Reformed Presbyterian Minutes of Synod 1995 - Rparchives.org

REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 183Special OrdinancesFastingChapter 41. Special days of fasting, humiliation, and prayer are particularlyappropriate when God's judgments are evident in the land or when corporatesin in church or nation provoke Him and invite his judgments. It isappropriate that such a day be observed in connection with servicespreparatory to the Lord's Supper or on days designated by Sessions,Presbyteries, and Synods for this purpose.2. A fast day is properly marked by a service of public worship. Psalms ofpenitence should be sung, and prayers of confession of sin and petitions forpardon should be offered.3. Fasting involves total abstinence, not only from all food (except whereinjurious to a person's health), but also from all worldly labor, conversations,and thoughts for the duration of the fast, so as to center attention upon thedeeper and more serious things involved in the occasion.4. Besides general fasts enjoined by the civil authority, there may be timeswhen congregations keep days of fasting, as appointed by the Session onparticularly appropriate occasions, and also when families and individuals, fortheir own reasons, give themselves to prayer and fasting for a season.Thanksgiving5. Christians should be thankful at all times, but there are occasions whena special season of corporate thanksgiving should be observed. This may be inresponse to particular blessings of God in the life of the congregation, the callof the civil authority for a day of national thanksgiving, or in thanksgiving forthe harvest each year.6. On such occasions, a suitable service of public worship should beconducted at which the people recount God's blessings, sing His praises,thank Him for His mercies to our nation and ourselves, call upon Him inprayer for both Church and Nation, and are exhorted from the Word of Godupon the theme of gratitude to God. Opportunity may be given for thepeople to express that gratitude by making a contribution to some benevolentcause.