by Fr. Grant Schwartz
About this time last year I advocated restoring Bible Sunday. Let’s have another go at this theme.
The Anglican Church of Canada used to have an annual Bible Sunday to give thanks for God’s Word Written. This day was always early in December on the Second Sunday in Advent. In order to reinforce our attention to the Advent of Christ, it was decided to move Bible Sunday. Unfortunately, Bible Sunday got moved out of existence.
I am happy that Bible Sunday no longer detracts attention from Christ’s Advent. I am not so happy that Bible Sunday simply disappeared.
Surely Bible Sunday can be restored to some other time in the church calendar. It could be any time of the year that does not conflict with a major festival.
My suggestion is that we consider the Sunday closest to St. Jerome’s day (September 30).
Why St. Jerome? 1600 years ago Jerome translated the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament into Latin. That made the Bible available throughout the Roman Empire, which is to say most of Europe and North Africa.
Anglicans make specific reference to Jerome and his translation in the Thirty-nine Articles. After listing the books of the Old Testament, Article VI continues, “And the other Books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners” and then goes on to list the books of the Apocrypha.
The Calendar in The Book of Common Prayer on September 30 describes Jerome as “Doctor, Presbyter in Rome and Bethlehem, Translator of the Scriptures.”
My mention of Jerome’s Day as an appropriate time to focus on the Bible is a secondary suggestion. My primary suggestion is that each year one day be designated Bible Sunday and that on that day the prayers, scripture readings, hymns and sermon celebrate the Bible. This would be a restoration of a day that we used to observe in the Advent season.
Almighty God our Father,
who inspired St Jerome to study and translate the Holy Scriptures,
may we your people find in your sacred word
the food of salvation and the fountain of life,
in the name of your Son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ the Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit
ever one God.
Amen.
