Church Notes

Today I started teaching my class about the Reformation. We are going to take one Sunday a month to learn about different characters and events of the Reformation. Today we talked about some of the problems with the Roman Catholic church by the 1100s: they only wanted the Bible in Latin so the common people couldn't read it, they preached about purgatory and penance, and they equated the teachings of the church with the Bible. We also learned about Peter Waldo, one of the pre-reformation characters, who lived in France in the 1100s (we won't actually get to the actual Reformation until December). I think it's important for the children to start learning some church history now so they know not only the truth but what people are willing to sacrifice for the truth and so that they could all have nice English Bibles (and that they should know their Bibles).

In the lesson we learned that at one time 35 of Peter Waldo's followers were burned in one fire by the Church. To which one student replied, "Well, at least they weren't tarred and feathered." I guess....

Today's hymn is one from my childhood, a version of the 23rd Psalm.