PCA HISTORICAL CENTER
Archives and Manuscript Repository for the Continuing Presbyterian Church


The Historical Development of the Book of Church Order
Chapter 62 : Days of Fasting and Thanksgiving
Paragraph 1 : On the Observance of Days

62-1. The observance of days of fasting and of thanksgiving, as the dispensations of Divine Providence may direct, is both scriptural and rational.

DIGEST: PCUS 1894 had an initial paragraph not found in the PCA's BCO, to wit, "There is no day under the gospel commanded to be kept holy, except the Lord's day, which is the Christian Sabbath. That text was retained until the 1929 PCUS revision of the Directory for Worship.The current PCA text is unchanged from PCA 1973, and dates to the 1929 PCUS revision of its Directory for Worship.

BACKGROUND AND COMPARISON :
1. PCA 1973, Adopted text, DfW 16-1 [M1GA, Appendix, p. 161]
2. Continuing Presbyterian Church 1973, Proposed text,
and
3. PCUS 1933, XVI, §373.
The observance of days of fasting and of thanksgiving, as the dispensations of Divine Providence may direct, is both scriptural and rational.

PCUS 1925, XV-2367]
and
PCUS 1894, XV-2
Nevertheless, to observe days of fasting and thanksgiving, as the dispensations of Divine Providence may direct, is both scriptural and rational
.

COMMENTARY
Commentary on the Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian Church in America
(6th edition, 2007), by Morton H. Smith.
62-1. The observance of days of fasting and of thanksgiving, as the dispensations o f Divine Providence may
direct, is both scriptural and rational.
The Bible gives a number of examples of occasions both of fasting and of thanksgiving by God's people. That the Church should continue in both then is both Scriptural, and reasonable to do.