Our church order has a separate article on ecclesiastical feast days which stands in a long tradition on this subject, going right back to the beginnings of Reformed churches in the Netherlands. In the following I wish to investigate the purpose and intent of this article. In the FRCA it reads as follows:

ARTICLE 65 – Ecclesiastical feast days
On Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Ascension Day, and at Pentecost the consistory shall call the congregation together for church services. The sacred events which the congregation commemorates in particular on these days shall therein be proclaimed.

A church order is a list of agreements which the churches make in common so that they can better give each other mutual support and discipline. But if this is the case, why do we have an article on church services at feast days, days which are not specifically commanded in Scripture, but on which there there is a long standing tradition of celebration? Do we need to bind each other to such days and was that really the intention of this church order article in the first place? Already in 1573 we see the topic coming to the floor of the Particular Synod of North Holland, that year held in Enkhuizen.

1573 Particular Synod of North Holland
“…Also decided in respect of feast days, that in common no feast days are to be held other than Easter(Sunday) and the day thereafter, Pentecost (Sunday) and the day thereafter, Christmas, and similarly New Year’s day and Ascension day.”

The churches in South Holland were somewhat stricter. A year later their Synod gathered in Dordrecht making the following pronouncement:

1574 Particular Synod of South Holland
…Respecting the feast days which are in addition to the Sunday: it has been decided to rest content only with the Sunday. Nevertheless, the normal material relating to the birth of Christ shall be handled on the Sunday before Christmas day together with an admonition to the people not to observe Christmas day. If Christmas day falls on a Sunday, the same material shall be preached on that day. It is also permitted to preach on the resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday, the which is left to the freedom of the ministers.

That seems clear enough. Behind the scenes, however, there was a political battle going on between the Roman Catholic forces and the Protestants. The celebration of these extra days came right in the middle of all that. It was the sort of thing that got people fired up. The Reformed churches needed to be careful to steer a righteous course between all manner of Roman Catholic superstitions which had become associated with these days and an over zealous extremism which could easily lead to political riots. We see that reflected in the decision of the Particular Synod of South Holland held in Rotterdam a year later:

1575 Particular Synod of South Holland
…As much as concerns feast days: The government shall be petitioned that they allow everyone to open his shop and to work 6 days in accordance with the 4th commandment of our Lord. And if the government desires to ordain any others besides the Sunday, the delegated ministers will petition parliament that they inform them in such a way that they may consider how much and how far one can permit in this matter, so that on the one hand people don’t fall into superstition as warned by Paul in Gal. 4, and on the other hand that people will not be led to fight too fiercely against the aforesaid government because of certain feast days.

Three years later a national synod was finally able to be held in Dordrecht. By this time it was slowly becoming clear that the political will to be rid of these extra feast days was weak. On the 12th of July 1578 the government made a “declaration of religious freedom” in which the various Roman Catholic feast days were made compulsory for protestants. The synod in its response attempted to minimise the damage by steering the churches away from any special ways of celebrating these feast days, and keeping them as “normal” days. Read more»

R. D. Anderson | December, 2018

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