very powerful, well-educated
spiritual force that played a significant part in
the Counter-Reformation, opposing heresy, reforming
the Church from within, spreading the Gospel in
the newly discovered world and promoting education.
|
At times controversial, the Jesuits, as they are popularly
known, have shown unswerving devotion to the papacy. However,
their tradition is now being valued by many branches of
the church through ‘Ignatian spirituality’,
an approach to prayer which is Scripture-based and which
derives from Loyola’s renowned Spiritual
Exercises, written early in his life after a period
of prayer and personal mortification. He died in 1556.
18 December: Monirus
A pool in the River Dee in the North of Scotland called
Polmanuire reminds us of the influence of this saint in
Aberdeenshire and Banffshire in the ninth century. He
is remembered particularly at Crathie where there was
a church in his name and a local fair. He died in 824.
20 December: Lady Grisell
Baillie
Lady Grisell Baillie was commissioned, in 1888, as the
first deaconess in the Church of Scotland. Although this
was only three years before her death, it followed a lifetime
of dedicated work locally in the parishes of Bowden, Mertoun
and Earlston, in which at various times she lived, as
well as nationally and globally. She was one of the founder
members of a mission which provided medical care by women
doctors for Muslim women in India. At home she worked
for temperance causes as well as undertaking work for
the welfare of women. She gave the opening address to
the first conference of the Women’s Guild. It was
in commemoration of her life and work that the Deaconess
Hospital was founded in Edinburgh. She died in 1891.
21 December: John Newton
John Newton is remembered chiefly for his hymns, which
include Amazing Grace,
Glorious things of thee are spoken,
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds.
| Press ganged into the navy, an adventurous
but also feckless life ended with his dramatic conversion
as he faced what seemed like certain death in a
foundering vessel. He was much influenced by George
Whitefield and the Dissenters, but became an Anglican
priest, known for his evangelical zeal and his unwearying
work for the Gospel through preaching, visiting
and prayer meetings. Former captain of a slave ship,
he became firm friend of William Wilberforce who
campaigned for an end to the slave trade. With William
Cowper, he produced the famous and influential Olney
Hymns in 1779. He died in 1807. |
John Newton: renowned composer
|
22 December: Dwight L. Moody
Dwight L. Moody
|
Dwight L. Moody
was an American evangelist who, with Ira D. Sankey,
attracted vast crowds on his three visits to Scotland
in 1873, 1881 to 1882, and 1891 to 1892. His influence
was not just in the number of converts made but
in the way his preaching of God’s love to
all challenged the lingering conviction that only
some were ‘elected’ by God to enjoy
salvation. He is credited with giving a new confidence
to the church that was much needed at the time
and with stimulating philanthropic work. His pioneering
use of hymns and of the organ also had its influence
in a context where both were still suspect. He
died in 1899. |
| Also
on this day: Athernase.
Sometimes so little is known about a named saint
that the focus moves to the area or church which
bears his name and we are prompted to remember the
many ‘saints’ who have been active there
over centuries. Athernase’s name is given
to the beautiful Norman church at Leuchars, in Fife,
Scotland, whose history embraces the Crusades, the
Reformation, a visit from the famous lexicographer
Dr Johnson, and the development of flight, including
the defence of the country during war. |
St Athernase Kirk in Leuchars
|
23 December: William Carstares
William Carstares was a staunch Presbyterian in a time
when episcopacy was in the ascendant in Scotland. While
serving as a minister in England he was arrested and confined
in Edinburgh Castle for possible complicity in a plot
against Charles II. On release, he moved to Holland where
he had been partly educated and there became the confidant
and friend of William of Orange, and returned with him
as chaplain when he became King. Carstares was very influential
in the final securing of presbyterianism government for
the Church of Scotland. Nicknamed The
Cardinal on account of his eminence, William Carstares
became principal of Edinburgh University (where he did
much to prepare the university for the Enlightenment)
and Moderator of the General Assembly. He died in 1715.
24 December: Hugh Miller
Hugh Miller |
Hugh Miller was born in Cromarty
in the Highlands of Scotland and trained as a stone
mason. Although something of a poet and antiquarian,
his chief fame was as a geological pioneer and populariser
(e.g. Testimony of the
Rocks), as well as a theologian, writer,
and editor. His journal, The
Witness, campaigned against patronage and
state influence on the church and was an influential
factor in the Disruption of 1843 and in the founding
of Free Church, in which he became a very prominent
figure. For him science opened up great vistas and
witnessed to a God greater, he believed, than theologians
had imagined. |
A writer and public speaker of monumental output, stress,
possibly manic depressiveness, and perhaps brain disease
led him to take his own life in 1856.
29 December: Thomas Beckett
Thomas Beckett was a chivalrous English courtier, able
lawyer, and clever diplomat, who on becoming Archbishop
of Canterbury adopted a strict ascetic life and proved
himself as zealous for the Church as he had earlier been
for the Crown. The widespread fame of "this turbulent
priest" rests on his defence of ecclesiastical rights
against Henry II, leading to his murder in 1170 in his
own cathedral, in spite of reconciliation with the King.
His death sparked outrage throughout Europe and culminated
in the King making public penance. The place of his death
became one of the principal places of pilgrimage in Christendom.
30 December: Josephine Butler
 |
Josephine Butler was a very notable
Victorian social reformer principally campaigning
for the reclamation of prostitutes and the suppression
of "the white slave trade". Married to
a canon of Westminster, she was deeply devotional
woman who modelled her life on Catherine of Siena.
Perhaps her greatest achievement was the founding
at Geneva of the International Federation for the
Abolition of the State Regulation of Vice. Her Personal
Reminiscences of a Great Crusade illustrates
her interesting and inspiring life. She died in
1906. |
31 December: John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe was known a philosopher and theologian whose
career was divided between the University of Oxford and
service in local parishes. His theological studies led
him to make powerful onslaughts on commonly held views.
He questioned transubstantiation, described the pope and
the church hierarchy as of anti-christ, attacked pilgrimages
and the cult of saints, asserted the equality of believers,
and called for the Scriptures, as sole authority for the
faith and practice of the church, to be available to everyone
in English – to which end he translated the New
Testament into the common tongue. The controversies he
ignited continued after his death in 1384 and ultimately
the works of this Morning Star
of the Reformation were condemned by the Council
of Constance in 1415 and ordered to be burned. His ideas
lived on in the Lollard movement, prominent also in Scotland,
and through John Huss and his followers on the continent.
Also this month
Sunday 7 December is
the Second Sunday of Advent.
Click here to find out more about key
festivals and dates in the Christian calendar.
Sunday 13 December is
the Third Sunday of Advent.
Click here to find out more about Advent and other key
festivals and dates in the Christian calendar.
Sunday 20 December is
the Fourth Sunday of Advent.
Click here to find out more about key
festivals and dates in the Christian calendar.
Tuesday 25 December is
Christmas Day.
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