Reformation Sunday
On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther posted his Disputation… on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg. This act inflamed a debate that began what we now call the Protestant Reformation.
A standard, annual observance recognizing that day began in 1717. Today many churches commemorate the occasion on the last Sunday in the month of October.
It is an opportunity to give thanks for the return of the Gospel to the church and the church to the Gospel, but also to affirm our doctrinal convictions and to pray to God for His ongoing reformation.
A Prayer from the Reformation
Grant, Almighty God, that as thou hast been pleased to adopt us as Thy people for this end, that we may be ingrafted as it were into the body of thy Son, and be made conformable to our head,—O grant, that through our whole life we may strive to seal in our hearts the faith of our election, that we may be the more stimulated to render Thee true obedience, and that Thy glory may also be made known through us; and those whom thou hast chosen together with us may we labour to bring together, that we may unanimously celebrate Thee as the Author of our salvation, and so ascribe to Thee the glory of thy goodness, that having cast away and renounced all confidence in our own virtue, we may be led to Christ only as the fountain of Thy election, in whom also is set before us the certainty of our salvation through Thy gospel, until we shall at length be gathered into that eternal glory which He has procured for us by His own blood.—Amen.
— John Calvin
from his Commentary on Malachi