Do They Know It’s Labor Sunday?
Posted by tom | Sep 1, 2009Unless you are part of the United Church of Christ, you likely do not know that Labor Sunday is coming up September 6, 2009. I’ve never encountered this observance in a lifetime of attending assorted denominational and non-denominational churches. The UCC website suggests ways to bring the concerns of workers before the congregation, but Web searches on “Labor Sunday” plus the names of other denominations bring up only very old documents like a 1907 Assembly Herald (Presbyterian) and a 1911 Herald of Gospel Liberty (General Convention of the Christian Church). The latter declared, “This day stands for the united action of the churches in the field of industrial life, a fact of supreme importance in the history of religion. … And yet how many preachers, and how many church members are familiar with the ‘Social Creed of the Churches,’ and its requirements[?]” -- Do They Know It’s Labor Sunday? The century-old observance is scarcely observed, but its concerns remain current. By Elesha Coffman, August 19, 2009.
Interesting. What do you think about the idea of Labor Sunday? Does your local congregation celebrate Labor Sunday (or some form of it)? Along similar lines, yesterday morning I was thinking about the commissioning of students/teachers for the new academic year. Does your local congregation have such a practice and/or some form of recognition of transition for those leaving high school?
